by the Association for Founding the Settlement of Canterbury in New Zealand

“ Not one among the children of the peerage, who, having no well-defined sphere of duty at home, yet feeling himself to be a minister of Divine Providence, a steward of creation, a servant of the great family of God, would be content to exchange inglorious ease for the honourable toil of building up God's church in a distant wilderness, and of perpetuating a noble name and lineage in a new world? ”

“ His reward is not to be of that vulgar sort which a man can put in the bank, lay out at interest, invest in the soil, or pile up in cellars and barns; but the mutual affection of a colonial family. That Selwyn himself and his devoted company have obtained their reward, and are content with it, we cannot doubt; nor do we doubt that the spirit he breathes around him, and which the character of the new settlement is calculated to promote, will render 'Canterbury' a congenial and agreeable home even to more ordinary men. ”

“ Of course, what is easy to all will be done by too many, and therefore will be profitable to very few. And thus the country, with its mine of wealth, is robbed of the industry which would have made it profitable, and the town, like a great lazy tumour, drains and wastes the resources of the body without contributing anything in return. My advice is, plant the country, and let the town grow of itself. Let the course and progress of the colony show when, where, and by whom, stores, manufactories, &c., ought to be established. ”

“ It must, we are sure, be unnecessary to tell the man, who has finally decided on the momentous step of changing his home and country for another and far distant land, how many and varied are the subjects of vital importance which press on his attention, demanding his most serious consideration, and on the best solution and happiest mode of doing which may greatly depend his own individual comfort and future success—indeed, that also of the whole settlement—for out of the aggregate of individual successes or failures will spring more or less the failure or success of the entire undertaking. ”

“ It is, then, with agreeable surprise that we find the Canterbury Settlement an actual topographical division of New Zealand, consisting of a fertile plain as large as Yorkshire; wherein we see ports and cities laid out, some extent of country surveyed, fat mutton produced—too fat for the fastidious crew of the Acheron, and Homer, Horace, and Tennyson quoted in a region where men, thirty years ago, were roasting and eating one another. The Roman poet knew by the light of genius that all nations would one day learn his deathless verses ”

“ They ask them to combine; and offer them as the premium for so doing, not palaces, damask, plate, crystal, and a pompous array of menials, but a splendid country, a magnificent climate, a stake in the soil, a comfortable home, a position in a nation, full occupation for their time and talent, a certainty of something for their children, and the joint at eating-house prices as long as they live. ”

“ Money will not make children obey their parents, or keep the commandments of God. From the very first, you must have a social compact one with another; the Oxford leader with the Oxford clergyman; and the Mandeville leader with the Mandeville clergyman; and all the leaders, and all the clergymen, with all their bands of labouring men and settlers, that they all go out to found, so far as God may be with them, a Christian colony; that they must agree to support one another—'like people, like priest'—in every good and holy usage of their mother church ”

“ You know, of course, that the general feature of the country is a succession of abrupt and lofty hills, with corresponding deep and secluded valleys, either thickly wooded or clothed with a thick fern and long grass, offering all kinds of obstacles both for pastoral and agricultural purposes; indeed, it is often heart-breaking to see the land that people have settled down on, and the struggle and privation that must be endured before it can be turned to account. ”

“ On the one hand, the Colonies no longer press their suit upon the country with whispering humbleness, as children in their nonage, but as emancipated sons they prefer their claims with manly plainness of speech; and they say that unless we lend them a patient ear, they must needs take that as of right which is not granted as of favour. On the other hand, the excessive population of these islands, pent up within the limits of a mere speck of the universe, yearns after an outlet in which to exercise its energies and hardihood. ”

“ The Church of England is pre-eminently a mixed and tolerant community. Its formularies harbour a vast variety of opinions, and even inspire a constant divergence of sentiment. As sure as there are Dissenters in England, there will also be Dissenters in the Canterbury Settlement; nay, when the Bishop stipulates for a careful selection of 'good, hardworking, honest, and sober labourers,' in too many English parishes he would compel the selector to take those who are more independent than simple in their faith. Freedom goes with intellect, and self-confidence with energy. ”

“ I was forcibly struck with the bleak and savage appearance of its chain of mountains covered with eternal snow, as viewed from the sea, and contrasted with the real amenity of its climate, and fertility of the soil near the coast. I am inclined to believe that the capabilities of this Island for purposes of agriculture have been much underrated, to say nothing of its splendid harbours and mineralogical productions.'—Ibid. ”

“ The great ends of colonization, in such a case, are answered. The mother country derives benefit, and the colonist enjoys happiness.
'We have, indeed, hardly an option in this matter. The tide of emigration is rolling on year after year, and we have no power, had we the wish, to stop it. Men will fly from starvation to the uttermost ends of the earth; and from our villages and towns thousands after thousands find their way to the seaports, knowing and caring little where or how they go, provided only they are taken away from a country which refuses to support them in honest industry. ”

“ The almost heroic bishop of that country, (Dr. Selwyn, whose devotedness can find its equal only in primitive ages,) in a recently published letter, [10] has represented the natural features of the proposed Settlement as presenting 'a picture, which needs only the true manna of God's blessing to fulfil every promise which he ever made to his chosen people, to the happy settlers who may hereafter occupy this fair land in the spirit of simplicity and faith.'
It remains for the Church to be the angel of that true manna. She can assume the sacred embassy if she will. The will alone is wanting. ”

“ Neither your heads nor the settlers can afford to be so trepanned. A more wasteful system could not be devised than that of congregating large bodies of settlers at once upon the same spot, requiring at once exactly the same supplies, and tempted by their discomforts and their necessities to acquiesce in the most extortionate prices for everything that they buy. If a settler has to pay 100l. for a house worth only 50l., it is a clear loss to the community, especially as the money generally goes to some other settlement, from which the supplies must, in the first instance, be derived. ”

“ A colonial bishop in a new colony cannot at first be fully occupied with the duties of his office. If he confines himself to them, he may grow an idle man, without knowing why. But in the practical working, as well as superintending institutions not strictly within his own duties, he will find the means of keeping up that habitual energy which his own office will require before many years are past. If you can find a bishop of all work, he ought to be the first clergyman to land in New Zealand. ”

“ It is perceived, then, that adequate provision for man's moral and religious wants in the new country, contains the primary element of successful colonization, not only on account of the importance of such provision per se, but also because thereby alone can a really valuable class of men be induced to join in the foundation and settlement of colonies. ”

“ After the land shall have been well cleared, fenced, and cultivated for two or three years, it may be laid down for several years into pasture, to which the soil and climate are so well adapted: the land, thus treated, instead of one sheep to four or five acres, which is the common power of unimproved natural pasture in Australia, will maintain about four sheep per acre throughout the year, with no more dread of being overstocked in an arid summer, as in Australia, than in an inclement winter, as in Europe and America ”

“ The sympathies of society are yet to be enlisted in its behalf; unreasonable prejudices require to be removed; a knowledge of it to be generally diffused. The clergy must undertake this duty if they would gain the co-operation of the laity; for this is clear beyond a doubt, that when a matter of public usefulness or public beneficence is fairly brought under the consideration of the laity of England, they enter upon it cheerfully, and with munificence, as men in earnest working for an end and anxious to reach it. A colonizing clergy, without a colonizing laity, is but a poor instrument. ”

“ It seems to be so much easier to buy and sell than to dig and plough, that half the population become shopkeepers as if by magic, the gentry dignifying their employment by the name of storekeeping. You would suppose that 'slops,' rice, and sugar were the spontaneous produce of the soil, and that men believed that they could grow rich by merely exchanging one with another the fruits of the labours of others, without working for themselves. ”

“ The colonist who occupies himself with agriculture can work all day; and the mechanic will not feel any lassitude, whether he works in or out of doors.
From all this, I draw the conclusion that, as regards climate, no country is better suited for a colony of the Anglo-Saxon race than New Zealand: and were this its only recommendation, it would still deserve our utmost attention as the future seat of European civilization and institutions in the Southern Hemisphere. ”

“ It is conceived by the promoters of the settlement now contemplated, that the present time is one peculiarly fitted for bringing the plan before the public. Extraordinary changes are taking place in the political and social system of Europe; the future is dark and troubled; "men's hearts are failing them for fear;" and many persons who have been deterred hitherto by dread of change from entering upon the new career afforded by colonization, will now probably be impelled into it by the same motive acting in a different direction. ”

“ It is humiliating to reflect on the contrast which modern colonizing operations have exhibited; most of our emigrations have been composed almost entirely of one class, and that class the one which is least able to take care of itself, as regards the preservation of all the higher elements of civilization. Driven from their mother country by the difficulty of obtaining subsistence, they found themselves in the British colonies strangers in a strange land. ”

“ But some grave old gentleman in the corner will call out—'My good friends, let me advise you not to go out expecting to find everything to your mind; but trusting that, by God's blessing upon the colonizing energies of the Anglo-Saxon race, you will find the means of solid comfort in the only form in which it can give you true pleasure—as the reward of honest industry, and in answer to prayer. You will see spires and school-houses springing up in all places, for money will do that: but money will not make faithful preachers or fruitful hearers. ”

“ Nothing will now satisfy me but the beef and mutton, the milk and cheese, the apples and nine of Banks's Peninsula and the plains behind it.
We are all quite delighted with the country, and agree that it is far more worth M. an acre than other land is worth 5s. I am confident that the proposed Church of England Settlement will prove the most wealthy of any in New Zealand, in spite of the cost of the land. There it is; you pay 3l., and may plough it up, or put your sheep on it at once. On the Peninsula, in the hands of about three settlers, are some 6,000 or 8,000 of the woolly tribe. ”