FOUNDERS OF THE COLONY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4429, 31 May 1875, Page 3

FOUNDERS OF THE COLONY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIME 3. Sm —Mr Howard Wallace having finally put forth his plan for rewarding the early settlers, which still leaves it undecided at what date he proposes to draw the lino of exclusion from any bonus to be given to those who arrived before the date, I crave room for the following rough draft prospectus of a plan, differing in its main conditions from Mr. Wallace s. and for which I claim the merit of being at least definite, and founded on some equitable principle. Both proposals will thus have been submitted to the public before the meeting, which Mr. Wallace has called for the 17th of June, being the thirty-second anniversary of the Wairau Massacre— whether designedly or not does not appear from his public statements. I regret that the hour he has named—2 p.m.—will prevent working men from attending. A subsequent evening one will be absolutely necessary.—l am, &c., E. Jerningiiam Wakefield. General Assembly Library, May 28.

ROUGH PROSPECTUS. It Is proposed to form a society at Wellington, with branches throughout New Zealand, and agencies in England, Australia, &c., whose object shall be to secure the substantial recognition, by a grant of public land, of the services rendered to the colony by all persons who have migrated into it, from whatever part of the world, by becoming colonists without causing any charge upon the land or other revenue of the colony by such immigration. , The General Assembly has already, at the instigation of the present Government, enacted a law by which the above reward was offered to a portion of the persons so benefiting the colony after the arbitrary date of the passing of that law, viz., The Immigrants' Land Act 1873, passed on the 2nd October in that year. The following is the substance of that measure , ._ . _ Every person between the ages of eighteen ana sixty, arriving in New Zealand after that date, from any place except any of the Australasian colonies, who shall have paid the cost of his passage, is entitled to a free grant of public land to the value of £2O, together with £2O in addition for every member of his family whose passage is also paid, fourteen years old and upwards, and £lO for every one less than fourteen years old, on condition of occupation of the land by himself'or some member of his family continuously for two years. The details need not be given here. Persons who came to the colony at their own cost before October 2, 1873, naturally claim a similar reward. They even assert the right to a higher claim, on the ground that they founded the colony with little help beyond their own development of its resources, while the new grantees came to a colony already founded, and in the development of which large sums of borrowed money were being spent: and that they came without any such inducement; whereas, with a few exceptions trifling in number (consisting of immigrants leaving their former residences between the passing of the Act here and its publication there}, the new grantees will have been attracted by the promised reward. , . ~ There are some other classes of immigrants, both before and after the date in question, to whom the Act does not do equal justice. 1. Descendants of immigrants before the date, whose passage was not paid for at all, but whose parents have paid the cost of their education without charge upon the land or other revenue of the colony, upon which immigration is fairly chargeable, viz., loans for that purpose, since their birth in it. it seems obvious that in these cases the boon to the colony is as great as if the passage, instead of the education and maintenance of the children, had been paid for. t . .. . 2. Immigrants at their own cost from the Australasian colonies, whether before or after the date. The special exclusion is unjust, invidious, and inexpedient. Of course the cost of passage from those colonies is not now equal in amount per head to that from other countries ; but at the time when many of the founders of the colony came from Australasia to swell the ranks of their fellow colonists from elsewhere, the cost of passage from Australasia, to say nothing of its comparative danger to life and property, and personal discomfort, was fully equal to that of immigration from the farthest portion of the globe now-a-days. A distinction may therefore be drawn between two divisions of this class its early members receiving the same reward as colonists from England or elsewhere now, and the later ones a reward for the accession of themselves and families, proportioned to the lesser cost of modern transport. 3. Immigrants both before and after the date, the cost of whose passage, although not defrayed by themselves, was so paid as not to cause any charge on the funds of the colony legitimately chargeable with the cost of immigration—namely, either territorial revenue or loans for immigration purposes. Among these would be included such as " worked their passage” to the colony, whether as soldiers, sailors of the naval or mercantile marine, or in any other capacity; because if they did not pay the cost of their passages with money they did with labor or some other consideration.

The above represent the main features of the supplementary legislation necessary to do equal justice to other persons than those entitled to claim a reward from the colony for becoming inhabitants of it, under the provisions of the Immigrants Land Act, 1873. It is possible that some other cases might be found of equal merit with the above; but the recognition of such could only be a matter of comparatively trifling importance in quantity of land, and of mere detail in consideration.

It is, therefore, proposed that the society to be formed shall endeavor to procure the passing of a Founders’ Land Act, securing grants of land to claimants under the above conditions.

One more provision remains to be noticed. Many of such claimants most entitled to the boon are probably in such good circumstances as not to be in need of it. There might, therefore, in order not to raise any invidious distinction, be inserted provisions for the establishment of an incorporated trust or guild, in whom the land granted to claimants of the wealthy class might be vested, for purposes in connection with the foundation of the colony: such for instance as the collection and publication of historical archives relating to that event, with perhaps a museum for the reception of the original manuscripts or old publications now out of print, and a gallery of statues, busts, and portraits of leading founders, as well as paintings, prints, and drawings commemorative of the colony's early history. To encourage donations of grantees to this object, founders’ land given to it should be relieved from the condition of occupation attached to private grants ; by which means also the trustees would be enabled to deal with the estate so formed without any restriction which raight-pre-vent its being used in the manner most productive of revenue to the establishment.