THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, December 2, 1843.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 91, 2 December 1843, Page 362

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, December 2, 1843.

Lea journaux deviennent plus nlcessaires a meture que lea homines aont plus fcgaux, el 1' individualisme plus a craindre. Cc serait diminuer leur importance que de croire qu' ils ne servent qu' a garantk la liberty : ils usintiennent l» civilisation. Dt TocausviLLß. De la Democratic en Ameriqne, tome 4, p. Sso. Journals become more necessary as men become more, equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to* underrate their importance to suppose that they ierv« only to secure liberty : they maintain civilization. ])* ToCQUEyiLbK. Of Democracy in America, vol. 4, p. 802.

The arrival here of the Bishop of the Episcopal Church of New Zealand is daily expected. As the acting manager of the native reserves, and as a party to be principally consulted with reference to the expenditure of Episcopal Church fund (£5,000) already paid by the New Zealand Company into the hands of trustees, we look with some anxiety for his arrival.

It is now four years since the establishment of the colony of New Zealand and the commencement of the benevolent scheme of reserving a portion of land, equal to onetenth of the whole, for the benefit of the natives. The reserved land has, in the Company's settlements, been duly selected and set apart, and trustees for its management have been appointed, namely, tne Governor, the Chief Justice, and the Bishop. The first cannot be expected to take any very active part in the details of the trust ; the second has declined acting from motives of delicacy ; and the office may therefore be considered as having devolved into the hands of the Bishop, who is practically the sole trustee of the reserves.

Hitherto little or no progress has been made towards carrying out the intention of the founders of the colony with regard to these reserves. In the Wellington settlement, we understand that, with the exception of one or two acres, no return is obtained from any part of the reserved lands which might be applied towards the advancement and civilization of the race for whose benefit they are reserved. This may no doubt be attributed to the absurd terms on which the local managers of the property have hitherto been instructed to grant leases ; terms which, we have been informed, render the cultivation of the bush land of that settlement impracticable, and on which no tenant who meant to improve the property or pay rent would think of taking a lease. In this settlement, also, nothing or next to nothing has been done towards the objects intended to be effected by the reserves. An advance of £200 was made on the security of them by the late Agent of the Company, which has, we believe, been expended in erecting a couple of houses for the occasional accommodation of. the natives visiting Nelson ; but no plan appears to have been arranged for the general improvement or occupation of this important property. We hope that, on his approaching visit, the Bishop may be induced to devise some scheme by which a more satisfactory result may be obtained ; and that he will put the office of executing its details (which he himself, residing in the northern part of the Northern Island, is necessarily unable to attend to) into the hands of some gentleman of practical habits of business, with discretionary powers sufficiently large to enable him to efiect the most beneficial arrangements which circumstances may from time to time suggest, without the delay of a reference to Waimate.

With regard to the expenditure of the Episcopal Church fund, we should be glad to see some measures taken, which may make it immediately available for our wants. We have not been able clearly to ascertain what were the intentions of the New Zealand Company with regard to this fund when it was placed in the hands of the trustees who now bold it. The correspond-

ence between the Company and the Bishop upon the subject appears in the parliamentary papers of 1842. The subject is referred to by the Company in the following words : — ' *

" With respect to the second point, namely, a contribution by the Company towards the endowments of the Church of England in the settlements of Wellington, New Plymouth, and Nelson, the Court understands from your lordship that whatever value now or hereafter may be contributed, whether in money or land, by grant of the Court or by private subscription through the agency of 'members of the Company, will be met by a contribution of equivalent value, either in money or land, on the part of the Church, your lordship stipulating that, until it shall be in your power, as the organ of the Church, to contribute the whole value of its share in capital of land or money, yearly payments at the rate of 5 per cent, on the capital shall be deemed a contribution of equivalent value. In consideration of this most liberal offer from your lordship, the Court has resolved to grant immediately for New Plymouth £500, Wellington £2,000, and for Nelson £5,000. The greater present amount of the contribution for Nelson is owing to the circumstance that, as respects that settlement, the colonists themselves have placed a large and constantly increasing fund at the disposal of the Company for religious purposes; and that, in the case of New Plymouth and Wellington, the subscription comes out of the Company's own funds. * * * The only other condition which the Directors think necessary to attach to the contributions made by or through them, is that the capital of each of the funds shall eventually be laid out on landed security, whether by purchase or mortgage, within the settlement to which each fund belongs, and that no land contributed by them shall be permanently alienated ; the object beipg to constitute a permanent and local property, continually increasing in value with the progress of colonization." The Bishop's reply is as follows :—: — " On the second point, viz., the endowment of the Church of England, I am prepared to meet the Directors on the terms specified in my conferences with a deputation from their body, viz., In the settlement of Nelson I shall be prepared to station a clergyman, and to provide him with an income of not less than £250 per annum out of the funds placed at my disposal by the Church at home, reserving the £5,000 granted by the Company as a fund for building churches, parsonage houses, and schools, and in general for the extension of the Church throughout the settlement of Nelson, in proportion to the increase of the population. It will be my object to redeem as soon as possible the annual payment of £250, by raising a clear sum of £5,000, which I shall take the earliest opportunity of investing, together with the Company's grant, in landed securities within the settlement of Nelson." The fetters from which the above extracts are given were subsequently referred to by the Company in correspondence with Stanley, as containing the arrangements with the Bishop and his sentiments on the subject. We understand that a very general desire exists in this settlement at present that the sum of £5,000 thus placed at the disposal of the Bishop should be immediately expended in erecting churches and schools, and that it should not be invested as a permanent fund, the income of which only would be applicable to the purposes for which it was granted. The terms of the arrangement between the Company and the Bishop certainly appear to provide for the investment of the fund, and the application of its income only. When, however, this investment was proposed by the Company, |it will be observed that they meditated the application of the fund to the purposes of an endowment, to effect which such ah Investment was eventually necessary. The Bishop, by his reply, changes its object from an endowment to a building fund, which (regard being had to the amount) would certainly seem less to require the income of an invested sum than a fund the principal of which might he appropriated at once to building purposes.

Whatever view may be taken of the subject by the Bishop, one thing we hope will not be lost sight' of, namely, that the fund in question has been contributed by the ■settlers themselves, with a view to their 'own benefit. That they are competent judges of what method of expenditure will most contribute to their advantage may be fairly conceded ; and we hope that if the arrangement already come to between the Company and the Bishop should be consi, dered by the settlers as injudicious, its terms may be reconsidered, and a different application of the money provided for.

We have this week an epoch to record in the social advancement of Nelson — an event

which, though of daily notoriety to. us all in the mother-country, appears here, in New Zealand, the harbour but yesterday of anthropophagism and all other barbarities, strange and novel enough — an event, too # though trifling in itself, yet in our circumstances significant of many things, no less to the little community of whose rise and progress it must henceforth constitute a remarkable feature, than to the stranger at a distance, who may be pondering the attractions of our antipodal state of being, and wondering over the social circumstances of' the Anglo-New Zealander.

The latter, then (for we are chronicling for him chiefly— few of our Nelson friends, we imagine, needing further enlightenment on the subject), will please to understand that, after near two years of solemn colonial dulness, mere Boeotian "hewing of wood and drawing of water," grubbing in the earth or out of it — relieved only by the solitary Saturnalia of February last, when the settlement turned out and did its best to signalize its first anniversary, — it had come to be agreed on all hands that " the force of dulness could no farther go ;' that this plodding, pork-and-potato sort of existence had lasted long enough ; that it urgently required varying, and needs must have it, if but " for once and away." Urged by such considerations, and perhaps by others (we won't answer) — at any rate, thoroughly agreed that for quite other things than roughing and bushing it— to quote Milton — " For other things mild Hearen a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden load* the day. And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains "— there occurred, a week or two ago,, to a few generous gentlemen amongst the Waimea settlers, the idea that they could and should do something for the enliven ment of the community. No sooner thought than done ! a "cheerful hour" they straightway prepared to make: A Bachelors' Ball was forthwith announced by the gentlemen in question (Messrs. Monro, Duppa, James and George Tytler, Stafford, Newcome, and Domett — of course bachelors all, the more's the pity, and therein not more singular than their neighbours, we are sorry to say — " Benedick the married man " being, on this Nelson territory of ours, but a very rare species of the genus homo !). Invitations were liberally issued, far and near, and preparations correspondingly extensive actively commenced. Accordingly, Nelson was all agog for the Waimea gala-day ; tailors, shoemakers, sempstresses, came now into requisition, to whom the place perhaps had hitherto never furnished a stitch of work. The disposition of English folks determined to make a day of it, to enjoy themselves and make others enjoy, became visible in all quarters ; everybody indeed intended being there that could, by hook or by crook, by boat, cart, nag, or their own independent pair of legs, anywise manage to get carried. The distance from the town was but twelve miles, over very passable road, considering that little more than eighteen months be>fore the district was uninhabited — unfrequented by foot of man. However, good or bad roads, good or bad weather — 'twas evidently all the same — travel tothe,Wai*mea, and honour the bachelors' country dance, we must ! — and accordingly all did, though the day opened anything but propitiously, and, verifying one's old experience on similar occasions of festivity in old England, continued to test the patience and resolution of every poor *• retainer to the sun and elements " with accustomed maliciousness, until towards evening.

Mr. Kerr's barn was the place of rendezvous, the " assembly-room ;" and there, by about nine o'clock, nearly every visitor had arrived, to pay his respects to the bachelors of the Waimea. Though but a barn; and rustic as the spot on which it stands, no place could have better anewered the purpose. For the night, it was a barn no longer, but a brilliantly lighted and decorated ball-room. Shrubs from the adjoining wood, with flowers from Nelson and Waimea gardens, the whole disposed with great taste and elegance, had lent their own grace and beauty to the building, 60 that " what tea* seemed not, and what was not seemed." The accommodation was further reinforced by two or three ample tents pitched alongside of the barn, furnishing supper, refreshment, and tiring rooms, all as appropriately and elegantly fitted up. Music, the best the * settlement could furnish, had been secured, at whose bidding, and Terpsichore's, it is cot necessary to state the guests quickly found their legs, and thenceforth all weut ** merry as a marriage bell." Dancing was kept up for several hours with great spirit, and participated in by nearly every one — young and

old, gentle and simple — until supper was announced (about two o'clock). There nothing could well be more surprising. The supperroom was still less New Zealand-like than the ball, for the table appeared laid out with a sumptuousness and abundance both ol substantial and delicate fare, which would have done honour to any festivity at home, and which, take it altogether, we might challenge the rest of New Zealand, be it Government Auckland or aldermanic Wellington, ever to have equalled. The table, as they say, literally groaned under the good things provided, and the guests, whetted as their appetites were by their previous exertions in travelling and dancing, we need not add, did ample justice to them.

We speak only the general sentiment when we say that this part of the night's arrangements, as indeed every other, was admirable. There was nothing disorderly or disturbing, and every one seemed to make a comfortable social repast — to contribute to, as well as to participate in, the "feast of reason and the flow of soul." After " The ladies who had honoured the company by their presence," had been given by Dr. Monro from the chair, and drunk with all enthusiasm, and one or two lively speeches made in further honour of the toast, the company adjourned to the ballroom, where, " A» beet flee h*me wi' lade* of treasure, The minutes wing'd their w*y wi' pleasure," till the grey morning light dawned in upon the party, and gradually dispersed it.

The entertainments of the occasion were, however, not concluded. A merry party of bachelors kept the supper- table devoted company for an hour or so longer, and at .eleven o'clock, an elegant breakfast graced the board, which was partaken of by all the guests who then remained in the village, still a considerable number.

The number of persons present amounted we be'ieve to about seventy, of whom twenty-two were^ladies. Another such assemblage, so numerous, so handsomely entertained, and so well satisfied, we may not soon witness again in Nelson. By-and-bye, however, when our political and economic position becomes better defined, and the resources of the settlement properly developed, we may reasonably look forward to many a happy interchange of such civilities between the different parts of it. They will indeed be required to preserve amongst us the arts and amenities of life,* the taste and refinement of humanized society, the relish for innocent recreation ; but in the mean time let it not be forgotten that most of us are here for a special purpose — rather for labour than for pleasure ; that now is our seed-time, when, if we sow not, neither shall we reap ; and therefore, that anything which diverts men's minds from the humble but necessary duties of their Y ocat i° nt on to social gaieties which they are not in a condition to reciprocate, may tend to endanger not only their private well-being, but eventually that of the community at large.

Iv conclusion, we must not omit to notice, in connexion with the hospitality of the Waimea on this occasion, that of Mr. and Mrs. Kerr. Their house was an open one, and dispensed liberally Scottish welcome and abundance to all who required it, and they were no inconsiderable number.

Our subscribers are respectfully informed that the present number closes the seventh quarter of our paper.