in 1843-45, I cannot but consider this settlement as in not merely a promising, but an actually prosperous state, so much so that, given two years more (but for the gold fields I should have said one), it will shoot forward with vigour and rapidity, exceeding that of any in New Zealand. I may be allowed to speak confidently from my past knowledge of the older settlements, and all the difficulties that embarrassed their early days-of quarrels with natives, with local government, company, Colonial-offices, and the absolute physical obstructions to the extension of colonising operations, even with all other difficulties cleared away.'

On the subject of the Church, he would show that, in spite of the small means actually allowed, much work is yet done."

It is very gratifying that so early there should be within reasonable walking distance of each settler (squatters of course excluded), a regular Sunday service performed by a duly ordained clergyman; in fact, that none of the ministrations of his Church can be wanting to any who desires to benefit by them in a time of need and distress; while at Christ Church and Lyttelton the services are performed as orderly, and are as well attended (indeed better) than in most English country towns with the same number of inhabitants. About eighty children here, and one hundred at Christ Church, regularly attend the schools. I consider that the affording a regular course of instruction to such numbers, commencing from the first month or two (I believe) after the arrival of the first body of settlers, is a service rendered to the colony, than which none could be more important.'

After passing a high eulogium on Mr. Godley, this writer continues:

I have heard that at home he is supposed to be making " a most complete mess of it." What I have stated must lead to a conclusion the very opposite of the supposition. I wish rather to lay some stress on the fact of affairs having been well managed by him, and on the very great importance to the settlement, now and for some time to come, of his presence and leadership, because in your city travels you doubtless at times will hear a passing mention of this little out-of-the-way dependency of the empire; and because, from some three or four men, who have returned from it to England, either dissatisfied and disappointed in obtaining employment, or with a character so ruined, that their stay in it was impossible, reports, untrue and highly prejudicial to the interests of the settlement and of individuals, will be sedulously disseminated, which any one writing home is bound by anticipation to contradict and disapprove when occasion offers. It is of some consequence that, among city people, this place should not be in bad repute, through false information circulated by swindlers and schemers. Equally is it of consequence that in higher circles, from whence an occasional straggler might be strongly disposed to join us, no unfavourable impression should prevail, caused by the same agency.'

From what we have heard in other quarters, and those in New Zealand itself, we feel sure that the Canterbury Settlement has been most falsely and perseveringly maligned. We have heard, for instance, from one person near Auckland that the Canterbury Settlement was entirely a delusion, and that all who have gone to it are the victims of mere selfish schemers. This is a very different version from other opinions we reported

from the same place, and, therefore, we are the more disposed to give a friendly caution against putting any credit in occasional bad reports of the settlement, unless they come from well traced and reliable sources. The letter in the Guardian' comments on the gentlemanly character of the newspaper press, and on the general aspect of society, summing up thus:

The number of regularly ordained clergymen is, of course, a guarantee for a certain amount of intelligence and high education here-even were the number of gentlemen who have passed through English universities and public schools fewer than they are by one-half or three-fourths. On looking round at any public assemblage-a ball, for instance-I cannot help observing how much the manner and appearance of those present, and particularly the preponderance of University-men, engages my attention, and forces a contrast with other settlements in the Australian seas, which results in an impression highly favourable to this one. I shall not be exaggerating in the least if I assert, too, that amongst the ladies there is observable au premier coup d'œil, a very decided superiority, sufficiently indicated, I think, by their manner and address.

I will only say in conclusion, that this is the first settlement I have been resident in in New Zealand, which I have ever felt unhesitatingly satisfied to recommend as fit for a man to risk (shall I say risk?) his capital in, or for a woman of refined tastes and educated mind to come to, with the hope of speedily being surrounded by more of elegance and comfort, and friends befitting her station, than in the same space of time she could expect in any other settlement in New Zealand.'

We hear that gold has been found in the neighbourhood of Auckland, and that some of the Canterbury emigrants have recently left to join the diggers there a sembled; and, also, that provisions, last November, were very high. Up to July the inhabitants of Auckland had no certain information of this; though such was reported to be the case, and a correspondent states that, on his own land, some yellow metal had been found, but not the right stuff. What effect this would have on Canterbury, we cannot say. A temporary panic might arise, but we are not afraid that the increase of gold will have any other than a beneficial influence on the world. The civilized portions of mankind are extending their territories, and more gold is, therefore, wanted, in order to supply the ordinary uses for it, and we cannot but see the hand of Providence in thus providing out of the bosom of our colonies, those stores of precious metal, which they, themselves, demand for purposes of a circulating medium, and, without which, their commercial progress must have been materially hindered.

Putting all the information together which we can arrive at, we come to the conclusion that a New Zealand farm, whether built of brick or wood, with its verandahs and hedges of roses and geraniums, is not a bad place of residence for a hard-working and intelligent man, even with a wife and family. Fortunes may not be made all at once, but still on the other

hand there is no fear of starving. It is a means of escaping from those imperative laws of English life, which seem to forbid any good and honest work being done in an amateur or domestic manner, by those who claim to be gentlefolks, yet can ill afford the expenses of the title. In a New Zealand farm a gentleman may paint his house and plough his land, whilst his wife makes the bread and sets her daughters to work in the kitchen. And this may now be done without forfeiting all the advantages of civilized society, or all the privileges of religion. Let those who have the means to live in affluence at home, and have no great wish to embark in a new existence, stay where they are; though we doubt not that adventurous spirits will find great use for any amount of capital they may have, and that they may do so in a way that will reflect honour, dignity, and position upon themselves; while, in the case of poor gentlefolks possessed of a small capital and no other source of income, we cannot but express our conviction, that it is far better for their families to be brought up in the noble yet working independence of colonial life, than in the abject and tormenting trials of poor gentility, always in difficulties, always humbled by a conscious inferiority. At home they must not and cannot work, even though nothing would give them greater pleasure, if the manners of society allowed them the opportunity, than the means of ceasing to be helpless and unproductive burdens on the small income of their parents. Once in a colony they may do this; they may shake off the necessity of keeping a large establishment of servants, of living in what seems a compulsory style, and may pass their time quietly and industriously, never doubting that they will have their daily bread for the time present, and having also a good hope that, amid the bounties and the charms of nature, as the New Zealand colonists may certainly consider themselves, they may one day rise up into positions of high honour and distinction, be founders of illustrious races, or even types of a future chivalry.

Since the above was in type (for thus much was intended for insertion in our last number) the return of Mr. Godley has been the occasion of eliciting from the friends of the Canterbury Settlement many public statements, which singularly bear out our own previous views with regard to its condition. We have not space to enter again upon the subject, on the groundwork of this fresh stock of information, but we cannot, in justice to the Settlement, or indeed to ourselves, allow the subject to pass over without any notice of what may fairly be called the termination of the first act in the Canterbury drama.

On Mr. Godley's departure from Canterbury, in December,

a public breakfast was given in his honour, and whatever disappointments there may have been in connexion with Mr. Godley's management of the Colony, the address which was then read to him most strongly confirms a statement we previously made, that the Colonists themselves who went out with him, are not his accusers, nor do they wish that he should henceforth have no concern with them. The following is part of the address:

:

'We should deeply regret to think that the connexion between us were now to be wholly severed; but we are persuaded you will never cease to feel a lively interest in the welfare of a settlement with which your name has been so closely linked; and that in any future measures which may be contemplated in England affecting its prosperity, we may rely upon a continuance of your services, to defend or advocate our rights and interests. Especially, in the final adjustment of the relations which are to exist between the Canterbury Association and the Settlement, we earnestly hope you will take an active part, as possessing the entire confidence of the great majority of its inhabitants, and being fully competent to express their sentiments and wishes.'

From Mr. Godley's reply on this occasion, we will select two passages, one touching on the failure of the ideal part of the scheme; though still maintaining that the practical result is not therefore the worse; and the other, giving personal instances of prosperity. On the comparison between the anticipation and the result, he says:

'No man in this world can go through any enterprise that has greatness in it without being often and sorely disappointed, because nothing great is ever done without enthusiasm, and enthusiasts are always over-sanguine. When I first adopted and made my own the idea of this colony, it pictured itself to my mind in the colours of a Utopia. Now that I have been a practical coloniser, and have seen how these things are managed in fact, I often smile when I think of the ideal Canterbury of which our imagination dreamed. Yet I have seen nothing in the dream to regret or to be ashamed of, and I am quite sure that without the enthusiasm, the poetry, the unreality (if you will), with which our scheme was overlaid, it would never have been accomplished. This Colony, full of life, and vigour, and promise, as it is, would never have been founded, and these plains, if colonised at all, would have fallen into the hands of a very different set of people from those whom I see around me. Besides, I am not at all sure that the reality, though less showy, is not in many respects sounder and better than the dream. Take for example that common notion which so many educated and intelligent people have of colonisation-the notion that it will enable them to live a sort of careless, indolent, easy going life, under their vines and their fig trees, among their children and their flowers, to revel in the spontaneous plenty of an exuberant soil, and to enjoy all the luxuries of civilization without its responsibilities, its restraints, and its labour. This is the kind of life that many of us fondly dreamed of. I will not say that I did not sometimes dream of it myself. But would this, even if it were not out of the question, be a life worthy of a man-of an Englishman? Is the desire to fly from toil and trouble a worthy motive for colonisation? Ought not our motive rather to be a desire to find a freer scope and a more promising object for our toil and our trouble? We all know now that when men colonise, more perhaps than in any other walk of life, they have

to eat their bread in the sweat of their face. But this is the advantage, and pride, and glory of colonisation. It is the corroding evil of old and highly-peopled countries, that in them whole classes, from the Sybarite peer to the workhouse pauper, have this curse hanging heavy on their lives, that they have nothing to do; and this it is that justifies us in urging men to emigrate, that in new countries every man must do something, and every man finds something to do. I have seen here clergymen ploughing, and barristers digging, and officers of the army and navy "riding in" stock, and no one thought the worse of them, but the contrary.'

In quoting these words we do not mean to say that this use of enthusiasm is justifiable. Schemes, when first laid before the public, are supposed to be serious and practical, and it will not, as a general rule, defend the propounder of them, on their ultimate failure, to plead innocent enthusiasm as the original motive power. Men who have been deceived look to facts and not to ideas; but still with regard to Mr. Godley, it is certainly a great evidence in his favour, that, on his departure from Canterbury, so far from being pursued with the reproaches of his supposed victims, he was honoured and fêted to the last. Such is not the case when the bubble bursts which is the mere offspring of a deceptive and empty enthusiasm. The individual cases of success which he brings forward, are thus stated:

I trust I shall be pardoned for quoting, in support of what I say, two or three cases which have come lately to my personal knowledge, and which I have no reason at all to suppose extraordinary or out of the way. There may be many more of a stronger kind, but these happen to have been brought before myself. One is the case of a gentleman of good family and education, who landed in this Colony with a land-order for fifty acres, and 3007. He has now horses and cattle alone to the value of his original capital, 3007. He has built an excellent house, has fourteen acres fenced and cropped, and owns four hundred sheep and lambs, and, moreover, he does not owe a farthing in the world. The next instance is that of a man whose capital was still smaller. I am informed it was just 50%. He, too, had fifty acres of land, and a large family, including two grown-up sons. I visited his farm the other day, and found the whole of it fenced in, and divided into five separate fields, all with substantial fences. He has a comfortable house, a particularly neat and well-cropped garden, two cows, with their calves, several pigs, and no less than twenty-seven acres (including the garden) under crop; and I am happy to say, I never saw crops look finer or more promising. The third and last case which I mean to quote is this:-I was told two days ago by a working mechanic—a man who had no money at all when he arrived, not a farthing-that he had saved and laid by, in two years, from the labour of his own hands, no less a sum than 2001.

On Mr. Godley's arrival in England, he was likewise entertained by his home friends, and in a style which betokened no consciousness of failure as to the main objects of the undertaking with which his name was associated. It is not our

province to enumerate the lords and high estates of the realm which honoured the occasion with their presence, but we have