LYTTELTON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 571, 22 January 1851, Page 3

LYTTELTON.

We have received by the Henry a copy of the first number of the Lyttelton Times, published at Lyttelton January 11th, within fourteen days after the arrival of the vessel containing the types and materials of the printing establishment from which the paper was issued. We have very great pleasure in welcoming our new contemporary to the scene of his labours, —and in acknowledging the care and taste exhibited in the general arrangement of his Journal, and the energy and activity shown in the early publication of this its first number. The Lyttelton Times is in size a quarto of eight pages containing three columns in each page. The first article contains an account of the voyages of the first four ships which we may take another opportunity of noticing ; in his address to his readers the editor enters into an explanation of the principles on which the Lyttelton I imes will be conducted, professes to be wholly independent of the Canterbury Association, to recognize no allegiance to the council of Colonists or to any set or cotene, and expresses an anxious wish that the Lyttelton Times may be regarded as the organ of the settlement. After a further profession of his political faith, he describes the proposed general arrane’ement of hi s Journal, and his intention of occasionally inserting in the Times lithographic drawings representing such objects as will prove most interesting’ to the friends of the colony. Our extracts are from the " Journal of the week,” which it must be confessed has proved a very busy one.

The settlers were in some alarm at the prospect of having to pay, on their first landing, import duties on their personal goods and implements, and addressed the Governor-in-Chief, to request that the Customs officers might receive instructions to place the most favourable construction upon the laws of the colony. His Excellency promptly acceded to their request, and the Private Secretary is “further directed to express the pleasure it affords the Governor to have met them upon their first arrival in this country, where it will be a source of great gratification to him at all times to promote their interests so far as may be in his power.”

The Lyttelton Times adds—- “ It is quite unnecessary to add that his Excellency’s prompt and friendly raterference has w ° n J 1 ! 1 ? feelings of the colonists. All diiiicuities about customs were set at rest, and the goods of the colonists have been landed free, upon the signature of a declaration that they were for private and personal use only.” A long report follows of a meeting of Land Purchasers to consider the expediency of an immediate selection of land, the determination of the proper site of the capital town, and other objects of pressing local interest, in the course, of which the following resolution proposed by Mr. Fitzgerald and seconded by the Hon. J. Stuart Wortley was unanimously adopted :— “ That the Council be requested to communicate the cordial thanks of the colonists to Capt. Thomas, the chief surveyor of the Association, for his conduct e f the undertaking until the arrival of'Nir. Godiey in the ■ colony, and the warm admiration with which jhey have seen the various works which

he has accomplished under circumstances of great and peculiar difficulty.” The Bishop of New Zealand' attended a meeting of the Colonists on the 7th instant, and conferred with them on church matters. He expressed his intention of returning to Lyttelton in three weeks, and directed the attention of the meeting to the verv limited incomes guaranteed to the clergy, and hoped the colonists would by some voluntary additional aid make up, until the endowment should increase, a sufficient income. “ Hi« lordship concluded by expressing the warm sympathy he felt for the colonists ; his belief in their fair prospects of success, and the great pleasure he experienced in ascertaining the highly religious tone of feeling by which they appeared to be actuated, and in wishing them every prosperity in their undertaking.” The following extracts are from the column of Home News :—

The landing of goods and passengers immediately commenced, and has rapidly proceeded. The Charlotte Jane discharged and sailed for Sydney in three weeks. The Randolph in two days more. The harbour has been found excellent as regards safety for shipping. The only fault is the swell caused by the sea breeze, which renders it sometimes inconvenient for boats to lie alongide the ships ; but the rapidity with which the ships ' have been discharged proves that this diffi- ! culty is but slight, and it is certain that hea- j vier sea breezes have blown during the past | month than are at all usual.—Above 500 of j the emigrants and some of the cabin passen- I gers found good accommodation in the bar- i racks, and a week’s rations were served out ; to the former. Houses rapidly began to I spring up ; every kind of habitation reared its head, from the iron store to the turf cabin, ■ or even blanket tent. With a population of eleven hundred souls the town is as quiet as an English, village. The weather has been perfect,—a brilliant sun which neither scorches nor oppresses. Lyttelton itself, however, is too hot and too dusty for a pleasant abode. And of all those who have been to the plains, not one has come back who does not say that that is the place to live. Some were discontented with Lyttelton ; all were in raptures with the plains. The anxiety to go to the plains became great, aod thnnrrh for somS-days the strong sea breezes made the oar impassable, boats are now passing and repassing frequently and with ease. The freight to Christchurch has been high, more than thirty shillings a ton, but the arrival of boats and boatmen from the other settlements will probably lower it. Of the road we shall have to speak hereafter, but even when that is finished most heav/ goods will be sent by 31 PT c »-I)onrn Q c K a a o S C2f C v o ritv n /tzu very high. Carpenters get as much as a shilling an hour; but this is partly owing to the fact, that all the labour brought out in the ships is not yet in the market, the people being occupied in making their own houses.— 1 revisions are, for a new colony, very cheap. 1 he slight rise on the increase of population in a day. from 300 to 1100, has been very remarkable : meat is only sd. per lb., bread 7d. the 21b. loaf. —Water is scarce above ground, but wells always give ’an abundant ; supply. During half the year’ mountain j streams will supply a large town. —The im- ■ mediate choosing of the town acre sections | has been a most important and useful mea- ‘ sure. The quarter acre chosen for the coli lege, which was No. 1, has let for £lOO ; a-year already, and land along Norwich Quay lis letting for 15s. a foot frontage. An ex- ' cellent family hotel is to be built immediately opposite the jetty.—Of the five cows landed from the ships, three have died, Mr. Brittan’s by falling over the cliff, Mr. Fitzgerald’s and Mr. Phillips' by eating tutu. All these are a great loss to the colony, especially the two former, which were pure Durham cows. Mr. Fitzgerald’s was from Mr. Bland’s farm in Surrey, and had won prizes both as a calf and as a cow.—lt is impossible to take too much care in landing cattle at this place. To beasts just out of a ship, the tutu, of which there is abundance here, is certainly fatal.”