CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times, December 19.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 504, 1 June 1850, Page 3

CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times, December 19.]

After a very pleasant walk we arrived at the farm of some Scotch settlers, whose hospitality we are not the first travellers who have reason to acknowledge. As I understand that they have furnished Mr. Thomas with a detailed report of the agricultural capabilities of this district, I need not repeat the information of a similar kind which I obtained from them in the course of conversation. It may be enough to say that mutton, " flourishing with Homeric fat," and juicy apples, and foaming jugs of milk, verified all that I have ever read of the - plenty and contentment of the pastoral and bucolic life- The quails which started up every moment under our feet, completed the picture of patriarchal abundance, needing only the true manna of God's blessing to fulfil every promise which He ever made to His chosen people to the happy settlers who-may hereafter occupy this fair land in the spirit of simplicity and faith. All other persons I would advise to go to California or any other place where the prospect of wealth may be more inviting. What we have to offer ought to be enough — a land flowing literally with milk and honey, where nie*i eat bread to the full. It is possible that in former letters I have expressed an unfavourable opinion of Port Cooper and its district. If I have done so, it was under the impression that the district had been thoroughly examined by Colonel Wakefield and the Company's surveyors ; and that Otakou had been deliberately preferre I, though 150 miles further to the south. As I had seen Otakou, I did not think that

any inferior place could be eligible for so large a settlement tis that which is projected by the Canterbury Association. But I have since heard that Port Cooper was very superficially examined by the former surveying party ; and as my opinion was founded chiefly upon the fact of their preference of Otakou, I readily acknowledge my error, after a personal inspection, the result of which has left a most favourable impression upon my mind. Captain Stokes, I hear, has given a similar opinion, after a much more careful examination. You are 9 body which ought and will be able to dispense with all trickery and gambling. In the first place, it is a pare delusion to talk of founding a colony at once. It is a very pretty analogy to think of Minerva coming forth full armed out of the head of Jupiter ; but in most cases, when you come to look for your Minerva, you will find nothing but her owl. Neither your heads nor the settlers can afford to be so trepanned. A more wasteful system could not be devised than that of congregating large bodies of settlers at once upon the same spot, requiring at once exactly the same supplies, and tempted by their discomforts and their necessities to acquiesce in ' the most extortionate prices for everything ' that they buy. If a settler has to pay £100 for a house worth only £50, it is a clear loss to the community, especially as the money generally goes to some other settlement, from which the supplies must, in the first instance, be derived. Even if the settlers supplied their own labourers, yet all prices would rise to the excessive point at which artizans almost invariably take to drinking, and then the money , would go to the publican, who would most likely be some experienced vintner from Sydney. A flight of such harpies is always found ready waiting for the new arrivals. The loss .which is sustained by a new community from the excessive price of all the necessaries of life is incalculable. My advice, therefore, is, form as large a plan as you please, but carry it out gradually and cautiously. Let each section settle itself before the next arrives, that it may be a help instead of a hinderance to the new comers. An interval of at least a year 'would secure this, and would enable each detachment to arrive at such a time as to have the summer before it, which is a point of great importance in a wet climate. On the orgauizatiou of these sections I would suggest that the arrangement should not be merely numerical, but 'local and topo- ' graphical. Let a good leader, like a queen bee, undertake to form the township of Oxford, or Stratford, or Mandeville, or wfrafc you will, and secure a right good clergyman and schoolmaster as the first step. Then, as in the old Roman armies, legit virum vir ; let all the Oxford men send in their names to their own leader, with recommendations of good, hardworking, honest, and sober labourers for the free emigrants. Let no man be recommended except through an actual emigrant landholder. No man will recommend a scoundrel or a drunkard to be hi 3 own fellowpassenger on board ship, or his next door neighbour in the colony. But Poor Law guardians, and even clergymen, will often send a worthless fellow to a colony, as physicians send incurable patients to the south of France, only to get rid of them. . When the Oxford leader is able to announce that land is bought at Oxford to a sufficient amount to yield an endowment for a clergyman, and to build a church and school, then let due notice be given to the agent in -New Zealand, that on the Ist day of November, 185 — - or thereabouts, he may expect the Oxonians. If possible, a bishop will be there to me.et and receive them, and accompany them at once to their own place, where a pretty wooden spire will be already built, and visible far over the plain, to guide them to the house of God, where they may offer up their thanksgiving for their successful voyage. There they ought to find a store of building timber and firewood already laid in, at fixed but not extortionate prices, and will be able to settle themselves in peace, and be ready to give a helping hand on reasonable terms to the flight of Stratfordites, who will arrive about the same time on the following year. A B I have said much on this point to Captain » * * * Thomas, because it is arithmetically evident * * * • that if AB C D be the territory of the * * * * Canterbury Associa-tion,one-tenth of which * * * * is sold in the first year to settlers having an unrestricted right of Ox- I IStrat- choice over the f whole ford } j ford block, the dispersion of C D the first settlers will at once cause the necessity of the full number of clergymen to be felt, when only l-10th of the whole Endowment Fund will have been raised. Thus, some of the highest and best hopes of the settlers, in consideration of which they will have paid so large a price for their land, will be bitterly disappointed. But if

no emigrants are allowed to come oat till the township which they have selected is complete, the Endowment Fund will exactly keep pace with the need of clergymen, and all the stipulated conditions will be fulfilled. When I speak of a township being complete, I do not mean that all the land should be sold. Every township will require surplus land for common in the first instance, and afterwards for extension. With regard to extension, nothing can be well more certain to involve a maximum of expense and a minimum of good, than the present system of colonisation, which makes emigration almost ignominous. Once pauperize emigration, and every emigrant must be paid for in full. You must give free passages at first to set things in motion, and if you were to found a Minerva colony, you must give free passages to all your labouring emigrants. But the objects to be aimed at are these — 1. To supply the colony with a sufficiency of labour. ' 2. To take care that the supply shall always bear a due proportion to the demand. 3. To supply that labour at the least cost to the emigration fund. To secure these objects many ingenious i calculations have been made, with about as much effect as the numeration which we used to practice on our brass buttons at school, allotting to each its due title of soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy, or thief. That all these elements do enter into the composition of all societies cannot be doubted, but no chemistry of the Emigration Commissioners will ever discover before hand in what proportions they must be mixed to form a healthy community. But all these things will find their own simple aad' natural adjustment, if neither the tinker nor the apothecafy be employed. Colonies will work well if they are let alone. When your Oxford section has taken up its ground, they will soon find out their own wants. A blacksmith will be found to have been left out, and every one will'be crying out for some one to 1 mend his plough. " Why I have a cousin (that is just the man we want," some one will say ; " Could we not get him out to help us ?" " I will give £1 to his passage, and he can pay me in work." "I will give another." l " May be the association will go halves in the expenses." " Write and ask." The next year out comes the Oxford blacksmith at half iprice. "Which is the way to Oxford?" '''Where you see that spire out yonder." " But went you stay in the emigration barirack till you hear whether you can get work ?" " What do I want of an emigration barrack ? Is* it not bad enough to have been shut up in a ship ? I know Mr. Goodfellow ; he is my ' cousin ; he will put me up till I can get a place for myself." The above is a true description of what is going on every day in a thriving colony. One man has more food than he knows what to do with, and he wishes for some poor relation to come and help him to eat it ; another remembers some- country lass, whom he did not dare to ask to marry him when he had nothing to offer her ; a tradesman has business on his hand, and wants a youth to keep his books ; a mechanic has more work than he can do, and would be glad of a mate. All these know exactly the sort of person that is wanted, and will not send for him unless he can be well employed. Demand and supply represent one another by the simplest and most natural adjustment, and at the cheapest rate of expense. All this is killed by the pauperising and pauperised system of free passages, given generally to relieve the workhouses. The poor rate will be equally relieved in either case, for the removal of labourers of a higher class will enable many an able-bodied pauper to recover his position. Industry (except in the case of confirmed habits of vice) will be in proportion to the certainty of profitable employment. No matter whether you send us the good or the bad, the mother country will equally lelieved. If you send none, all will become bad from the superfluity of labour ; if you send the ■ best, your bad will become better at home, for they are bad chiefly from the uncertainty of employment ; and though even the worst often become steady men in the colon j, yet surely it is more reasonable to pay for the emigration o.f a good man than of a bad one. But of all the causes which ruin emigrants, the worst is the sending out men without fiiends or connexions in the colony, to herd together in emigration barracks, and clamour to Government for the wages of idleness as sturdy paupers, till they have lost all favour with the settlers, and have imbibed in return a rooted dislike to the country and its inhabitants. The next great point is, that I advise you most strongly to give up, for the present at least, all the usual trickery of town acres ; I mean at the central or port towns, for the country towns will not much excite the mania of speculation. In Port Cooper this seems to be more especially 1 necessary, because a few lucky purchasers, engrossing the whole of the email quantity of available land. near, the an- ,

chorage, will have it in their power to put the public to the greatest inconvenience. The defects also of Christ Church are so great that I would not advise you to put it in the power of any body of purchasers to demand a great outlay of the public money to give them a better access to their town land. The plain is the great point of Port Cooper. A good road over ,'the hills and a few public stores on the beach, where goods can be warehoused by the Association at paid charges, and a small quantity of land to let to retail storekeepers, will enable the settlers to begin their operations. The' excess of mercantile speculation is a cause of great loss to a new community. It seems to be much easier to buy and sell than to dig and plough, and half the population become shopkeepers as if by magic, the gentry .dignifying 1 (their employmentiby thenameofstorekeeping. ! You would suppose that "slops," rice and su,gar were the spontaneous produce of the soil,' and that men believed that they could grow ,rich by merely exchanging one with another j the fruits of the labour of .others, without iworking far themselves. Of course, what is easy to all will be done by too many, and therefore will be profitable to very few. And , thus the country, with its mine of wealth is robbed of the industry which would have made it profitable, and the town, like a great lazy tumour, drains and wastes the resources of the body without contributing anything in return. My advice is, plant the country, and let the town grow itself. Let the course and progress of the colony show wh&n, where, aad by whom, stores,* manufactories, &c, ought to be established. * When the need is shewn by a demand, town land can be sold or let with a privilege of purchase, and the actual merchant will then become the proprietor, instead of having to buy or rent his land on exhorbitant terms from the absentee owner, who has pre-occupied the Ibest position for business. To pass en to the higher and most important branches of your plan : the provision for education and religion. The example of the China bishopric is a warning how long good plans may be delayed, if you wait till the Endowment Fund be complete. The American system seems to be the best. Have a bishop at all events. It is not at all certain that you will get a better man for £1,000 than for £100 a-year. Such matters are no question of money. Let him get his money as he can for a time — whether as a warden of the college or as a parish priest ; till the growth of endowments and the increase of duties lead naturally to a sub-division of labour. A colonial bishop in a new colony cannot at first be fully occupied with the duties of his office. If he confines himself to them he may grow an idle man, without knowing why. But in the practical working, as well as superintending institutions not strictly wiibin his own duties, he will find the means of keeping up that habitual energy which his own office will require before many years are past. If you can find a bishop of all work, he ought to be the first clergyman to land in New Zealand. Your plan would seem to infer the necessity of the bishop being the last of the clerical body. I hope that you will fiad it possible to make him the first. The same principle applies to the college. Begin at onee — if you can find a man to reflect what Oxford was when Alfred's students read almost illegible MSS. by the light of paper lanterns. We are still far from Tennyson's " perpetual afternoon of literature, dreamy, armchairy, dressing-gowny." The academic life of a colony is to work when you must and to read when you can. It is a practical example of Horace's wager with his bailiff, which could do most in clearing land or extirpating error. Every year that you delay the beginning, it will be more difficult to begin at all. A full grown college cannot be exported at once, for you cannot expect to bring at once Minerva's body, much less her wisdom. Mark out a good extent of land, and put up a wooden building; people are very tolerant, and will call it " the college," and why should they not, when even an infirmary for sick horses may enjoy that name ? By degrees the plan would be developed under active and judicious management ; teachers and pupils will flow in ; subscriptions and legacies will increase ; and the only fear will be, that the corporate body will become too rich, and that wealth will lead to luxury, and luxury to laziness, and laziness to contempt. Beyond the first striking a key note, I would advise you to hurry nothing. Send out a very few men, and wait patiently until you can obtain others. The mere name of a college, with a good but insufficient body, is far better than a full staff of incapables. In the former case every kind of upright principle may be established from the first, and gradually developed in practice as assistance is obtained ; but in the latter, when good men are found at length, they will have to work up agaiust a host of evil habits and false principles, which will have been bequeathed to them by theit predecessors. The public will have formed their own idea <?£ a collegiate institution from

the corrupt model which they have seen in operation t and will look upon its errors with that kind of prescriptive dotaga with which a college cherishes its privilege of ignorance. The new comers, like the Dauphin's fresh oysters, will be better in reality, but they will be less relished than the stale. This danger of hurry has led me to remonstrate against the limitation of time proposed by the New Zealand Company. On no account consent to any such restriction. It will be a continual stimulus goading on to something premature, as the Company itself has been hurried on by its own purchasers into selling land before it was surveyed, and even before it was bought. Remember Lord Eldon's maxim, "Sat cito, si sat bene;" and though you travel now by steam, instead of the **heavy Salisbury," remember that such a luxurious locomotive has not yet found its place in ,New Zealand. Now, then, I suppose you begin with the map of the great Southern plain stretched before you. You have seen Captain Thomas' report, and perhaps the very soil of the several townships which I advised him to sand in boxes to be analysed in England. A goodly number of stanch * * •are collected round your committee table ; all men of some substance, and above all of much piety. The Bishop's letter is read pro Jormd as a regulator and drag chain of the undue velocity of immigrant imaginations in haste to be rich or happy. The meeting begin to calculate — £3 an acre is a large sum to give for land, and one acre will only feed four sheep ; their wool will weigh about twelve pounds ; and we shall be lucky to get from 7d. to 9d. per pound from the merchants at Port Cooper, so that the clear profits cannot well be more than 6d. per pound, or 6s. for the acre, that is just 10 per cent, on our purchase money. Well, so long as we can live and bring up our families we have no wish to make fortunes. In fact, the school, the church, and clergyman, are the true interest for the outlay, and not the produce of the land or the increase of flocks and herds ; for this profit has found its limits in the Australian colonies by an excess of all the necessaries of life, and by reducing nine-tenths of the settlers to be their own tallow chandlers. Who is for Oxford ? Who is for Mandeville 1 Who is for Stratford ? is the cry of the trusty * * or conductors, who are plying for passengersUo their respective townships. "A fine country, Sir." ''Church spires as thick as in Lincolnshire ; schools in every village." "No fear <rf tivo ckilctam breaking their necks in birdsnes'ting." " F-ine country for u hardy man that can do without fire/ "Town acres Jlet by the season for quail-shooting." "Mutton so fat that the sailors of .the Acheron could not eat it." "Did you never taste a Port Cooper cheese? The best cheese in the world, next to Stilton." Such will be some of the various "prbtretics" which the * * , each according to his own fancy, will glean from our reports. But some grave old gentleman in the corner will call out — " My good friends, let me advise you not to go out expecting to find everything to your miud ; but trusting that, by God's blessing upon the colonizing energies of the Anglo-Saxon race, you w.ill find the means of solid comfort, in the only form in which it it can give you true pleasure — as the reward of honest industry, and in answer to prayer. You will see spires and school-houses springing up in all places, for money will do that; but money will not make faithful preachers or fruitful hearers. Money will not make children obey their parents or keep the commandments of God. From the veiy first, you must haVe a social compact one with another ; the Oxford leader with the Oxford clergyman; the Mandeville leader with the Mandeville clergyman ; and all the leaders and all the clergymen with all their bands of labouring men and settlers, that they will all go out to found, so far as God may be with them, a Christian colony ; that they must agree to support one another— ' like people, like priest,' — in every good and holy usage of their mother church ; and as they will leave their native country amidst the prayers and blessings of all whose names are already written on the land of their adoption, so their course of devotion must be carried on, on shipboard with their own loved and chosen chaplain, till they see their own bishop, or one who will be to them as their own, standing on the beach to welcome them on their arrival ; that their first act may be prayer and thanksgiving, and that the first building into which they enter may be the house of God."