cORRESPONDENCE

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 364, 19 April 1861, Page 3

cORRESPONDENCE

To the Editor of the Colonist.

Sir—Having no means of making my ideas known upon political subjects save the columns of the press, 1 have to beg your insertion of the following suggestions which perhaps may not be thought undeserving of notice by ' the powers that be,* in their deliberations upon the subject. First. That a census of the native population, distinguishing the several tribes, be framed. Second. A survey and register of the block or parcel of land claimed by each tribe. Third. A detailed statement of the quantity of land claimed by individuals or families in right of occupation as distinguished from any right oyer the uncultivated land as held in communism, showing in what way individual or family occupations are dealt with upon the demise of the head of the family, or individual occupier or owner. Fourth. A detai!edV|tatement of the various tenures by which the lands are held, and in what cases the consent ot the whole of the members of the tribe is necessary to justify the alienation of the same, and whether the consent of the women —either single, or married, or widows, is necessary to complete such alienation. Fifth. The number of each tribe and the gross quantity of land belonging to tho same being ascertained, that an estimate should be made of the probable extent of land which each tribe would require for their permanent occupation and future subsistence.

Sixth, That the surplus remaining should, under arrangements with the natives, be ceded to the Governor upon the payment of such a proportion of the purchase money as the lands from time to time may realise, or in a fixed sum to be paid by yearly instalments. Seventh. After this arrangement shall have been completed, that, at the request of the natives, thenreserves shall be subdivided according to their several and respective claims; and that they should be invited to take up Crown Grants for their individual portions, and thereby be considered as having acknowledged themselves subject to British law, and from that time entitled to the privileges of British citizens, as contradistinguished from mere subjects.

Eight. That before the native reserves are finally set out, the main lines of roads through the couutry should be marked out, keeping in view the probability of their being in a great degree superseded by trunk lines of railway. Ninth. The seventh proposition might be carried out by provisions similar to local acts for dividing, allotting, and inclosing commons, open fields, and commonable land in England, The expenses to be borne by the sale of the waste lands, or by the sale of a certain portion of the same in each separate <UstncG. r

Tenth. That it would be desirable, in cases where natives have claims on the lands distant from their settled place of occupation, that a monied compensation should be paid for the same. Such are some of the ideas that have suggested themselves to my mind upon this subject. 1 throw them out for the consideration of those who may have the opportunity of giving weight to their own; and should they afford any assistance to • those who may be selected to carry out the Government arrangements, my sole object will have been answered. As regards the carrying out the seventh proposal, I doubt whether such a person as would come under the denomination of a Commissioner of Inclosure Acts at home, is to be found among the European settlers. It is a very important branch of land surveying and valuing; and should the plan I have suggested, or anything approaching to it, be decided upon, it would justify the importation of a competent man for the undertaking. SENEX ALBUS.

lo the Editor of the Colonist. Sir—lf you will spare me an odd corner occasionally in your paper, (which appears to me to be so liberally thrown open to the discussion of every topic bearing on the general welfare of mankind) I will endeavor to drop a few reflections into the " Editor's Box" that may possibly beguile your readers into a train of thought, perhaps not altogether profitless at this particular juncture in our Colonial history. We hear much about " the progress of the race,' 1 which, after al), is much dependent on the progress of the individual. What sort of improvement does the progress of Time absolutely ensure ? Some human things, at all events, Time does definitely supersede j and it is not unprofitable to note as months and years pass, what sort of things are inevitably rendered obsolete by the mere passage of time—and what on the other hand, require the utmost force of human effort to keep in any kind of temporary abeyance or suppression, and entirely decline to become really obsolete at all. The mere passage of Time has no tendency to change the relation of good and evil. Mere civilisation only improves the tools with which men fight the old fight, substituting new and quicker and more effective methods for the old and tedious manoeuvring of the ancient foes. All slow processes aro conducted more and more quickly, as time plods on. He is constantly seeing more and more in proportion to the expenditure of his own peisonal life—buying in a cheaper and cheaper market of human change. Evil ferments more rapidly; good spreads its leaven more rapidly through the social mass. All mere machinery, moral and physical, becomes more efficient. Science and experience (which are the only things that necessarily grow with history) save Time, and teach short cuts to every end, be it good or bad. The contest is accelerated, the issue is closer, the combatants different; but the conflict is the same.

It is no small help to any nation to have a true and luminous insight into the character of its own duty, and the "signs of the times"—to conceive of these as comprehensively and accurately, as it feels them strongly. It is owing to an inattention or meagre conception of a hard task at the outset, that faithless discouragement, hesitation, irrational impatience, panic, arrogant triumph, or an uujnst use of success, or a fear of not obtaining it—in short, all the fitful emotions of men who, when the issue come?, not "see what they foresaw," because they have all along been playing at a game of chance—follow so frequently in the steps of a noble enterprise. Every one who contributes to an untroubled and full conception of what we are about to do—its obligations and its practical corollaries to each one of us as members of society, contributes all that the intellect can contribute to the great undertaking of creating a nation, and making a p«ople even at the antipodes of our once much loved home—England. It is a hard task to reduce a theory of any kind, and no hostile theorising ever effects it. But as a strong fort, if taken at all is usually taken by some assault quite against " the rules," so a fixed idea of prejudice is often best reduced by some informal, vehement storming party of urgent practical duties, which offer no opportunities for theoretic fence, but thrust their naked authority, by sheer force upon the mind. There is the irresistible power and clear faith with which the present hour presents its own practical individual duty, and this power gains the victory. " Progress of the race," and so forth, are certain results of the mere age of the human race, only so far as they denote the accumulation of knowledge and resource. But knowledge is, after all, only power, and, like gunpowder, a power equally effective, whether it leads the mind of the evil or the.^ood; the issue is hastened, but no bias necessarily given to either side. Especially as years go on does that particular machinery which draws closer, social ties tend to grow more efficient; and this too puts power equally into the hands of the evil and the good. Social influences are vastly increased ; all influences, beneficial or injurious the influences one receives, and the influences one gives out—all are to a wonderful i.xtent augmented with every passing year. It is in this that the human race changes most. Individual faithfulness and unfaithfulness to what light there is, has probably not varied so much from century to century. But the race is more of a race, the individuals of it are less able to be separate and isolated characters with almost every year. Think only of the twenty-seven hundred years between the two great historical sieges—and the time is not so .long relatively to the probable duration of the human race on the earth—how far more social space there was between man and man then, how far more room for each to grow alone in than now ! The meeting on the field of Troy was almost the first national experiment, made by the Greeks, of living together—the first focus of unusual social heat ;—from which, however, they soon diverged again, each hero to wander home over a comparatively deserted earth. The solitude of their adventurous returns did almost more to make them feel like isolated pilgrims, than their temporary union had done to draw them into one social mass. But to our Iliad there wili be no Odyssey. Social dispersion is become almost an impossibility. The troubled state of things, and the existing war, brings many strangers into the colony, and will doubtless turn the attention of the European race to so desirable a country for colonisation when the present unhappy quarrel is satisfactorily settled. Peace wili bring with it a populated colony, together with social influences as strict as those which our friends at Home are living under. 1 will resume the subject in my next. Yours, «fee, DELTA.