CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. EXTRACTS OF A LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times, December 19 ]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 434, 12 June 1850, Page 3

CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. EXTRACTS OF A LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times, December 19 ]

After a very pleisant walk we anived at the farm of some Scotch settle.] i, whose hospitality we aie not the first traveller? who h.ive had icason to acknowledge. As I understand that they have furnished Mr. Thomas w ih a detailed report of the agriruliurwl capabilities of tins district, I need not tepeat the information of a similar kind which I obtained trom them in the com se of conversation. It may be enough to say that mutton, ' flourishing with Homeric fat,' and juicy apples, and foaming jugs of milk, verified all that 1 have ever read of the plenty and contentment ot 'he pastoral and bucolic life. The quails which started up every moment under our feet completed the picture of patnaichal abundance, needing only the tiue manna of God's blessing to fulfil every promise which Hp ever made to His chosen people, to the happy settlers who may hereafter occupy this fair land in the spirit of simplicity and fuitb. All other persons I would advise to go to California or any other place where the piospect of wealth may be more inviting. What we have to offer ought to be enough— a land flowing literally with milk aiid honey, where men eat bread to the full. It ib poisible that in former letters I have expressed an unfavourable opinion of Port Coiper and its district. If I have done so, it was under the impression that the district had been thoroughly examined by Colonel "Wakefield and the Company's surveyors; and that Otalron had been deliberately preferred, though 150 miles further to the south, As I had seen Otalion, I did not think that any inferior place could be eligible for so large a settlement as that which is projected by the Canterbury Association. But I have since heard that Port Cooper was very superOcialiy examined by the former surveying party ; and as my opinion was founded chiefly upon the fact of their pieference of Otalron, I readily acknowledge my error, afier a personal inspection, the result of which has left a most favourable impression upon my mind. Captain Stokes, I hear, has given a similar opinion, after a much more careful examination. You are a body which ought nnd will be able to dis. pense with all trickery and gambling. In the first place, it is a pu'e delusion to talk of fouuding a colony at once. It is a very pretty analogy to think of Minerva cjming forth lull armed out ot the head of Juprer ; but in most casei, when you come to look for your Minerva, you will find nothing but her owl. Neither your heads nor the settlers can afford to be so trepanned. A more wasteful system could not be deviaed thai) that of congregating large bodies of settle) s at once upon the same spot, requiring at once exactly the same supplies, and tempted by their discomforts and their necessities to acquiesce in the most extortionate prices for every thing that they buy. If a settler has to pay £100 tor a house only worth i£so, it is a clear loss to the community, especially as the money generally goes to some other settlement, from which the supplies must, in the first instance be derived. — Even it the settlers supplied their own labourers, yet all prices would the to that exeesbive point at which artisans almost iti variably take to drinking, and thin the money would go to the publican, who would most likely be some experienced vintntr from Sydney. A flight of such harpies is always found rtady waiting for the new arrivals. The loss which is sustained by a new community from the excessive price ot all the necessaries of life is incalculable. My advice, therefore, is, form as large a plun as you please, but carry it out gradually and cautiously. Let each section settleitselt before the next arrives, that it may be a help instead of a hindrance to the new comers. An inteival of at least a year would secure this, and would enable each detachment to arrive at such a time as to have the summer before it, which is a point ol gieat importance in a wet climate. On the organization of thete tec" ions I would suggest that the arrangement should not be merely numerical, but local and topographical. Let a good leader like a queen bee, undertake to form the township of Oxford, or Str*tford or Mundeville, or what you will, and secure a right good clergyman and schoolmaster as the first step. Then, as in the old Roman armies, legit virum vir ; lit all the Oxford men send in their names to their own leader, with recommendations of good, baidworking, honest, and sober labourers for the free emigrants. Let no man be recommended except through an actual emigrant land owner. No man will recommend a scoundiel or a drunkard to be his own

fellow passenger on board ship or his next door neigh* bonr hi ihe colony. But Poor Liw guardians, and even clergymen, will often send a worthless fellow to a co'ony, as physicians send incurable patients lo tin* south of France, only to get rid of them. When the Oxford leader is able to announce that land is bought at Oxford to a sufficient amount lo yield an endowment for a clergyman, and to build a church and school, then let due notice be given to the agenc in New Zealand, that on the Ist day of November, 185 — or thereabouts, he may expect the Oxonians. If possible, a bishop will bs there to meet and receive the.v, and accompany them at ones to their own place, "here a pretty wooden spire will be already built, and visible fai over the plain, to guide them to the house of G' d where they may offer up their thanksgiving for their successful voyage. There they ought to find a sore of building timber and firewood already lad in, at fixed but not extortionate prices, and will be able to settle themselves in pence, and be ready to give a helping hand on reasonable terms to the flight of Stratfordites, who will arrive about the same time on the following year. With regard to extension, nothing can well be more certain to involve a maximum of expense and a minimum of good, than the present system of colonization, which makes emigration almost ignominious. Once pauperize emigration, and every emigrant tnu>t be paid for in full, lou must give free passnges at first to set things in motion, and if you were to found a Mineiva colony you must give fiee passages to all your labour ing emigrants. But the objects to be aimed at are these :— 1. To supply the colony with a sufficiency of labour. 2. To take cate that the supply shall always bear a a due proportion to the demand. 3. To supply that labour at the least cost to the emigration fund. To secure these objects many ingenious calculations have been made, with about as mi<ch iffect as the numeration which we u-ed to pi.'Ctise on our biass buttons afr school, allotting to each its due title of soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, gentleman, apothec iry, ploughboy or thiif. That till these elements do enter into the composition of all sociPties cannot be doubted, but no chymistry of the Emigration Commissioners will ever discover beforehand in what proportions they must be mix d to form a healthy community. But all these things will find their own limple and natural adjustment, if neither the tiuUer nor the apothecary be employed Colonies will work well if they are let alone. When your Oxford section baa taken up its ground, they will foon find out their own uants. A blacksmith will be found to have been left out, and every one will be crying out for some one to mend his plough. " Why, I have a cousin that's just the man we want," some one will say ; " could we not get him out to help us V " I will give £l to his patspgi^ and he will p,iy me in work." '■ I will give another." " May be the Association will go hulves in the expenses." " Wnte and ask." The next year out comes the Oxford blacksnvth at half pi ice. " Which is the way to Oxfoid ?" " Where you see that spire out yonder." " But won't you May in the emigration barrack till you hear whether you can g> t work ?" " Whit do I want of an emigration barrack ? It it not bad enough to have Ik en shut up in a ship? I know Mr. Goodielluw, lie io my cousin ; he will put me up till I can get a place lor myself." The above is a true description of what is going on every day in a thnving colony. One man lias more food than he knows what to do with, and he wishes for some poor relation to come out to help him to eat it ; another remembers some country lass, whom lie did not dare to aßk to marry when he had nothing to offer her , a tradesman bus business on his hands, and wants a youth to keep his books; a mechanic has more work th.iv he c^n do, utid would be gk'd of a mate. AH these know exactly the sort ol pci son that is wanted, and will not send foi him unless he can be well cuaplojed. Demun I aud supply represent one another by the simplest and most natural adjustment, and at tliecheuoest rate of expense. All this is kilLd by the paupenz'ng and pauperized system of free passages, given gtneially to relieve the woikhouses. The poor rate will be iqually relieved in either case, for the removal of labourers of a higher class will enable many an able bodied pauper to recover bis position. Industry, (except in the case of confirmed habits of vice,) will be in proportion to the certainty of profitable employment. No matter whe* ther you send u-. the good or the bad, the mother country will be equally relieved. If you send none, all will become bad from the superfluity of labour ; if you send the best, your bad will become better at home, for they are bad chiefly from the uncertainty of employment; and though even the worst often become steady men in a colony, yet surely it is moie reasonable to pay for the emigration of a good man than of a bad one. But of all the causes which ruin emigrants, the worst is the sending out men without friends or connexions in the colony, to herd together in emigration barracks, and clamour to Government for the wages of idleness., as sturdy paupers, till they have lost all iavoiu with the settlers, and have imbibed in return a rooted dislike to the country and its inhabitants. The next great point is, that I advise you most stiongly to give up, for the present, at least, all the usual trickery of town acres? ; I mean at the central or post towns, tor the country towns will not much excite the manu of speculation. In Port Cooper this Beems to be more especially necessary, because a iew lucky purchasers engiossing the whole of the small quantity of available land near the anchorage, will have it in their power to put the public to the greatest inconvenience. My advite is, plant the country, and let the town grow of itself. Let the course and progrebs ot the colony show when, where, and by whom, ttoies, manufactories, &c, ought to be established. When the need is sbo>vi) by a demand, town land can be sold or lee with a privilege of purchase, and then the actual merchant will then become the proprietor, instead ot having to buy or rent his land on exorbitant terras from some absentee owner, who has pre-occupied the best positions for business. To pass on to the higher and more impoitant branches of your plan : the provision for education and religion. The example oi the China bishopiic is a warning how long good plans may be delayed if you wait till the Endowment Fund be, complete. The American system seems to be the best. Have a Bishop at all events. It is not at all certain that you will net a better man for £1000, than for £100 a year, Such matters are no que^ion of money. Let him get his money as he caii tor a time,— whether as warden of the college, or as a parish priest ; till the growth of endowments and the increase of duties lead naturally to a subdivision of labour. A colonial bishop in a new colony cannot at first be fully occupied with the duties ot his office. II he confined himself to them, he may grow an idle man, without knowing why. But in the practical working, as well as superintending institutions not strictly within his own duties, he will find the means ot keeping up that habitual energy which his own office will require befor j many yeara aie pnst. It you can find a bishop of all work, he ought to be the first clergyman to land in New Zealand. Your plan would seem to infer the necessity of the bishop being the Omega of the clerical body.

I hope tliat you will find it possible to make him the Alpha. The same principle applies to the college. Begin it at, once— if you c.in find a man who can reflect what Oxford was when Alfred's students read almost illegible MSS. by the light of papsr lanterns. We are still far from Tennyson's " peipetual afternoon of h« tcidtme, dreamy, armcbairy, dressing-gowny." The academic life of a colony is to work when you must, and to lead when you can. It is a practical example of Hoi ace's wager with his bailiff, which could do moat in clearina; land or extirj a'ing error. Every yem Lhnt you delay the beginning, it will become more ilifficult to begin at all. A full grown college cannot be expoited ac once, for if you cannot expect to btinor forth at once Minerva's body, much less her wisdom. Mark out a good extent of land, and put up a wooden budding ; people are very tolerant, and will call it " The College;" and why should they not, when even an mill mary for sick hon,ps may enjoy that name ? Jiy degrees the pirn would be developed under active and judicious management; teachers and pupils will flow in; subscriptions and legacies will inciease; and the only fear will be, lint the corpoiate body will become too rich, and that wealth will lead to luxury, and luxuiy to laz ness, and laziness to contempt. Beyond the first stiiking a key note, I would advise you to Imriy nothing, bend out a few very fit men, and wai patiently until you can obtain others. This danger of hurry has led me to remonstrate against the limitation of time proposed by the New Zealand Company. On no account consent to any such restriction. It will be a continual stimulus goadv i you on to something prcinaiuie, as the Company itstlf has been hurried ou by its own purchasers into Belling land before it was surveyed, and even before it wai bought, ilemembei Lord Eldou's mp.xim, " Sat cilo, siiat bene ;" and though you travel now l>y steam instead of the " heavy Salisbury," remember that such luxurious locomotive has not yet found its place in New Ztaland.