EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND. (From the "Watehman," July 31.)

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 591, 13 December 1851, Page 3

EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND. (From the " Watchman," July 31.)

Guni r.nm n,-I'Vw cnn doubt that tho depressed state of anricuitmo nt home must loud to a laigo stvetun of emigration to distant colonies, and at u period lhat cannot in ilu 1 uaiuro oi things 1)0 very remote. England grows no /ar»er, but tli« (armors increase in number, and must go nbioail because there can be found no j>luce for thorn at homo. Among them it is a B<>tlled question that many will have to go, hut (ho «rent difficulty in to fix upon their future home, and scene of enterprise. Without wishing to depreciate any of the numerous points of emigration to America, Australia, or Africa, my own clioicu would tnont certainly fall on tho NoHhi'm Island of New Zealand, and within about sixty miles oil Auckland, the seat of the Colonial (Joveinment. The classes of emigrants for a new nnd unbioken couniiy, aie not m?r« phec and olficu hunters, who add. littlo value to a nosy colony, but English ffumcrs with lessor mom capital, nnd iigncultural labomers. in Now Zealand labour is high, and the latter ckuss of emigrants, both innlo and fem.ile, may do woll, and at an curly period, improve their cneuinstancosThe natives nro, as a whole, most friendly to the .white mnn; and with few exceptions, they liavu a high sense of justice, nnd mny bo safely confided m as trnlliful (utd honest, Clmatiamty having changed the New Zcalander iiom the lion to tho lamb. The climate of tlm northern part of New Zealand is delightfully s«lul>rious and healthy, the I nl l of i«in being tho same as in England, namely, thirty-two inches in tho year: the temperature, however, is « Intlo warmer, and vegetation more itinid in its growth. J3ut we havo no extremes of heat anil cold, tho climate being remarkably equable. Tho country is quite free from venomous roptilos anil ravenous beasts. Lions, tigers, and wolves, are not lenown in that land ; nor snalces, toads, nov oven frogs aie there. To me it scorns likely that at a future day, not very distant, New Zealand will stand os the England of the southern horaiaphoie, and still earlier will s ho rank high among her Majesty's forty colonies, i The country is covered with the flax plant, which grows abundantly on hill and valley, and may no doubt, be improved by cultivation, and will beyond all question one day become an article of exportation to an extent inexhaustible. All that is wanting now, is tho discovery of a ready and cheap way of stripping 1 off the epideimis from tho flax plant, (which grows six feet long and five inches wide,) and tho romovnl by pressure, or otherwise, of tho gum brtwocn the skin and tho flax fibre of the leaf, so that tho flnx thus prepared for shipment, might bo sent to England, where it readily sells at from £2U to £2b pr ton. Tho man who shall invent tho machuio, or discover tho chemical drug or compound that will accomplish this separation, will thereby confer a boon upon that rising country, far more valuable than the discovery of gold in California. It may be asked why a company has not boon foiracd for the preparation of New Zealand flax, and about one lmiulied men Bent ont. w>th a few clever aitisnns among them, for this noble purpose? Such a sc/ieme, judiciously manngud, would be almost certain to succeed, and success would be a fortune to nil concerned in it; and would place New Zealand, higher than the highest point at present known to Knglish emigrants. English Ships might bo loaded to almost any extent, and the Russian ilax would be no longer in its present demand. Agricultural produce now sells ratlvor higher tlwn nt home. Wheat, barley, maize, potatoes, and hay sell readily at romunoiating pricos, a, ahado above the home market. The same may he said of horses, cows, sheep, and poultry ; nevertheless, some who engago in agricultural pui suits do not understand the matter practically, and, ot course they foil ; and as a natural consequence these men quarrel with the climate, the soil, and government.bec.iuse they lost their labour,and perhaps Mieir money if they had any, while tho piaclical English farmer looks on and smiles at what he foresaw must come, himself onjoying prosperity. The voyage to New Zealand is ono of the finest in the world, nnd will bo no obstacle to tho.se who valuo, ns it deserves to be valued, the place which i* to be their future home, tJtcir England ov&r ngn'm, in climate, soil, and fruits; in civil institutions and religious rights and privileges. And thero they may have land without ieiU, and labour far enough removed from poverty nnd want. The ships of Willis and Co. wilt supply cheap pas. sages and almost to any oxtent. I subjoin a letter which I received from C. W. Ligar, Esq., the Surveyor General of New /Jealnnd, a gentleman of great respectability, woli acquainted with the subject upon which ho wntca. I urn, gentlemen, yours truly, Walhh Lawiiy.

Auckland, Dec. IG, 1850. [ Sir, — Tn nnswor to your note of tho 12th ultimo, in t winch you ask for information respecting tho eligibility ' of New Zealand ns tt field for emigration, I now furnish ' you with asummaiy of the pnnci|ml points in the economy of land occupation under tho Crown in tho District of Auckland. 'i hoie is but very little land left unsold in tho immediate vicinity of Auckland, (hat is within eight miles off the town, but boyond ilml distance theie is a district containing about 15,000 acres of open fern land, interspersed with Bcrub and forest, and offering mivny advantages and facilities for farming. This district hus on the Eastern side of tho Tnmn!<i Creek, and is in distanco from eight to twelve miles from Auckland. The allotments nre in bizph from GO to 2GO ncres, and many of them have a front.igo to tho bench or a tidnl creek, affording water communication with tho town ; tins distnet is now being oponcd by the erection of a stone bridge ovet tho Tamuki, nnd the ttvinngemcnt of an extension of the grent South Itoad, The soil is a vegetable mould upon a subsoil of clay, in some places a red clay formed of the debris of volcanic ashes, nnd which forms a very rich mould upon exposure to tho air. The general price of land in this district is £i per acre, payments to be made in cash at time of purchase. The Government land sft'os occur about once n month, arc tin flounced by proclamation one month previously, and the sale is by auction, nnd to tho highest bidder over tho upset price. This i* tha only manner of obtaining a crown grant in the Northern distnet. Land desired by an intending purchaser, if it bo not included in any such pioclaimed lists, m«y, upon, application to the Colonial Government, bo inserted in tho hat of the next ensuing sales, if such land be not required for any public purpose. Land having been put tip for sale, and not meeting with a purchaser, remains eligible for purchase for throe years from the dato of the auction during -which period it may be purchased at the auction upset pwco at tho Colomnl Tieusuiy. Beyond the distiict I liavo mentioned there arc others of which I will mention the Papakura and Karakn, at n distance from Iho town of from eight to twenty and twenty-fivo miles respectively; these districts are fern, covered witli occasional patches of forest, and aro hacked by wooded mountain ranges ; the allotments in those districts vary in size from 70 to lfiO and 31203 l 20 acres, the price £i per acre. With rofoienco to grazing the legulations are aa follows viz, — tho parishes around tho town are formed into hundicds, in which each holder of a crown grunt ia upon payment of a tOs. Gd. fee, licensed to graze a certain number of eattlo upon the waste land within tho hundred in which ho holds ft giant, tho number of cat lie co to bo grazed to be fixed by tho waideny, — officers of tbo hundreds elected from ;ui>oi>g themselves by the grantees of tho hundreds rosI poctively. I All the mnnagement of the hundreds, and all internal ' regulations icspecting trespass, &c, rest in nnd me settled by the waidcns. On tho Jnnd outside the 'proclaimed hundreds, grazing licenses for defined runs, say 2500 acres, aro gfi an led by Government upon pnyment, annually, of £5, Upon those runs an equivalent number of cattle must be Kept. Liconsos for timber cutting can be had annually for £b for n defined district. There can bo no doubt but that agricultural employment of labour and capital in New Zealand must, with judicious management, yield u competency. It has boon found that when tho farmer can, within his own family, perform hohio of the labour, his success lias been very rapid when engaged upon well-chosen and good land. Sheep firming also promises to pay in this northern district, in tho southern ports of the island it has for some time been attonded with a profit. I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant, C. \V, Ligar, Surveyor-General.

Transportation.— Revocaiion of the Order in Council. Copy of a Despatch from Earl Grey to Governor Sir C. A. Fitz Roy. Downing-street, April 10, 1851. -Sir,— l have th© honour to acknowledge your Despatch, No. 178, of the Bth of October last, accompanied 'by an Address from the Legislative Council to the yueen, praying that Her Majesty will be pleased to revoke the Older in Council in which New South Wales is declared a place to which British offenders may be transported ; and I have to inform you that I have laid this Address before the Queen. 2. The order in Council referred to was only continued thus long in force, as you are aware, because the judgment of the Legislature had varied at different times, and the opinions of the community were known to be divided on the expediency of receiving any more ■convicts ; and therefore it seemed unadvisable, since it was not needed for any practicable purpose, to revoke the Order uniil it should clearly appear whether the Legislature had arrived at a final conclusion on the subject. The present Address from the Legislative Council to Her Majesty may be considered as such a final expression of the public opinion of that body as it has been hitherto constituted ; and there seems to be no probability that applications will ever again be made by the inhabitants of much the greater part of the territory of New South Wales and Victoria for convicts to be sent thither. If, after the division of the two provinces, tbe Legialature of the new colony of New South Wales should think fit to adopt the views which have been expressed by the inhabitants of the northern district of that colony, or if, on its refusing to do ao, the latter should avail themselves of their power of applying for a further division of the colony for the sake of obtaining the assistance of convict labour, together with that of free emigrants, who would in that case be sent out to them by means of the grant made by Parliament for free emigration to the colonies which receive convicts, it would in either of these cases be proper that instead of the existing Order in Council, another should be substituted, limiting the district to which convicts may be sent to that where their services are required. Her Majesty will therefore be advised at an eaily opportunity to revoke the existing Order iv Council, bo far as it relates to New South Wales. I have, &c, Grey. Governor Sir C. A. Fitz Hoy, &c.