NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 18, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 822, 18 June 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 18, 1853.

The British Colonization of New Zealand was the heroic work in which the founders of this Settlement and the pioneers of the many thousands who have made the Colony their home, were fond of boasting that they had been engaged. To people New Zealand was once our glory; shall it suddenly be turned to shame ? We allude of course to the proposal for introducing- Chinese slaves, which to the amazement of the settlers appears to have taken a definite shape > and to receive the support of the respectable merchants whose names are appended to the advertisement we published on Wednesday. It is just when a liberal Constitution and a wise reduction in the price of land afford, for the first time in our short history, the greatest inducements to the immigration of English' colonists of the upper as well as .the labouring classes, that a scheme is propounded which if carried out would . make any one that had dreamt of coming to this country, avoid it as he would avoid .the foulest pestilence, and drive every family away that could leave: it is " just when the character of New Zealand • and of her population stands -highest in the neighbouring colonies, that we would commit an act that would most deservedly forfeit eveiy good opinion that had been formed of us. We are asked to contribute towards importing into this country, bound by stiingent contracts . into a state of wretched servitude hardly " a remove from direct slavery, crowds of men of another race ; and instead of colonization "by Englishmen and Chris- * tians, we are to flood New Zealand with the heathen dregs of Chinese seaports. It would be bad enough, and sad enough, if the people were in themselves inoffensive and harmless, to exchange the English colonist for a barbarian serf; but who has still to learn the character of the race, their desperate vices, and the utter hopelepsness of improvement among them by a knowledge of our language and laws ? The experiment has been tried in Aus-

tralia, and in every journal there may be found its lamentable results; and yet with this warning before them, there are men mad enough, we had almost said criminal enough, to wish to inflict the same curse upon us, and to pollute the quiet homes of New Zealand by the crimes of the most abandoned of mankind. For what are these Chinese, that we should seek for any of them here ? Sunk in the lowest pagan idolatry, taking pleasure and wallowing by habit in vices at which humanity shudders, and of which it is a shame even to speak, they would bring into this country all the worst horrors of transportation, and where they congregated would form a community compared to which Norfolk Island was pious and moral. Think too of the aboriginal race of this country, brought into contact with the celestials; think of missionary labour thrown away, of all efforts for the amelioration of the native tribes made futile; above all (for why refrain from referring to this ?) think of letting loose thousands of men among a race | where the numbers of the sexes are ■■ already so disproportionate ; and of the inevitable bloodshed and strife ! Is it possible that the Canterbury pilgrims, the founders of the most moral and religious settlement, are the eager promoters of such a scheme ? that into a settlement under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury and half the prelates of England heathen slaves are to be shovelled one of the deliberate conditions being, that they are to return heathens to their country in a few years, and a chief inducement and subject of congratulation that it is happily impossible to convert them to Christianity, or even to teach them the alphabet ? Verily, this is Church Colonisation with a vengeance ! But if the Canterbury settlers can reconcile it to themselves to people their country in this way, we yet look with confident hope to the first leaders and pioneers of British civilization in New Zealand notto share in the proceeding. As for the commercial adventure which the merchants who signed the advertisement are about to enter into, we cordially approve of it, and think credit due for the enterprise evinced ; but without alluding further at present to the origin from which the other part of the scheme is understood to spring, we can only say we hope that the gentlemen to whom we refer will think more seriously before they inflict in earnest such a desperate blow on their adopted country, anji assist in the attempt irrecoverably to throw away her good name.

By a notice from the Resident Magistrate in last Wednesday's Government Gazette, it will be seen that the Writ for the Election of the Superintendent of this Province was issued List week; the 2nd of July is appoi^ed for the nomination r of candidates, and the 16 th instant, in the event of a poll being de manded, for the election. The Writs for the of the Superintendents of the other Provinces have also been issued, and will be forwarded to the respective returning officers by the first favourable opportunity.

We have been requested by Mr. Masters to publish, for general information, the following reply to the Memorial from the Wellington Settlers relating to the Proclamation containing the Land Regulations, and in favor of cheap land. Civil Secretary's Office, Wellington, Bth June, 1853. Sir, — I am directed by his Excellency Sir George Grey to request that you will have the goodness to inform the gentlemen who signed the memorial, which you transmitted to tbe Governor on the subject of the Proclamation containing the Land Regulations, that it is a source of great satisiaction to his Excellency to find that these gentlemen regard tbe regulations as being calculated to confer the greatest benefit upon the whole colony, as well as upon themselves. In-framing these regulations his Excellency earnestly endeavoured to exercise the powers which had been entrusted to him in such a manner as was best calculated to promote the welfare of her Majesty's subjects in these islands, and bis Excellency can only hope that he has succeeded io attaining this object, I have the honor to be, sir, Your most obedient servant, Alfred Domett, Civil Secretary. J. Masters, Esquire, Lambtoo Quay, Wellington.