CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 593, 20 December 1851, Page 3

CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT.

The Australian and New Zealand Gazette, of July 12, says, — We are sorry to see that the " Bishop-designate" has been performing some of those puerilities, which Lord Lyttelfon the other day so eagerly lepudiated, in marching round the town in procession, with banners bearing the devices of pelicans shedding their blood for their young— this being the latest religious symbol, we suppose; though if the Bishop-designate were acquainted with the habits of the filthy bird, instead of its fabulous history, he would scarcely have selected it as the emblem of the Divine Redeemer. Had not Lord John Russell's f.imous letter on the Papal Bull reached New Zealand, we suppose the procession of the pelicans would have soon been superseded by the procession of tlie " host." Lord John's letter has, however, reached New Zealand, and we are not a little curious to sep what effect it will have on the pelicans. For the sake of the Colony, we will not transcribe the account of the absmd mummery to which we have alluded. Many of our readers will no doubt recollect a letter which some time ago spoke of the swampy nature of tiro plains of the Canterbury Settlement, upon which letter parties in the interest of the Association sought tp thiow discredit. The accounts from the colony confirm what was there stated. Now swampy land in NewZealand is no disadvantage, it being invariably, when well drained, fertile in an extraordinary degree. Our object with reference to this, as to all other settlements, has been stiict itnpai tiality, and in the case of the Canterbuiy Settlement we have simply pointed out that if they had devoted more money to roads and drainage, and less to churches and colleges, which should '* grow with the giowth, and strengthen with the strength," of the settlement, it would have been better for all parties. All the bishops and pelicans in the world will never drain a swamp by marching round it in procession ; but the amouut which has been expended for«reating m so small a settlement all the ecclesiastical paraphernalia of a larga cathedral town in England would have diained it, and in no great length of time would have made the agriculturists and stock-feeder's sufficiently wealthy to have erected a cathedral, as well as to support its staff.

The Progress of ABir.RicA.--WQ have just read a few returns of the new American census — of such unusual significance that we doubt whether far-seeing men will not regard them as more interesting than the finest revolution abroad or the foulest murder at home. The American census is not yet complete ; but the returns alieady received point to conclusions tar beyond hope or expectation. Look at New York, for instance. In 1820 it bad a population of 123,000 ; in 1830, 203,000 ; in 1840, 312,000. This rate of increase icas unparalel* led in the history of statistics. But the population is now said to have risen to the astonishing number of 750,000 '. There are but two larger cities in Europe ; in ten years more, at the same rate of progress, it will be larger than Paris. In thirty years from this date New York will, on the same terms, be larger than London. And it must be considered that the commercial capital of America is not fed, like our Manchester and Liverpool, at the expense of tbe country ; its advance is the type of that of an entire continent. In 1810 the population of St. Louis was 1600 j in 1830, 6600 ; in 18-10, 16,400; in 1850, it numbered 90,000 ! So far as (he general nature of the return can be inferred from the data at hand, the population of the Union will be about 25,000,000. From the year 1800, when the number was little more than 5,000,000, to 1840, when it had advanced to 17,000,000, tbe decennial rate of increase was about tliirty- three per cent. This rate would have given for 1850 a population of 22,000,000 only. Material power has been developed equally with population. Great Britain alone excepted, no State in Europe could now maintain equal armaments in the field for any length of time. This marvellous growth is deranging til the old tiaditions of" balance of power." America is not only a first class State — in a few yeais, if no internal disorder shall occur, she will be the greatest of all. Should the 1 8-40-50 rate of increase be maintained for 50 years, the population will then amount to 190,000,000— nearly equal to that of the whole of Continental Euiope ! Were it possible to conceive the same ratio ix.aintain.cd for another fifty years, the census of 1950 would give the astounding number of 1 ,696,000,000.-/1 thenceum. " I am an old fellow," says Cowper in one of hia letteis to Hurd, "but I once had my dancing days as you have now ; yet I could never find that 1 could loam half so much of a woman's character by dancing with her, as by conversing with hpr at home, where X could obseive her behaviour unobserved at the table, at the fire-side, and in all the trjitig circumstances of life. We are all good when we are pleased ; but she is a good woman who wants no fiddle to sweeten her." i There are no less than nine iron steam-vessel*, varying in tonnage, now in couise of constiuction at Birkenhead. One is a paddle steamer lor the Russian government of about 400 tons.