New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, August 17, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 526, 17 August 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, August 17, 1850.

When Lord Grey three years ago entered into that improvident and ill-advised ar- ' rangement by which the New Zealand Company were benefited to the extent of upward^ of a quarter of million of money, he did it on the alleged ground that the colonization of New Zealand would go on more steadily and rapidly through the agency of the Company than by means of the Government, that his prodigal liberality would give such an impulse to immigration to New Zealand as to retrieve the disasters caused by previous errors and more than compensate the settlers for the injuries they had received, an object which he professed to consider even of superior importance to the Company's claims to compensation. The three years have passed away, the money has been spent, but the result has not in any degree answered the expectations formed by Lord Grey or justified his extravagance. The immigration effected by means of the Company during this period has been comparatively unimportant, certainly not in any way commensurate with the pecuniary assistance they have received fiom the Government. But worse than this, the continued existence of the Company has weakened those habits of self-reliance in the settlers which must ever prove the true source of prosperity' to the colony, by exciting in the minds of many vague and delusive expectations of something to be accomplished though their agency for the good of the colony which were destined never to be realized, but which have nevertheless been industriously fostered and kept alive by their interested agents. On accepting the Government of New Zealand Sir George Grey found the colony in a state of embarrassment confusion and distress ; the financial blunders of hi& predecessor have been rectified, peace and order have been restored, but if the results of his measures are not so striking in the rapid development of the resources of the colony, as in South Australia, it is because there were no conflicting claims in that colony of interested speculators in land as at the North, no exclusive privileges or monopoly of land claimed by any Company as in the Southern Province of New Zealand, to paralyze and render abortive any plans he might form for promoting immigration by means of the landfund. This has been the monster grievance of New Zealand — " Like Aaron's rod it swallows all the rest/ and though in the Northern Province there are encouraging symptoms of a revival, the land sales for the last quarter amounting to £1059, there is nothing to hope or expect here until the formal dissolution of the Company and the surrender to the Government of the privileges conferred upon them of the exclusive use of the Crown Lands in this Province shall have allowed the latter to be free to act in rendering these Lands available for the promotion of immigration to this Province. The great want of New Zealand is a renewal of immigration, fresh hands to assist in developing its resources, more capital to give additional activity to its industrial energies. And it is not too much to assert that every increase of the European population gives a fresh stimulus to the labour of the native inhabitants, and consequently contributes to extend the influence of civilization. If it were necessary to adduce proofs of the injurious effects of the Company on the progress or prospects of the colony, compare the state of Nelson at the

period of the stoppage of the Company, the labourers mutinous, and the settlement in absolute distress, with its present state after having been taught to rely on its own resources, not only producing enough for its own consumption but exporting its agricultural produce. Or compare New Zealand with its Land Fund paralyzed and unproductive, through Captain Fitzroy's profuse and improvident grants at the North t and the Company's monopoly in the South, now, after having been established ten years as a colony, still importing flour from its neighbours, with South Australia only four years older, but free from the baneful influence of a land jobbing company, which, after supplying the wants of its own inhabitants now numbering upwards of 54,000 souls, exports grain and flour to the value of £20,737 in one quarter or at the rate of upwards of £80,000 a year. Can there be any doubt that the Company has acted as a drag on the progress of the Colony, paralyzing the exertions of the settlers, who have never yet obtained a legal title to their lands, nor, in many instances, even possession of them, and preventing the Government from acting on any general and systematic plan of immigration with reference to the wants of the whole Colony ? Ours has hitherto been a divided house, and the Colony has, in consequence, suffered all the bitter consequences of these divisions ; but a change is fast approaching ; on the Company's dissolution we shall commence another and a better era ; and there can be little doubt that the three years next ensuing from this epoch will present a striking contrast to the three which have preceded it ; that our relative progress — this impediment to our future career once removed — will be as great, or greater, than that of the neighbouring colonies.

The Auckland papers by the Fairy Queen are chiefly filled with Californian and English news to dates previously received in this settlement, and do not contain any local intelligence. The Land Sales at Auckland for the" Quarter ending June 30, amounted to £1059 9s. 6d. ; the amount of notes of the Colonial Bank of Issue in circulation for the four weeks ending 27th July was £1711, being an increase on the four previous weeks of £402. The Havannah was at Auckland and was shortly to sail for the Islands ; the Government Brig was to sail for Wellington shortly after the Fairy Queen. It is reported Sir George Grey intends paying a visit to the Southern Province in October. The Fairy Qveen has been chartered by the Commissariat to take the invalids and detachments of the 65th and 58th regiments ordered home, and returns to Auckland the end of this month, from whence she will sail with all despatch for England.

Thb body of Mr. Donald Drummond, whose melancholy death by drowning was related in last Saturday's Spectator, was brought from Wairarapa on Thursday ; the funeral took place yesterday and was numerously attended. The bodies of Mr. J. Drummond, the boy and the native have not yet been found.

We understand that the first stone of the new Roman Catholic Church to be erected on Thoradon Flat, will be laid by Bishop Viard on Sunday next (to-morrow.)