PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 617, 2 July 1851, Page 4

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION IN ENGLAND.

[From the Lyttelton Times, June 14.] The accounts which we have received of the proceedings of the Canterbury Association are exceedingly encouraging, as regards the prospects held out of a large and rapid colonization. The whole quantity of land sold up to February 19, was a little more than 17,000 acres, but of this 2,800 acres had been sold in the last seven weeks, and private accounts assure us that there was every appearance of a progressive increase in the sales. One private letter from a member of the Committee says, “If good accounts arrive from the first colonists, I have little doubt that we shall sell within the second year to the amount of the £300,000 we originally dreamed of.” Another says, “The fever for Canterbury rages fiercely throughout the country.” It is proposed to send out at least one ship every month, and during the next summer and autumn a much larger number will sail. The Labuan was laid bn for the 6th of April; and the Dominion, a first-class vessel, for the Bth of May, We have before us the draft of a bill which it was proposed to submit to Parliament during the present sessionthe provisions of which would authorise the Association to -----.foSjag; ——J-"'"’ jL-zay.,", .

make some very important changes in its constitution and powers, with reference, more especially, to the qualification of its members, the disposal of pasturage, the laying out of roads, and the offering of debentures on the security of future land sales. Great preparations appear to be io progress for the establishment of the College on a most extensive scale. The necessaray instructions and funds for the erection of the College buildings are to come out with tne June snips, which will also bring what is called in London the “ Main Body of Colonists.” In looking over the reports given in the Net.- Zealand Journal (which has been revived under a new direction) of the meetings of Canterbury colonists in January and February last, we find that every one of the first fleet of ships had been reported at home, as spoken with by other ships at some period of their passage. The Sir George Seymour had been spoken with off Rio Janeiro on the 21st October, a letter of the same date had also been received from a passenger on board the Randolph. This intelligence will quell any doubts which may have arisen as to the safe conveyance of letters transhipped at sea. The Duke of Newcastle (late Earl of Lincoln) was about to take an active part in the management of the Association. A report had been made to tbe Association by Mr. William Bowler, late superintendent of shipping, and published in the form of a pamphlet, giving full particulars of the first eight ships, including the Duke of Bronte, with regard to their total and individual cost; the profit and loss of each ship ; the number of passengers and emigrants, the average cost per head ; the actual cost per head to the Association, with a variety of other interesting details. We are unable this week to reprint in full, from the report, the tables exhibiting statistics of the several vessels; some general remarks, however, may be made on the subject. It appears that the number of cabin passengers in these ships amounts to 7j- for every 100 tons of shipping, and 24 per cent, on the whole number of emigrants. Of the whole sum expended by the Association in the sending out of these ships, viz., £28,685 :9: 7, more than two-fifths, or £ll,BlB : 2 : 8, were contributed from other sources than the public funds of the settlement, comprising the amounts paid for cabin passages, freight, &c. A comparison is made in the same document between the early proceedings of the New Zealand Company with respect to emigration, and those of the Canterbury Association. From this it appears that the cost per head to the New Zealand Company exceeded £3l s while the outlay of the Association has only been £l6 per head, and the cost to the Canterbury Settlement, after deducting the proportion paid by the emigrants themselves, has only amounted to £l2 per head. It was intended to supply future vessels sailing for this colony with Phillips’ Fire Annihilator, which, by evolving a certain gas, extinguishes fire almost instantaneously. The apparatus for turning salt water into fresh was also to he tried. A gold medal was to be presented to the colonist who should first be successful in introducing fresh water fish into the lakes and rivers of the settlement.