NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, September 10, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 846, 10 September 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, September 10, 1853.

" Non ponebat enim rumorem ante salutem, Ergo, postque, magisque viri nunc gloria claret." EnnH'S. The dinner given to his Excellency the Governor on Wednesday evening, a full account of which will be found in our present number, is a sufficient and satisfactory proof, if any were required, of the high estimation in which he is deservedly held by the settlers. So great a number of persons never before sat down in Wellington to an entertainment of a similar kind ; the largest room in the place was completely filled,and if a larger could have been obtained it would have been inadequate to contain all who desired to be present on such an occasion . 0 nesentiment animated the whole assembly, a sincere desire to testify to his Excellency the respect and regard in which he is held by them; they wished to show, especially the old settlers, — those who were witnesses of, and sufferers from the dangers and the distress which existed in the colonyat the period of his Excellency's arrival,butwhicharenow happily matters of tradition to more recent comers — their grateful appreciation of that liberal and comprehensive policy, so wisely conceived, so perseveringly carried out,, which has wrought all these changes, which has produced suoh permanent and beneficial results. But his Excellency has not stopped here ; having regard to the best interests of the Province, he has placed its future progress and prosperity on the most solid basis by the reduction in the price of land, and by using his acknowledged influence with the natives for the purchase from them of important and extensive districts. The control over the waste lands,& the management of the revenue arising from the sale of these lands, which has been given to the colonists, would practically have been of secondary importance, but for these purchases. Now, by means of them large funds will be provided for internal improvements, means will be found for immigration. Within the last few days some hundreds of thousand acres have been purchased by his Excellency, and an eager disposition exists on the part of the natives to submit their claims to his decision, from a conviction that they will meet with the fullest consideration. The revenue arising from the sale of these lands is peculiarly the property of the labouring classes, since one-half of the proceeds wily 1 provide an emigration fund, by the help of which and by assisted passages they can

\>iing td New Zealand their friends and relations who may wish to join them, while the remainder, devoted to purposes t)f internal improvement, will ensure them 'certain employment on their arrival in the colony, and will lessen the amount of taxation which otherwise would be levied to provide funds for making improvements. Let them carefully look to it and see that this property^ which Sir George has made such personal eiertions to secure for them before his departure tod which, so to speak, may be regarded as the patrimony he has left them, is prudently and wisely administered by those whom they have elected ; that no improvidence or mismanagement deprive them of the full enjoyment of those benefits, the commemoration of which was the chief occasion of Wednesday's entertainment.