THE CANFERBURY MEETING.—Mu. GODLEY VERSUS THE GOVERNMENT.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 574, 15 October 1851, Page 3

THE CAN FERBURY MEETING.— Mu. GODLEY VERSUS THE GOVERNMENT.

FFiom the Wellington Simtt.vtor, August 30 ] In our last number we publ shed the. resolutions adopted by the meeting of the settlers at Canteibuiy, culled for "the puipose of considering the Governor's olier to constitute that bettlement a sopamte piovince. Tlio report of its proceedings (us published in the ].tlUlelan Time),) is too long, and would not perhaps possess sufficient interest with our r aders, to tiunsfer !t to our columns: it may not, however, be inexpedient to examine some of the siatements and nrguments u>-ed by Mi. Godley, the chairman of the meeting (the principal speaker on^tlie occasion), and we /eel the less difliculty in doing so, as his speech has been re-pub-lishedin this settlement. Mi.Godl*}, at the outset, somewhat ostentatiously disclaims any intention.™ his p-irt of "bandying reproaches and insinuations with the Governor, while his speech is a senes of reproaches directed against Sir Geor;>e Grey and the Government, an elaborate tissue of insinuations artfully put together and calculated to cause his heiuors to draw conclusions fiom them winch tlie facts do not justify. There are two points in Mr. G oil ley's speech, his remaiks oil the Governor's letter, and the companion which ho institutes between the colonizing efforts of the Government and the Association, on which we piopose to offer a few observations. In refening to the conespomlence which was the occasion of the meeting, Mr. Godley aflWts to consider as " uncalled for and irrelevant," any allumon on the part of his Excellency to the houndanes of the proposed Piovince, and leaves it to be inferred that this (juestion lias been raised for tho iii.st time by the Governor. But Lord Grey, in his despatch as quoted in !\l>. Godley's letter, says, " 1 shall be prepaied to insuuet the Governor of New Zealand to teport to me whether the distnct which may be ultimately selected for tho settle ment can be formed into a distinct Province in the manner in which you lecommend, ti>i(/i»u( injury to etisting ndaebls, ami regaid being lind to the policy which the Go vet nor may find it necessary to put&ue with iuspect to the Native tribes ; and it it can, ivhal boundaries can be conveniently ussi«ned to it." Ceriain boundaries, embracing an area of 2,500,000 acres, have already been assigned to Canterbury, and an irregular and indirect attempt has been made by Mr. Godley, tho agent, and by the so-called Council of the Association, to obtain an extension of these boundane", so as to include extensive districts lying on either side. We Bpealc of this attempt as irregul.tr and induect, because it was made not, as it ought to have been, through the official channel, through the Governor of the colony, who having thus official knowledge of the fuel would Have reported to the Home Government whether such an application could, in his opinion, be entertained "without injury la existing intereits," but through the Association in England to the Home Government. But the application was a matter of notoriety, ma-much ns Mr. Godley had mentioned it lo sever.il persons in Wellington, the Council had published their intention in the focal paper of the settlement ; it had formed the theme of public discussion in other settlements, and had been denounced as unjust and injurious to c tilting interests in the Wellington Independent and Neluni Examiner before the meeting of the Council, the Independent expressing its conviction that such an attempt " to monopolise the greater portion of the available land in the Middle Island, and liem in the older settlements of Nelson and Otago within their present (comparatively speaking) narrow boundaries was so preposterous" that it was impossible to believe " that either the Home or the Local Government will listen to it." We do not «cc then how Sir George Grey, with these facts patent, and with Lord Grey's instructions before him as quoted by Mr. Godley, could, in the consistent discharge of his duty, have passed them over in silence; if he had done so, bis silence, would have bpen interpreted by the Association, and when subsequently his opinion was found to be unfavourable to their views, he would have exposed himself to the imputation of ■want of candour in not taking this the eailie'st public opportunity of making his sentiments on this question known. Mr. Godley, while be admits the existence of the Association to be " necessarily productive of groat evils," advances such extravagant claims in its behalf, in the forced comparison which he makes between tho Government and the Association that, lest we should be suspected of misrepresentation, we have reprinted this passage of his speech entire : — " Most of those whom I address know, and all of them ought to know, that for seven yeats, that is, from 1839 to I(M6, the Government, of which Sir George Grey is tho representative, possessed almost unlimited powers and opportunities for colonizing these Inlands. 1 say almost unlimited, for the New Zealand Company's interference was confined to the comparatively small districts of Wellington, Nelson, nnd Isew Plymouth, and the native inhabitants, in this island especially, would have been only too happy to dispose of their rights over tho waste territory at a nominal price. For seven years, then, Sir Georgo Grey and his piedecessors have had nearly tho whole of New Zealand, for twelve years about half of it, under their control and in then hands. They have bad every conceivable advantage and facility at their command ; funds, troops, steamers, civil administiations, and surveyors. They have spent more money in one year than we are likely to have at our disposal in five—and what have they done? I will tell you. By means of an extiavagant expenditure they have formed one settlement, or lather they have founded one seaport and garrison town, which is not a settlement, to which J do not believe five hundred actual settlers have ever gone. Tins is all, literally all, that the Government of New Zealand has done for colonization." When Mr. Godley nsßerts that Sir George Grey and his predecefsors have had for seven yeais the whole of New Zealand, and for twelve years about half of it, under their control, with almost unlimited powers and opportunities for colonizing, wuh every conceivable advantage and facility at their command, such assertions are at diiect vaiiance with the facts. Jt would naturally be inferred from such a statement that one uniform policy had been pursued by the Government of New Zealand with reference to colonization, and the waste lands from which the funds for colonization are derived, that with " almost unlimited powers and opportunities, with every conceivable advantage and facility," no difficulties or impediments existed to embarrass or interfere with nny comprehensive scheme of colonization that had been laid down. But we know that it has bpen the peculiar misfortune of New Zealand to suffer nil the evils arising from incapacity and mismanagement on the part of Sir George's predecessors, that so fur from one uniform policy having been adopted and carried out, tfie colony has been subject to a succession of changes resulting from the weakness and want of purpose" of its former rulers. On Sir George Giey's accession to the Govprnmpnt be found the colony in a atate of the utmost disorder and anarchy, a bankrupt treasury, a depreciated currency, the natives in open rebellion to the Queen's authority, tho most extraviigant claims to laud at the north, with all the complications arising out of the Company's claims in this Province. The funds, troops, and steameis at tho Go-

\ ei noi \ roiiniiiiiiil \vci(> not to ptomole etingiftiion but to put. down rebellion. How successfully, how mumphnn ly Sir Genige lias overcome (bo almost lnsunnountable difhculliei tli.it existed on Ins ainvnl, n coin|);iiisoM of the former with the present state of tlio colony will suflkiently testily. Not to refer to the complete tian(|Uillity nml ouler which bus been esiablished, or ilie impnvcd and continually advancing state of civilisation of ilie i.atives tlnoiigh the lium.ine anil wise policy wind) be bus puiMied townid them, cnmpaiu thr> levonue of the last year of Captain Fit/uiv's misrule with that now ended. In 181.) the revenue o( the Southern Province was £6°>'ll, in 18.10 it amounted to £21,11.5. 'i he f»ot is, and no one belter knows it than Mi. Godley, all the energies and powers ot the Governor have been devoted to the higher cares of Government, 111 establishing ordei, 111 removing the difficulties and impediments that existed to prevent colonization, ia smoothing the way for the operations of the Association of which ho is agent. If this had not been done, if t hi ough the judicious and able administration of tho Governor peace had not been assured, piospenty hud not dawned on the colony, would there have, been -any place for the exertions ot Mr. Godley's Association, would any one have prepared to sever the lies of kindred mid country and seek a new home in an unttodden wilderness at tho voice of this channel- — chin in he never so wisely? If we must compare tho results of colonization as conducted by Government and by a puvate Association or Company, contrast iiie Company's Settlements in Nsw Zealand with tho Colony of ' South Austiulia, founded just befoie, and tin ough the instrumentality of the tame persons engagpd 111 promoting the colonization of Now Zealand. Adelaide now numbers severity thousand colonists, the Company 's settlements in New Zealand scarcely twelve thousand. But Mr. Godley claims for his Association the exclusive inent, not only of colomV-ing, but of discovering thr Canteibuiy. district. "We discovered it, we surveyed it, we made it available for settlement, we made known its existence and capabilities," and so on in a long stung of egotisms ; and yet a little fuilher on ho somewhat lnlelicitously refers to " tho old settlers in Cunteibuiy," who had resided there for years before the Association discovered this lena i»co»n >Uil But in fact the capabilities of the distnct have been well know n for years past. The late Captain Wakefleld was desnous of fininhng tliere the settlement of Nelson, but was compelled by Captain Ilobson to select JJlind Bay. Mr. Tuckett was referred by the late Colonel Wakefield to Poit Cooper as au eligible distiict for the Otago settlement, but he preferred the district now occupied by lh.it settlement. And wo may remind Mr. Godley that the native title to the distnci has been extinguished by pui chase by the Local Government, that tlie^New Zealand Company advanced to the Association jCyO,OOO out of thelunds .supplied by tho Home Goveiumeut, that His Excellency supplied Mr. Godley himself with £2000 to commence operations, and though it may be convenient for him to Jbrget these obligations, but for the timely assistance, but for the cordial co-operation the Association has at all times received from the Government, tho district would still have remained, as, far as the Association is concerned — " unsurveyed, untenanted, almost unknown." We leave our' fellow-colonists at Auckland to lebut Mr. Godley'.s sneers at the " g.irrixon town," confident that they aie fully capable of vindicating themselves from Ins insinuations, wo will merely obseive that the distnct winch boasts a concentrated population offlOOO inhabitants, and 7000 act e.s biou«ht under cultivation, may have equal pretensions with Canterbury to the honor of being a settlement, even though it may not contain <l the future capital of New Zealand." We may also remind Mr. Godley, that while he somewhat ostentatiously boasts of what the Association has done, he has been obliged to lelax their exhorbitnnt demands, and eoade the Act of Parliament m gianting leases for cattle and rligpj) runs, in order to keep pace with the libel iiluy of Government, and pi event Canterbury from being a "desolate distnct, " while the districts on either side urcro fully occupied with stock; and that it is a question w Hii many whether the district will not owe more to the capital and stock intioduccd by tho Port Phillip settlers, who have resorted thither from the encouragement held out to them by the liberal Pastoral Regulations of the Governor, than even to the bucccssiul exertions of the Association.