OTAKOU. (From the Wellington Spectator.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 220, 8 July 1848, Page 3

OTAKOU. (From the Wellington Spectator.)

The following address by Mr. CnigilL the New Zealand Company's Resident Agent at Otakou, to the immigiants by the Jolin WiclJifie and Philip TLamg, "ill be peiused with considerable in(eif j &t. It it> >vi itton in a vigorous stjlc, and furnishes 6otno intoiesting particular of the voyage out, and subsequent pioceedings of ihe settlers on landing in their adopted coiiult>. The passage of both vessels seems to have been pai ticulat lv lavomablo, and, as far as our lecollection sei vi j b, the John Wicklille is the fust emigrant vesbol which has m lived m New Zealand without the occur) ence of any dealh on board The late met weather has been veiy unfavourable to their opeKitions, and, in the absence o( sufficient sheltei for so many petsons, must have had a very discouiaging edect, but they appear to have set to woik with ledoubled eneigy to lemedy this inconvenieuro, and were busily engaged id buildjng houses and sheds uf all kinds. The diHeroncc of opinion about the site of the (own, to which vie lelbned m our last number, has lei initiated, auU seJectiuiis luivo been made

of town bCi'tiuns at Dnnedin, the site onginally laid out, whcie some ol' the settlers have already commenced building their houses: — JPoit Chalmers, Otakou liatbour, l.itli Apul, 1818.

To Tin: Immigrants a'i Oiakou. Friends and fellow passiinijeis, —l have now the happiness to congratulate you on the safe iiuivAl of out whole pieUminar) party, Ihe ship John Wicklilte, fioin London, having enteied this liailiour on the 22d nit., and the Thilip Laing, from Greenock, on the piescnt date. The passage has been made by the lormer in 93 dajs fiom land to land, oi 90 days fiom port to poit; and by the latter in 11.1 and 117 days lespeclively. No deatli has ociiirted on boaid the John Wiclvlidb, whilst m the IMnlip Laing, of S7 children four have died, and thtec weio horn; and, with one exception, a case originating at ' home, there is not a sickly peison amongst us. Our numbeis being 27S souls m all —exclusive of 19 w ho go on to Wellington. Oui fit st duty is to rein in thanks to .Almighty God, and I am happy to obse-i ye that our Minislerand church members have determined to hold a convocation for that puipose, w Inch all arc inviiod to attend. We aio indebted, under God, for the safety and comfort of our passages, to the ariangements of the Now Zealand Company, and it will now be seen that the Directois have been no less; caieful, by the adoption of every means which e\peiience had suggested, to provide for immediate applications to the objects of our enteipiise, without distraction and without piivation. A tempoiary barrack for the women and children has been proviled, the lands arc staked out, and read) for immediate choice and occupation ; and we have three months prpvisions and giocolies in store, to bo issued at cost price, and kept up by additional impoits until those of our community, who are so pui posed, together w ith the competition of nciglibom ing settlements, shall have supplied onr tnaikcts in the usual couise of tiade. \'out beautiful and commodious liaibour is now beloie )ou, its enclosing and loundcd hills, wooded fiom the bummit to the walei's edge. \on have partially explored, together with the sites of Port Ohalmeis and Dunedin, and the adjacent lands laid out for suburban sections; and some of you have also glanced at Ihe seiies of lich vallies comprising the rural sections, evtending to the Clutha and its banks. In the cultivations of the few squatters (mostly fiom Ross ! and Sutherland) who have been waiting to join you, you have seen and paitaken of the wheat, barley, oats, and garden studs they have been in the habit of raising, together with tin sheep and cattle depastuied on the hills yon are to graze The climate also in this tlip month of Apjil, which conesponds with October at home, you can at once perceive ; whilst the vigoions health of the binveyois, exposed as they have been in the w ihli'iness for two yeais past, and other \lnlopeans oi all ages who have squatted for vai ions peuods dtuinu; the last twenty yeais., togelhei w ill) then unvarying testimony as to open winters and temperate summeis —and the prospeions cnctimstaiucs in which you lind them, notwithstanding then want of combination and distance from each other—must enable )ou tosati&fy your fiionds at home that the movement >ou have made is in all respects, as to things temporal, judicious and advantageous, even as ourpioviMon for education and leligious oidinanccs is to the contentment ol our spiiitinl fathers, as regaidcd by the Gcneial Assembly of llie I'icc Church of Scotland. Oui advantages aic gicat, and it behaves us to maik and acknowledge them. In tlic ca^c of the " Pilgiim Triiheis" —ihoy led. then homes, not as we do, but by compulsion, and as a hunted parti idge for a place of icsl. The ships they sailed in, the stciilo soil and iiightful wmteis, togolnev with the lack of food and implements in the countiy which leceivcd them, weic enough to have quailed the stoutest hcut; but they wcic men who feaiod God and nothing else. They perseveicd, and the issue, as now seen, is pcihaps the most piegnant for the cause of truth and the pi ogress of mankind, that exists in the weald. Again, had our destination been to Biitish Aniciica, "a voyage so greatly more hying than that we have expeiienced, the close oi that voyage must have been the commencement of a. lone; and tedious journey, anil whibh could only have ended by the setting in of a six months' rigoious and pi olitlcss winter. But still neaier—when we look to the difficulties in this fine eounliy, with which othois have had to contend, and to the endurance and waste of means to which they ueie exposed, we ought to be deeply impressed with the contiast of our own position. My luends, it is a fact, that the eyes ol the Bii'ish enipiic, and I may say of Europe and Amoiiea, aie upon us. The uileis of our giear country have shuck out a system of colonization on liberal and enlightened j piinnpJet., and small as we now aie, we aic the piccur- j sors of the fiitt settlement which is to put that system to the test. Our individual inteicsts aie tlieicfoie bound up with a great public; cause, and passing over in this place, the higbci objects which Fjco Chinch- j men must cilbct, we biiou <i ju.st adopt the sentiment of oui British i ace—"England expects that cveiy man will do his duty." Our duty as pioneers may be somewhat arduous, but as compaicd with all that has gone befoic us, they aie ] light and transitory. We, no" doubt, encounter a wil deiness, but we do so in a climate equal at least to the south of England, and with appliances altogether new. The caigo of the John Wiekliflc is nearly on shoveA stoic house is toofed in, and similar matteis aie being proceeded with, which give work for all until the choice of town allotments shall have been made, when all hands will be required and engaged by the owneis of these lands, to erect their houses, and those of tlieii engaged bcivants, ere the appioaelnng wmtei, such as it is, "hall anivc. Mcanwln'e, I have established the wiges for public woiks in pi ogress at 3s. <i day for a common labouicr, and ss. toi craftsmen; but when such woiks, after ihe houses lcfcucd to aic up, shall be lcsumed, public woiks will then be executed by conttaet, and so as to give continuous employment for all. In fixing the rate of wages until the hands of our industiiol classes aic snfhuenlly initiated for the taking of contiacts, it was necessaiy to tako caie that the late should not be such as to ovcitax the capitalist, and on the othei hand, that the labouivi 1 should have mcieased pay, as the new and profitable Held, for both parties should appear to wanant. Such pay being, at the same time, altogether in money, to be laid out by the la bouiei <is lie ple.vcs, find on the food he picfeis. The result, as legaids the foiegoing late, is, that the man who, ioi common ldhoui had 12s a week at home, subject to house lent, is noiv leceiving 18s. with a free hoiT-e and fuel, and glazing for his cow. , You now land with all your implements ami effects

on the spot winch is to be your homo, and where the man who li \s only his hands to depend upon must see, by all that is mound him, thai with industry and economy, he can maintain a family in comfort, and .ichicvc his independence, ere the infirmity of years can ovei lake him. Still, however, we aie but ,i body of pioneers, and as such, must encounter some roughness until our houses are up ; but with willing minds, we shall soon be pro pared to leccivc our brellnen fiom home with a heaity welcome and an appioving conscience. W. Oarcill.