PROSPECTS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR FOUNDING CANTERBURY COLONY. (From the Colonial Church Chronicle for Oct.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 296, 31 March 1849, Page 3

PROSPECTS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR FOUNDING CANTERBURY COLONY. (From the Colonial Church Chronic le for Oct.)

* This is perhaps a high proportion, but we take the must favourable view.

anticipate and provide against what is wrong, than to let it come to a head, and do all its miichief. We are at a lost to understand how such an impracticable scheme could have been devised and accepted. We can only imagine that some active members of the New Zealand Company, in order to part with land in their tabooed district, prevailed somehow on a number v-f highly stationed and appreciated Church people, to lend their names to a scheme, fair in promise, but wh'ch seems to tig to be delus ye and impracticable.-^ But what then ? it may be asked ; suppose what i* said is true, and the six months elapse, and the money is not forthcoming, what then? Why then, first of all the scheme falls to the ground ; the Company ieserve the land no longer ; they sell it to whom they list, fettered by no well-devised rules ; th«y sell if at the'r own price of, say ,-£l per acre, not £?>, the price of the Association, with no provision for Church endowments, &j., and the whole sihcme falls. Canterbury colony becomes a buhb.e tliat has burst. Consideiing the signal failure of the Chartist memorial scheme, with the name of the venerated Primate at its head, we do nit wish to sec another plan patronised by him share ihe same fu'e. But further, who it to repay the New Zealand Company for the monry advanced, for the charter (if obtained), the expenses i f the Association, the expenses or Mr. Thomas, am', above all, the surveying and roadmakiug, wl.ich (by the compact) n ill then have been going on for a year or more, and which cannot be slopped for some months longer ? This money is advanced, " repayabla ' out of the funds which will acciue from the sales of land.'' Is it expected than an an ic.ib'e disso'ution of the engagement will take place? Tho<e who h-ne read the correspondence of the Company with the Colonial Office, will hardly expect such foibearniue and consideiatiou. Further, what is to become ol the purchasers o( the land sold during the six month , the terras on which they purchased being impracticable ? The money, we conclude, will be returned; but will the Company take back the land ? The perplexity and pecuniary embarrassment of all this to the respected members of the Association are obvious ; meanwhile the New Zealand Company will simply huve sold some land by their mems, and have gained in repute by connexion with some of the most trusted names in the count) y. We do not intend to impute unfair or hh.irp dealing to the Company; we will keep in our minds the f ict of the Directors being honourable men ; but still we say, it is a very unfortunate thing that the compact should have been so formed that, in reality, the Company will be gainers by the plan of the Association failing. The best thing, as it heems to us, that could happen, would be to hear that the Governor or Bishop of New Zealand had withheld their sanction from the purchase of any spot on the ground of their inability to guarantee iti fitness for the purposes designed. Even this would be peiplexing. But we linger no longer on the subject. We have carefully inspected the scheme, and our dispassionate, and ceitamly most disinterested, judgment we have iccordtd. It 'v> just one of those bubjticls which it is our province and duty to examine. We dismiss it with one consideration, which, even prior to inquiry into the exact facts, led vi to suspuit the soundness of the scheme. It is a known law, that no act of eh riiy or beneficence can be done nucceasfnlly, without some sacrifice of time, or means, or trouble, or anxiety on the part ot the benefactor. According to the piovcrb, 4t words break no bones;" and neither do they heal wounds. But here ure assembled a number of philanthropic and influential men, to forward a great and noble scheme ; but they ti yto do so " relieved fiom peisonal lesponsibility" (Art. xvi,) They " lend the r names," as is said. The do not, they cannot give even time or attention to it. With the exception of one noble-minded mmi, we know no no one on the managing committee, save the adherents of the New Zeala d Company, who have at all exa» mined or wot ked at thu icheme. The issue can only be of one kind. We hope somehow it may yet be averted, and that bo noble a design, backed by such noble names, may not be doomed to an ignoble failure.