A LESSON ABOUT COLONIZATION. [From the " Spectator," Aug. 3.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 494, 8 January 1851, Page 4

A LESSON ABOUT COLONIZATION. [From the " Spectator," Aug. 3.]

Having witnessed ihe entertainment given by the Canterbury Association to their " departing colonists," on Tuesday la^t, we are enabled to describe one of its features which appears to us especially deserving of notice, as well for its novelty as for the instructions it conveys. '♦ There was nothing," says the Times, " and there could be nothing, very remarkable in the outward show of a festivity in which the company were such as one might have met at a concert or a horticultural fete ; in which the tables were spread from the inexhaustable resources of the London Tavern, and the only peculiarity was, that instead of a tent, or a saloon, the scene of the festivity was between the decks of a noble emigrant-ship." Begging pardon for the dissent, we ace a very curious and striking peculiarly in the very point which ii here regarded as a commonplace. This is the aspect of the assembled company. Their general appearance, indeed reminded one of a horticultural fe cor a concert ; but then about half of them— and this is the wonder— were " emigiants" preparing to embark for the other side of the world, and intending to live and die there as colonists. It u no wonder that there should be emigrants ; colonists are nothing new; but it is surpriung, as is everything which strikes the imagination by a sudden novelty, that " emigrants'* and " people of fashion" — men, women, and childi en — children of both classes — shoald be brought together in one company, as they « ere at this fete, without any one being able to distinguish individuals of either class from individuals of the other. The indentny, so to speak, of the two classes of guests, was such that one heard the fine ladies and gentlemen asking " where are the emigrants?" "which are the colonists ?"— questions that were echoed with a smile by emigrating ladieß and gentlemen not choosing to be honied. The beautiful and graceful children of a colonist were pointed out to a person aiking to see the emigrants— one of our own ciaft too— who shook his head inciedulously, and said, "No, no; they are either sprigs of some of the nobility piesent, or else actors got up for the occasion." Passing by this compliment to Lord Lyttelton, the master of the feast, we may add, that at first it appeared a geneial impiessiou araon<r the non-colonist part of the company, that iheie really were no colonists piesent. This enor prevailed until Loid Wharncliffe startled the unbelievers by gayinjc, th.it he had a sou among the emigrants. But one swallow does not make a summer ; and to the last, we believe, the fact was doubted of which we received satisfactory evidence,— namely, that neatly half the company consisted of families whose berths are secured in d»o ships now a'most ready for sea. And further inquiry has assured us, that these Canteibury colonisls belong in reality as well as appearance to the " higlur classes" commonly so called. It is not asserted that many of them belong to families of rank and wealth ; but some of them do ; and the greater patt of them differ altogether fiom the common run of colonists above the labouring clais, by their higher birth, their mote easy circumstances at home, their superior education and manners, and the motives which lead them to emigrate, It is with regard to these motives that the facts teach a valuable lesion, The greater part of emigrants above the labouring class either fly from some tvil here, of which the pressure has become intolerable— the evil, in most cases, of pecuniary difficulties — or they go forth on the California principle of mere money-getting by means of a ipeculative and gambling kind. In the present instance, as we are credibly informed, families bear a large proportion to single men ; the colonists, for the most part, depart from comfortable homes, never disturbed by care relating to money; and so large a proportion of them contemplate follow" ing no occupation but the cultivation and management of landed property, that scarcely one of them is known to have acquired more of such property than he intends to keep as the home and mainstay of his family. It would seem that in this colony the land-gambling which is the custom and bane of new settlements will be almost unknown, if those colonists who follow the body now departing should resemble them in moderation and good seme. What is it, then, that induces such people to emigiate, now for the firtst time in any considerable number as a body ? It n the peculiarities of the scheme of colonization which Lord Lyttelton and his colleagues are canying into effect. The Bishop of Norwich alluded to one of thdse when he contrasted the total absence of religious and educational provision* in the first emigiations to New Zealand with those of the Cantetbuiy settlement ; and the whole of them may be summed up in the expression— a careful adaption of the means employed (o the end in view. In order to make our Colonial Office, which everybody proposes to abolish as a nuisance, highly useful to this nation and the empire, we ihould only have to convert it into a Canterbury Association for all the Colonies and for all creeds as respect* religion and education. Though Lord Grey was not present at this colonists' entertain" ment, hi* " better half" was ; and so the instruction which it conveys may not be quite lost to the State.