The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-01 00:00:00

Nb,FEbRIJARY l, 1845,

sudden taking away of two thirds of the whole expendi-
ture of the colony should have this effect, but it is so.
The men, induce I to come out by too highly- coloured
representations, disorderly, discontented, and riotous, took
the Company's work as a matter of necessity, but only as
an instalment of what they had a right to expect, disliked
it; and did it badly ; private colonists, with toeir small
means, could not afford; as one of them expressed it, to
Row shillings and reap peace i and the Company's agent,
divided between the claims of the labourers and the re-
presentatione of the colonists, who, by the bye, were too
few and too poor to employ one-sixth part of the dis-
posable labour, could do nothing effectual. All parties
agreed this state of things must come to an end, and the
sooner the better. If the Company should resume its
operations here, the system must be entirely changed.
The work hitherto done might have been better done by
contract or piece work, for one-fourth of the money.
Whilst I got some ditching done by men who had no
claim on the Company at 4d. per yarcf (and they earned
30s. per week), some similar work cost them between
2s. and 2s. 6d. But at your price, said their agent, the
weavers, watchmakers, &c.,would be starved. Granted.
But the Company have made two sets of agreements ;
one with the land purchasers, to render the colony
"safe, commodious, and attractive," with the money paid
them, and are therefore bound to lay it out for them to
the best advantage ; another with the labourers, to find
them constant work at good wages, and they break the
spirit of their first agreement, to partially carry out their
second, when they do their work with inefficint instru-
ments. The Company in this Nelson Colony has com-
mitted two great errors. It published to the world that
it would be founded by a body of capitalists, prepared to
emigrate ; by not recalling that announcement when it
foun the parties draw back from their engagements, it
countenanced, and became a party to a fraud on all who
came out on the strength of that representation. This
was the first and great error With a good body of em-
ployers of labour to begin with, their property here
would have by this time doubled, nay, trebled, in value.
The land was unoccupied, the natives few and well-dis-
posed ; the settlers addicted to cultivation, and not to
speculation ; and the soil, though very various, of good
average fertility, some most excellent ; AND THE
CLIMATE EVERYWHERE GOOD AND HEALTHY, HERE
MOST HEAVENLY. It has neither the rains of Auck-
land, nor the winds of Wellington ; THE COOL NIGHTS
BRACE THE BODY IN SLEEP, AND ITS FINE CLEAR
WARM DAYS, AND EXHILARATING AIR, KEEP UP THE
SPIRITS, AND " MIKE THE BODY'S LORD SIT LIGHTLY
ON HIS THRONE." IT IS A COUNTRY TO ENJOY
LIFE IN, EVEN ON A CRUST AND A GLASS OF
WATER. The second great mistake was making
a scheme without reference to the size of the
place to be selected. Instead of cutting their coal
to their cloth, they ordered a cloak, and bought
stuff for a waistcoat. The scheme is one half too large.
If the ballot-box had been emptied, as they wished, one-
half the purchasers at least would have been robbed of
their money, for one-half the tickets are blanks, at all
events, as regards the town and suburban lands. The
town here can only be an outlet for the produce, and a
storehouse for the wants of the country ; and one-half of
it will never be used but for market-gardening. In
order to procure land to the extent required by the
scheme, barren hills, mud-flats, requiring great outlay,
valleys inundated in the winter, and square miles covered
with stone and shingle, have been surveyed and given
out. Before the agent here allowed of exchanges (in
opposition to the orders from home), parties came,
looked at their land, declared that they had been robbed
and swindled out of their money, and went away again.
One gentleman, a Mr. Withers, offered his accommo-
dation section for 51., and was told by a surveyor, that
unless there should arise a demand for macadamised
stone, he would not give ss. for it. He left in disgust to
visit the south ; on his return an exchange was offered,
and he will be a valuable settler.
The present state of the scheme is as follows :—Of
1,100 sections 100 are sold to parties out here, of which
about 40 are occupied, and more or less under cultiva-
tion ; the remainder being unoccupied, from their posi-
tion, soil, or want of means in their owners (owing to
the judicious conduct of Col. Wakefield in the present
emergency, the two first reasons are done away with by
exchanges) ; about 280 sections held by absentees,
almost all untenanted ; 100 held by the Company as
proprietors, in the same condition ; 100 reserved for the
ifaories, wholly untouched ; and about 500 unsold in
the wheel at home. The 40 occupied sections are dotted
all over the face of the country I the communications
are imperfect, difficult, and expensive. The rivers re-
quire bridging over, the roads completing, and the price
of carriage, from the paucity of settlers, and their dis-
tance apart, is excessive. I myself am surrounded by a
belt of land (native reserves, and unsold sections) which
prevents any other settler from coming near me, how-
ever much he may desire it ; and had exchanges been
permitted at the time I settled, I would gladly have sa-
crificed some of the finest land in the colony for some
much inferior in soil and beauty of situation, to gain
the advantages of society, easy access to markets, and
mutual assistance and protection. Thus, to speak in
modern phraseology, capital has not come out in pro-
portion to labour and land, and actual settlers, instead
of being concentrated, have been spread over the land
far and wide by the ballot-box. Now, the general feel-
ing here is, that the New Zealand Company's Directory
is composed of honourable men, whose motives in coming
together have been somewhat higher than those of mere
personal advantage ; who, if they can be convinced of
error, would not hesitate to alter their course ; and the
following remedies have been proposed.
1. To burn the ballot-box. Carried by acclamation.
In twenty-four hours after my arrival here, I said to
Captain Wakefield, the agent, I find I have committed
one great error. " What is that?" said he. " I have
put my hand in the ballot-box." He laughed, and said,
"It is quite true, it is a mistake ; but now I do not see
how it can be obviated."
2. To promote the concentration of the settlers by all
possible means ; by exchanges, sales, &c. To effect
this with regard to actual settlers, a plan has been pro-
posed, as follows :—Each Proprietor has paid 3001., for
which he has received one town acre, 50 suburban acres,
and, when they shall have been obtained and surveyed,
150 rural acres. Let the town acre be valued at 501.,
the 50 suburban at 1001, the 150 rural at 1501.—altoge-
ther 3001. Let whatever land is still unsold be for sale
by auction, at these upset prices, to actual colonists and
proprietors, and let their land orders be taken as cash
at the valuation before fixed. Thus, supposing I wanted
to purchase, in addition to my 50 acres, two other sec-
tions adjoining, of 50 acres each, they would be put up
at the upset price of 2001. If they sold at 2201. I should
give my land order for one acre, and rural choice of 150
acres at 2001. and 201. in cash. A plan of this kind
would benefit the absentee proprietors, who, in selling
their land, would sell a choice of all that was not dis-
posed of, and would benefit holders of land by promoting
the emigration of settlers; but its immediate result would
be to re-assure the few resident colonists, and give a new
impetus to cultivation. If, in addition to this, the Company
should resume operations, its work should all be done by
contract, and only in such quantities as not seriously to
affect the price of labour, until the colony has got produce
to export ; and lastly, although I have my doubts about
this, a prudent advance of money on loan is much wanted ;
for I do not suppose any settlement was ever founded
with so small an amount of private capital as this has
been. As to the accessary portions of the scheme, such
as the fund for founding a college, steam navigation, &c.,
they are all good in their place, but at present we want
common schools and cheap modes of commerce. We
must have bread first, and hope for plum pudding after-
wards. I have thus, my dear Sir, at some length, al-
though as concisely as I was able to do, given you some
account of our past and present state, as respects
the Government and Company, as well as what I have
reason to think would prove of great future benefit,
and I only hope you will accept it as an
earnest of my desire to do what may prove agreeable to
you, whom I have so many reasons to wish to please in
return for the obligations I have received at your hands,
and so with our united kind regards to Mrs. Robins, and
best wishes for the health and welfare of your fatuity,
believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
Sept. 10, 1844. J. 1). GREENWOOD.
P.S. The Commissioner for Land Claims, Mr. Spain,
has arrived in Nelson, and decided all claims here, ex
cepting those for Massacre Bay and the Wairoo. Ile
tells me his report is ready on the Company's claims t.
the lands at Wellington, but that unless the Governor
gives way, and confirms his award on the New Plymouth
claims, ho shall resign, and at once return to England.
lle is to meet the Governor at New Plymouth in about
a month.

In writingthislongletterl find I have said nothing of our
future prospects, or the inducements this country holds
out TO THE INTENDING EMIGRANT. As REGARDS
CLIMATE AND HEALTHINESS, I KNOW NONE COM-
PARABLE TO IT. In my district, containing more
than three hundred souls, in the last twelve months,
three adults have died from accidents, and one infant
suddenly, but not one from disease. As to fertility of
soil, there is enough of first rate quality for all who may
come out for years, provided they choose for themselves,
and keep their hands out of the ballot-box. When
.the
lands of first-rate quality are occupied, the second rate
lands will naturally rise in value. Agriculture and cattle
breeding must be the main dependence of the colony,
till the flax has established its reputation. No one should
come out to farm with less than from 1,2001. to 1,5001., and
2,0001. would be better. With 1501. per annum, a person
may live in comfort. My expenses are 751., but I
brought out a good stock of clothing. There are many ways
in which 300 L or 4001. might be invested to very good
advantage, but at present I only see two pursuits, be-
sides farming, which would pay on a larger scale. The
curing of provisions and fish, and brewing. An expe-
rienced brewer said to me the other day, " Wit; SIR,
YOU MAY BREW HERE ALL THE YEAR ROUND, AND
EIGHT MONTHS OUT OF THE TWELVE EQUAL TO
OCTOBER. THEY CANNOT BREW AT ALL. IN SYDNEY,
and but indifferently in Van Diemen s Land, and
you have the Indian and China markets within
six weeks' sail, anti ships sailing there from hero
in ballast, and you have neither malt-tax nor hop duty.
IT Is A BREWER'S PARADISE. My next neighbour grew
last year 56 bushels of Cape barleyptiotthse,
told ac
me ,antdhaat
Kentish man, who had a dozen hod plants,
one year here had done as- much for them as two years
would have done in England. (In fact, hop and
}b:ensgtlad
mna.lt)ingTbhaerrleeyhfaosr
beenseed wonceuldlitpje b
y
to
rewreirtylg efrsotam-
blished already, about six months ago, with malt-hcuse,
Sze. It has begun to export to Sydney and Wellington,
and the last consignments of ale and porter here are un-
saleable.
I have built myself a house (all but the chimneys), and
cleared about six acres of wood and flax land. I have
a cow and some pigs, and a garden fenced in, so that
the state of my finances may be tolerably well calculated,:
without the aid of an accountant. I have,- however, the
comfort of finding I have not expended any money fool-
ishly, which I hardly expected in so new a situation,
unless my waiting in Nelson, for the machinery, &c.,
may be so considered ; I am free from debt, and, with
the blessing of God, and the invaluable aid of my dear
little wife, mean to continue so. Our children, eight