SIR GEORGE GREY AND SIR W. FOX. THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 432, 28 December 1889, Page 6

SIR GEORGE GREY AND SIR W. FOX. THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

In our leading columns today we refer to the series of papers which Sir William Fox is contributing toour morning contemporary upon the granting of representative institutions to New Zealand. In his third paper, on Saturday, Sir William Fox remarks :— " Had the struggle been to be fought out between the colonists on one side and Sir George Grey and the Colonial Office on the other, there is little doubt that ho would have cot the best of it. But there were growing up one or two considerable forces in the old country which gave the colonists what they had never had before to any great degree, the opportunity of influencing the public mind, and that of leading statesmen not under the influence of the Colonial Office. One of these was the Canterbury Asßociation, whose headquarters were in London, and whose directory comprised many leading members of both Houses of Parliament and other active and influential politicians." Really Sir William Fox must have unbounded confidence in the prevailing ignorance of the public on the subject of New Zealand history, or he would never have ventured to depict the Canterbury Association as champions of popular rights. It is quite true that Sir Goorge Grey resisted the demands of the Canterbury Association, as he opposed the schemes of the New Zoaland Company, of which Sir William Fox was for some time the agent. It was, indeed, precisely the endeavours of this big land-jobbing concern to get the Government of the colony into its, own hands for the purpose of grasping the lands of the country, which for a long period delayed the granting of representative institutions to New Zealand. But the merits of that quarrel, and the question whether Sir George Grey or the Canterbury Association was the representative of popular rights, can best be determined by an honest reproduction of the records o£ the time. The following report of a speech delivered by Sir George Grey before the Legislative Council at Wellington on the 18bh of June, I§sl, will throw some light upon the subject. We reprint it verbatim et liberatim from the " New Zealand Spectator" (Wellington), of the 21st June, 1851 : " Sir George Grey said that any information on this subject in the possession of the Government, rested, he believed, solely on his own personal knowledge. All he knew regarding it was that the agent of the Canterbury Association had read to him the draft of a letter, in whichj as far as he remembered, was a recommendation thac an application should be made for an extension of the block of land which was to be subject to disposal under the peculiar rules of that settlement;. He had, however, heard rumours on the same subject from other sources. As far as he was informed of the intentions of the Home Government and Parliament, he believed that they were in no way desirous that thia 'particular mode of disposing of lands should be forced upon the inhabitants of this country. In fact, they were solely desirous of promoting the welfaro of the inhabitants of New Zealand, and of consulting, in as far as practicable, their wishes. It therefore was the duty of, those persons who disliked the portion of the Islands they lived near being subjected to such regulations, to state their objections to them. The points which appeared to require. attention were these: — A district containing nearly three millions of acres, including within its boundaries, Bank's Peninsula, and embracing one of the most fertile diHtricbs in New Zealand, which contained also — before the present regulations were established — many persons of a< different faith from that' of the Church of England, was placed under the control of the Canterbury Association ; and then regulations were made, an important feature of, which was thabuntil three million's of pounds were paid for the purposes of the Church of England, the whole ' of that district could not be used, as their necessities required,' by civilised' man, nor t could; any part of ib >be used for these purposes -« until the proportionate part of ,the three? millions of pounds, which was dueiunder^these,regulation a upon that.part, w,as f paid ,'over for the I purposes of, the .Church, of England, Even for depasturing purposes the land could not be ÜBed under the present" regulations, except at a rate which, calculating that a hundred •acres would feed thirty sheep, "required a payment of nearly =2d perj head per annum for the , same purposes. ,-Nbw, as he understood from rumours, it was intended to ask that) a further block of porhapi 3,000,000 or

'4,000,000 jof" /aptfts efiou'lfl b> plah'e'd iunder | the same _ .regulations, _so that the case would then be, tnat before tho f whole fof this block could 'be used, I ' seven millions, pi^ pounds must be paid for the purposes of the Church of England, and no part of 'it»could be used' until the proportionate'amount due on thab portion had been ao > paid.' This -appeared to involve questions worthy the consideration of all classes in- New Zealand, as the power of the humbler classes to acquire properties for their families' was involved in it, the amount of produce of the country was involved in it, and the 1 extent and value of the commerce greatly depended on ife. The only argument he had ever heard used in defence's of this arrangement was thab Great Britain had done much for Now Zealand, arid therefore had a right to make such regulations for the disposal of its lands as were for tho benofit of the population of the whole empire. This argument he admitted in its fullest extent, but he could not consider it for the benefit of the mother country that one of the most fertile portions of the empire should bo closed by such restrictions, which, in as far as he undorsbood them, placed obstacles in tho way of industrious men raising themselves from a state of want, by the use of lands which in their wild state were usoless to mankind. As a churchman, he viewed this attempt with the utmost alarm, although on this subject he spoke with great diffidence, as he had the highest reliance upon tho judgment of many members of tho Association';' indeed, two right reverend prelates belonging bo that Association were his intimate friends ; yet it did nob appear to him, at the time that so largo a portion of the population of Great Uritain were in such distress, to be in accordance with any rule of Christianity thab the poor of the earth should havo closod against them, by such rostrictionrf, so large a tract of fertile country which a bounteous Providence had placed ut the disposal of the human race. ' It did not appear to him to be in i accordance with the principle that those I who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel, because it wrung contributions to a church from thoso who were nob friendly to that ohurch, but whose absoluto necessities compelled them to buy land necessary for their operations : and because it made the clergy, in the early stagos of the fccheme, dependent for their support, not upon their flocks, nob upon' the members of the church, but solely upon the amount of land to be sold ; so that, almost involuntarily, men might be led to aid in the sale of lands— a duty foreign to their calling. He thought, therefore, that this system of obtaining an endowment was objectionable, whilst he thought the endowment itself far too large, and likely ultimately bo introduce habits of sloth and negligence into the Church, and thus to be injurious to its own welfare. He would far rather have seen the virtuous and industrious, who could find no place ab Home, encouraged to occupy such a country upon terms which would have enabled them easily to acquire homes for themselves and their families, and readily to develop the resources of the country, and to have seen a busy, active clergy, by aebs of kindness and Christian virtue, gaining from tho membors of their own church in that fertile district a love and gratitude | which would roadily have yielded ample endowments for all their wants. He feared the present system would injuro the Church ; it led men incautiously, even in the publications issued under the authority of the Association, to hold out the clergy a3 a feature of attractiveness, and even to use such language in support of what is termed the religious principle, as that ' the merest land speculator has an interest in the Canterbury bishopric' He thought that such arguments, whilst they might gain endowments for the Church, must injure the very religion they were meant to support. Ib bherefore behoved those who objected to having the lands in their vicinity placed under such regulations to stale bheir views upon bhe subject." •• Auckland Star."

The recent returns from the Royal Oak, Corotnanctel, winch caused a rapid advanco in tho value of shares, appear to have been fully justified, a dividend of 2s per share having been declared payable on Monday next, the 23rd inst., up bill which date the books of the Company will be closed. At the meeting of the New Prince Imperial Gold-mining Company, after we wont to pre&a yesterday^ Mr Spratteaid he had recently visited the mine. An amount of dead work had been done in opening up a block from No. 2 towards No. 3 level, which would give 110 to 120 fepfc of backs. Tho tributers were getting really firstclass returns and 17 loads crushed for the Company had returned about one ounce and a quarter per load. He thought they would get good crushing dirt oub of tho block which was now being: oponed. Mr MacDonnell said that tho mine had not looked so well for some time past. Besides, they might very possibly come upon gold in sinking tho win/e. By the end of the year they should havo about £200 in hand. TheChairmon moved the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, which was carried. On the motion of Mr Reid the retiring directors were re-elected. Mr Menzies was also appointed auditor lor the ensuing year.— Auckland Star, Dec. 20. Miss Nellie Farren says :--" What do I think of ladies smoking ? Why, I think it's simply beastly. I can't think how they do it. If I had had time I would have written to the paper and said go. What do women want with tobacco? They talk about it being necessary to women who work with their heads, but that's all nonsen&ei They do ib because they think it attracts men. Well, they're welcome to the men it attracts. I don'b want 'em. I've worked- as hard as any woman, head and, body, and I never wanted it. The only time I ever smoked was because I had to in my stage business. Itwas in a piececalled *Our Clerks,' in which I played with Mr Toole years ago. Mr Toole had to play at > being ill, and everybody eaid how wonderfully clever ib was. If they'd known how I had to play at being well, with that horrible cigar in my mouth, they'd have thought it a good deal cleverer, Oh, what I suffered ! I have never smoked off, the stage — not even a whiff of anything. Idpn't mind men smoking. It looks natural in them, and they seem to like it, though how they can is a mystery to me. For women to smoke is simply disgusting." 1 Mr D. Goldie, M.H.R., recently forwarded to Wellington a specimen of the grape vine which was attacked by phylloxera in Mr Scott's vinery at Mount Eden, with a suggestion that the Government should take action with the view of having other vineries"' inspected and the' pest eradicated. Mr Goldie has now received a reply to the effect that his letter re grape vines has been forwarded to Dr. Hector for his report.: This afternoon Mr Goldie received the s following; telegram from Dr. Hector :— The Government., wish _a, specimen of the ,re- , ported phylloxera examined by Mr Maskell. Kindly eend all stages of insect if possible, and affected leaves, twjgs and > roots.— 3. :%P£-.- ,-i ..,„'- , „j „ n General Sir .Archibald Alison has boen j appointed Governor of Malta. " ' > ' ' | General Booth's wife ia dying of cancer.