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NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday May MAY 29, 1852.

We are glad to find that the observations which, a short time since, we felt constrained to make upon the gross and unjustifiable attacks in the Otago Witness, by Captain Cargill, on those who were opposed to his views, have not been without their due effect. While their force and justice are acknowledged by the respectable part of that community, the impotent and ludicrous rage exhibited by the "fiery little Scotchman" in the last number of his paper which we have received, shews that he writhes under the merited castigation, and miserably scotches the Queen's English in his attempt to reply to it. This effusion does not call for much notice at our hands, since it is a mere repetition of vulgar coarse abuse of the objects of his former enmity, interspersed with attacks of a similar kind against ourselves. Captain Cargill, in his management of the Witness, appears to consider the only use. of his paper is to- run a muck against all

who are of good report if they happen to differ from him — that, by ceaseless' vitu r peratiori of* respectable settlers or of Government officers, he best discharges his self imposed editorial duties. The previous number (May 8) of the Witness is filled with abuse of the lowest kind of Mr. Valpy one of the most influential and respected settlers at Otago, one who has done more than any other single individual to promote its prosperity, and" who, in fact, is acknowledged to have been the mainstay and support of the settlement. While the Free Church Association were labouring with indifferent success to secure purchasers to give stability to their scheme, and enable them to carry out the engagements they had , entered into, while it was yet a matter of considerable uncertainty from the slow progress that had been made, and the comparatively few sales of land that had been effected, whether the contemplated arrangements of the Free Church Association would ever be realized, in a fortunate hour for them Mr. Valpy determined to become a. settler at Otago, and by the purchase by himself and connections of fifty properties, infused fresh vi- ' gour and confidence in the enterprise. That the Association were duly sensible of this is proved by the fact that Mr. Valpys name was published by them throughout England and Scotland as one 1 of the intending settlers at Otago, and the j knowledge of this circumstance induced I many tobecome purchasers who otherwise would never have ventured in the scheme. We forbear to enlarge on thejudicious and liberal use Mr. Valpy has made of his ample fortune in improving his property at Otago, and in affording employment to the working classes at a time when employment was most needed in that settlement, since it is acknowledged on all hands that but for this judicious and well timed liberality on his part, the position of that settlement would have been extremely critical. Captain Cargill seems to be very angry with Mr. Valpy because he made some observation to the effect that he would be glad to sell some of his land for half what it had cost him. As the nominal existence of the Association is the only pretext for paying Caj>t. Cargill £300 a-year as its Agent, he feels his craft to be- in danger, and labours hard to induce the belief that the rural land in that settlement is worth more than the upset price of £2 per acre. What he can know of the nature or value of land in any of the rural districts in Otago it would be difficult to conceive, seeing he has never but twice extended his visits five miles beyond the limits of Dunedin, and his diurnal walks are for the most part limited to pacing the public jetty — but whatever he may venture to assert to the contrary, it is notorious at Otago that the Agent of the Association has never sold a single Rural section of fifty acres since the settlement has been established, that the highest price of a rural unchosen land order ever known to be realised there is Fifty Pounds, while the average price has been from £25 to £40. The fact is that the fate of these class settlements is sealed ; while purchasers will be found in aa umbers for the land at Otago, as in any other settlement in the Southern Province, at its fair market price, no one feels disposed to pay in addition to that price the sum levied "by the Association to support its peculiar and exclusive tenets ; and the settlement in consequence languishes, while the land remains unoccupied. In support of this statement we have only to refer to the memorial recently,, received from Otago (to which we<tfiferred some time since) signed byloi&e hundred and forty of the most respectable and influential settlers, including six Justices of the Peace, and nearly all the most considerable land owners. This memorial is in effect the same as that which was signed by nearly eight hundred settlers in this settlement. The memorialists deeply sensible from daily experience of the injuries they suffer from the existence of the Association, pray that the Settlement may be included in one uniform system of management of the Crown Lands, and may enjoy the benefits of Sir George Grey's liberal Pastoral Regulations. These facts cannot but occur to Captain Cargill as he daily paces the Otago Jetty, he must by this] time be fully convinced of the rottenness pf the system he attempts to uphold, of . the . precariousness of the tenure by which he receives his £300 a-

year ; of the absolute want of st conscience and fixed principles" he exhibits in rejeeiving so large a salary from the revenue of the settlement, for which he absolutely does nothing, and therefore we suppose he mumbles something about contemplating the virtue of resignation, just as a well bred dog is observed to walk out when he perceives unmistakeable preparations for kicking him ou,t. In the meantime, if he be really consistent Captain Cargill cannot find a fitteftime in which to expatiate on the "nuisance and burdensome tax" to the settlers of Otago of paying him £300 a-year for his daily walk on the jetty of Dunedin, which seems to be his chief occupation "when not occupied in writing scurrilous articles for the Otago Witness.

Last Tuesday's Government Gazette contains a Proclamation by the Governor enforcing the provisions of the Raupo Ordinance and Dog Nuisance Ordinance within the towns of Lyttelton and Christchurch, and the Cattle Trespass Amendment Ordinance within the limits of Lyttelton ; a Notice by the RegistrarGeneral.of the Rev. D. Dolamore, Baptist minister, of Nelson, and the Rev. W. Dron, of the Free Church of Scotland, at the Hutt, having been enrolled officiating ministers under the Marriage and Registration Ordinances ; a notice of the scale of poundage charges, and charges for trespass of cattle at Christchurch ; and returns of immigration and emigration at Akaroa and Otago : nett amount of immigration at Akaroa during 1851, 52 persons j amount of immigration -at Akaroa for the March quarter, 1852, 4 persons ; do. at Otago, 11 persons.

On Thursday a great number of persons went off to the Black Dog for the purpose of gratifying their curiosity by seeing the whale which was caught in the harbour on Monday. The operation of cutting up was performed on Thursday, so that those who had never visited a whaling station were able to form some idea of the process of cutting up, trying out, &c, which follows on the capture of one of these monsters of the deep. Dr. Ralph was on board the Black Bog on Thursday for the purpose of pursuing some scientific inquiries connected with the anatomy of the whale, the interesting results of whjich the public may benefit by at the ensuing Lecture at the Athenaeum on Thursday evening.

The following petition to the House of Commons from the settlers at Ahuriri, against the late Act of Parliament, and in favor of Sir George Grey's Pastoral Regulations, praying also that that district may be exempted from the operation of any laws or regulations having reference to the settlement of the New Zealand Company's affairs, was received in Wellington too late to be forwarded by the Midlothian. The petition was unanimously adopted by the settlers in that rising district, and we have great pleasure in publishing it, as adding to the strength of the protests already recorded against the Act of Parliament, and as affording additional proof of the strong feeling which prevails through all parts of the Southern Province in favor of the adjustment of the land question, as proposed by the Legislative Council, and of his Excellency's liberal Pastoral Regulations : — To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, the humble Petition of the undersigned Inabitants of the settlement of Ahuriri, in the district of Hawke's Bay, in the colony of New Zealand, Sheweth, That in consequence of an Ordinance passed in the sittings of the Legislative Council held at Wellington, in July 1851, termed an Ordinance for the issue of Depasturing Licenses outside the boundaries of Proclaimed Hundreds, your petitioners were induced by the protection and encouragement therein afforded them to settle upon land lately purchased by the Colonial Government from the Natives under leases of 14 years, subject to certain conditions of a reasonable nature, case the land, or the buildings erected : {hereon, should at any time during such leased^ required by the Government, and your petitioners have further proceeded to lay outjirid embark considerable capital in itock, which is now placed upon the lands ik this district, and has only been done at great Expense and risk, arising from the nature of the country to be passed through being wholly new and previously unoccupied, devoid of roads, and in many parts of a broken and mountainous character, and in others intersected by deep and dangerous rivers ; but these obstacles "have at length been overcome after much loss of time and labour, and instructions for the importation of further stock have been sent to the colonies of New South Wales and Van DiemenV Land. , ~ That in the midst of such exertions, your petitioners have heard with dismay and alarm that all protection lor their present and future labours has been entirely withdrawn from them, and the ordinance of the Legislative Council above-named been rendered null and void by an act passed by your honourable House, dated the 7th August, 1851, by which' the lands at present occupied are to be held on yearly leases only, and no compensation whatever is to be allowed for any capital laid out and expended in homesteads and other buildings absolutely required, all of which absorb and require the expenditure of large sums of money. That it is therefore with sincere regret your petitioners beg most respectfully to solicit the 'attention of your honourable House to their present condition, which if not remedied,- will render it necessary for» them to abandon their operations, as their interests and prospects are thus completely destroyed by the insecurityand uncertainty in which they are placed. Your petitioners also beg to state that the land they have entered upon was never possessed, or held, or claimed, in any manner whatever by the New Zealand Conipany, but that it is, part of a land purchase made of the natives by his Excellency the Governor-in- Chief, situated two hundred miles distant from Wellington, of considerable "extent, and entirely without the jurisdiction or territory of the aforesaid Company.

Under these circumstances, your" petitioners earnestly pray that your, Honorable House will be pleased to permit the Ordinance of the Legislative Council relating to Pastoral "Regulations to be carried*out, to' exempt the district in wjbich your petitioners- have settled from any question connected with the affairs of the New Zealand Company, or any laws your Honorable House may please to pass having reference to them ; "so that the prosperity and progress of this part of the colony of New Zealand may not be checked or impeded, and the operations of the colonists be destroyed and abandcned, as they inevitably must be if security for property and labour is thus withdrawn, and risk and uncertainty be added to the other difficulties, numerous as they are, which your Petitioners have now to suffer and to overcome. Your Petitioners entreat your Honourable House to relieve this new and distant yet important district, never in the possession of the New Zealand Company, from any laws, or regulations, passed by the Company for the settlement of their affairs. And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. &c. Sigued — E. S. Curling, Alfred Chapman, F. Chapman, George Rich, Alex. Alexander, D. Gollan, 3; W. Harris, W. Villers, J. B. M'Kain, F. S. Abbott, Jobi/Davis Canning," C. H. L. Pelichet, C. Canning.

We have received Nelson Examiners to the 1 5th inst., but they contain little local news. A company is advertised to be formed for the purpose of purchasing and working the coal mines recently discovered in Massacre Bay , under the title of the " Pakawau Coal and , Mining Association,"- the capital to be £3,150 in three thousand shares of £1 Is. each. The most important intelligence received from Nelson by this opportunity is the information of the discovery of a rich vein of copper ore at the source of the southernmost branch of the Maitai stream, within a very short distance of the Town. The ore has been found on Crown land, and an application has been made by some Nelson, settlers for a lease of the land with the view of turning the discovery to profitable account. A meeting of -members of the Church of England was held in Christ's Church School Room, Nelson, on the lath inst., to consider the question of a Church Constitution, the Rev. H. Butt in the chair, when the following resolutions were unanimously adopted :—: — Proposed by Major Richmond, seconded by D. Sinclair, Esq. : — L That it is extremely desirable that some form of Constitution, (or the government of the branch of the Church of England in New Zealand, should be established with as little delay as possible. Proposed by J. W. Saxton; Esq., seconded by G. F. Bush, Esq. :— 2. That all adult members of the Church of England, resident in this settlement, be invited to enrol themselves as such. Moved by J. D. Greenwood, Esq., seconded by Mr. Travers :—: — 3. That the aduf,t' members so enrolling their names be invited to pay a subscription of per quarter, and that all such subscribers shall annually appoint a Committee from their own numbers, to determine to what specific purposes connected with the Church, and in whu proportion the funds they subscribe shall be applied. An amendment was moved to this resolution by Mr. Borldington, seconded by Major Richmond, that the blank be filled up with the word's " three shillings," which was carried by a very v large majority. Proposed by Captain Blundell, seconded, by. A. Fell, Esq.:— 4. That *uch committee shall be authorised to receive subscriptions for church purposes from any persons wishing to subscribe, either generally for church purposes, or for some specific object connected with the welfare of the Church of England. Moved by Captain Walmsley, seconded by Captain Fearon : — 5. That a provisional committee of five, in conjunction with the clergymen of the settlement, be now appointed, and be authorized to correspond with the members of the Church of England in the other settlements of New Zealand, and invite their co-operation — to report proceedings from time to time — to call meetings of the members of the Ctiurch — to receive subscriptions — and generally to further the objects of this meeting : and that Messrs. Seymour, Blundell, Saxton, Greenwood, and Richardson do form such committee, with power to ad 1 to their number.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZSCSG18520529.2.3

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 712, 29 May 1852, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,654

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday May MAY 29, 1852. New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 712, 29 May 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday May MAY 29, 1852. New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 712, 29 May 1852, Page 2

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