SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

New Zealander, Volume I, Issue 50, 16 May 1846, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

THE NEW'SOUTH AUSTRALTAN FEE SIMPLE. No 1 longer ago than the year 1836, some of the denizens of a Gieat State, the greatest — unquestionably—of which any records exist in authenticated histoty, ueie imluced to attempt the foundation of this colony, without the assistance of the parent-state. Upon the stiength of the inducements offered under royal authority, and with a full reliance upon the national faith, a number of British subjects bade adieu to the land of their fathers, in order to win a new home for themselves and their posterity, in the midst of an unknown wilderness— one of the inducements being the facilities afforded for the absolute purchase of land at £1 per acre, to be expended in fin therance of immigration, and the utter relinquibhment of ils claims to eveiyihing above or below the surface on the part of the Crown, in favor ol" the future purchasers of South Australian lands. The new attempt at colonization lias been

successful, and not only have the colonists succeeded in the discovery and extensive cultivation of fei tile lauds, but they have discovered also subsoil riches so considerable, as to have excited the cupidity the authorities and capitalists, by whom'their'earlier efforts were lightly esteemed, if not utterly despised. And « l»at are the consequences ? Greedy and grasping English capitalists, foiled in the attempt to monopolise our unappropriated mineral riches, have induced or encouraged the British Government to reverse the laws affecting them; and the local authorities, unchecked by the cogent representations and well-founded remonstrances of -the colonists, have taken upon themselves to legislate anew, or unhesitatingly submitted to home dictation in the recent attempts to abrogate one of the first principles and most valued privileges in our colonial constitution, in order to the substitution <of a sort of feudal tenure. " Oh, shame where is thy blush ?■' In our view, it is only a small palliation of the grievance, to show that it is not intended to appropriate " the loyalty or seignorage" to any purposes, other than those ougiually coutein .plated. The law of land sales is radicall changed, in a way which interferes with that ci tiretj of possession, universality of tenure, ai. facility of obtainment which formed the mo powerfnl inducement to capitalists, and the ir dustrious<of all classes, seeking here, in the F«ti South, the inappreciable boon of independence. Let any disinterested inquirer, after charging his memory with the origmal privileges and immunities solemnly granted to the colonists, take up the new- regulations of land bales, and leasehold grants, as • now promulgated by the Lieut. - Governor in Council, and let him discover any genuine leatures of' coincidence, if he can. For ourselves, we canonly say, that if the colonists tamely submit to the abrogation of then valuable and boasted tights to make room for innovations, of which the objects and consequences cannot be contemplated without serious apprehensions, they are not the kind of people we have taken them to be. They -have already petitioned ami remonstrated, it is. hue; but if they are not prepared for new encroachments, and determined to b« supine under whatever changes and new or more stringent regulations may be contemplated for them, we advise them to petition again, and remonstrate once 'more, ere they publish that manifesto to the Pdiliunieiit and people of England, which the injustice or peiverseness of tlie Colonidl-oifiee seems to have rendered indispensable. Jf the -general interests of the colony, or the undue pieponderanee of one of them, should eventually render > it necessary to tax income or profit in aid *of -immigration or extraordinaiy local expenditure, our own Legislative Council will doubtless be found equal to the emergency ; but such interference as that now sought to be exercised by. the Colonial-office is as unjust as at is uncalled for. The colonists do not want to see any quarteracre reserves tor tae residence or accommodation of "persons appointed to receive the Queen's dish or dues" — "tendeis for royalty commutations"—or the presentation of " applications (for leases with mining rights for our approval bv the Governor in Council j" and if it is our lot to witness such substitutions for our otiginal privileges, we shall be tempted to exclaim — "The Gloiy is departed !"