THE OTAGO ASSOCIATION.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 684, 3 November 1852, Page 3

THE OTAGO ASSOCIATION.

[Ftom Hie " Wellington Spccutoi," Srpt. 18,] We mentioned in a previous number that the last Blue Book contained a correspondence with the Otago Association. This correspondence consists chiefly of a report duly prepared ior the puvpo.se, of a meeiing got up on the occasion ot Mr. Valpys being offered a sent by tiie Governor in the last Legislative Council, and publiihcd in Captain Cargill's paper, when the latter afleeted to exhibit a show of reluctance, a " coy reluctant amorous delay" in taking the chair on that occasion. The management of the whole affair is so well understood at Otago that we need not refer to it further: the truth seems to be partially known or suspected by the Committee of the Association, who in their letter addressed to C.iptain Cargill, in reference to these proceedings, "hint a fault and hesitate dislike" at the course pursued. They think "it would not have been advisable to go so far as to request" the person who had been offered a seat in Council " not to accept the Governor's nomination" and deprecate any further opposition at the present conjuncture " when if a law shall not have been already passed conferring powers ol local legislation by representatives, the most important business of the existing Legislative Council will relate to the framing and passing of such a measure, which, be it observed, can only be done by the Impcrinl Government, or by the Governor, with the ad dee of his Lcjtslotim Council, as at present constituted." The Association saw that the Governor after much and careful deliberation had framed the draft of the Provincial Councils Ordinance, that he had circulated copies of it through the different setlk'mente of New Zealand with a view^ to ascertain the sentiments, and elict the opinions of the settlers on the measure. He had in efluct said Si quid novisu roctius i«ti«, Candidus impem; si non, his utere mecum. But instead of meeting the Governor in this spirit, instead of fairly and temperately stating objections if any existed, and cordially co-opera-ting with him in framing the measure, or attempting to improve it, which as is properly observed can only be done by the imperial Parliament or by the Governor with the advice of his Legislative Council as at present constituted, a factious opposition was raised which could only have the effect of injuring the settlement by (browing impediments in the way of legislation, and of lowering it by such proceedings in the estimation of impartial unprejudiced persons. A long homily on econo/ny on the Government expenditure by Mr. M'Glashan follows, a fit prelude to a modest request by Sir James Forest on the part of the Association that the Government would appoint, "as a great born to the settlers!" Capt. Cargill to be Governor, and Mr. M'Glashan Secretary of the New Province of Otago. In other words, the Association being about to break up, wishes to provide for ifs servants and has no objection to perpetrate a job in their favour at the expense of tiie settlers, — by quartering them on the public. That the Otago Association is a sham and delusion like its piedecessor the New Zealand Company, that it i-5 like the Canterbury Association an admitted failiue, is so evident as to require no demonstration. The scheme of religious class settlements, as propounded in New Zealand, like the Socialist organization of labour, has been fairly b. ought to a rcdnctio ad absurdum. The Aosociado.i in its correspondence with (he Government ea i lefer to no s.ilos of land ,is evidence | of its vitality, or of the confidence of the public in the scheme ; the ostensible object of the corresponds cc is to obtain a loan from Government to be spent on the roads, the real motivo sec-ms to be a desire to quarter its servants Captain Cargili and Mr. M'Gl.ishan, for whom it has nothing to do, on the beti lenient before the Association is defunct. That tlie atcempt to bolster up the peculiar features of (his srhemo by domnmjirtg £2 per acre is scouted in the settlement is proved 1 y the fact, to which we some time since adverted, that the Ageni< of the Association ha^nevor §old a single rural section of 50 acres since the settle lHsnt has been established, and lhat those 6etflers uliJ have paid in the mother country £'100 for fifty acies of rural land at Otago, are glad to get .£45, which Captain Cat gill acknowledges to be " the average market price in the settlement " This great reduction in price any plain man of

business would coiisidur to be a serious lo«*s ; not so C.io.'.iin C.u»ill, he triumphantly refers to the fact in' his paper as a proof " that land ha> risen in value at Olaoo ;'' „i..l though it would not be clear to CookeiCit is clear to Captain Car "fill that the reason why rural sections which cost X'loo are sold for X' 4.5 is— we quote his own words — " becmse lucy can be sold at that price uid yield a profit." 13y parity of, reasoning he mn.y prove (o M* own satisfaction (hat, his receiwng .£3OO a- i"U for doing nothing is i g.ilii to the settlement. But wc'aie grant ly mu-taken if this nuisance will be i.iuch longer tolerated, it is hardly possible that in the establishment of the new Constitution Captain Cargill's mischievous and expensive {.income can be continued. The great majoiily of tno magistrates, all the ministeis ot' religion save the minister of the Free Churchy the members of Ihe other professions, and a decided majority of the large landowners anrfslockowners storekeepers and shopkeepers are all against the continuation of the scheme, and desire that the same uniformity of management in the Crown lands which obtains in ,the older settlements should be extended to Otago. The objectionable Free Church tax on the consciences and purses of their neighbours must be given up, the land must, be sold at a reasonable price, and Captain Cargill's useless siueeiu-e must be abolished ; for though it would be hard indeed on the settlers to pay him for doing nothing, it would be harder still to niaiu^iin him, as they do as present, while his only employment, when not pacing the Otago jetty, is throwing dirt, at his neighbours, by the continual publication in the? columns of the Otago Wi'iias of scurrilous attack^ on those gentlemen who {\o not belong to the " family compact, 1 ] or do not hap, ,cu to look upon him as an infallible oracle.