Page:Canterbury Papers.djvu/23

Rh but it may be alleged, with truth, that there will here be a greater approach to these, or equivalent conditions, than has been ever accomplished in any other settlement of modern times.

The colonists will sail from England as far as possible an organized society; and it is the intention of her Majesty's Government to direct that the Settlement of Canterbury may be, if no local obstacles or other unforeseen objections prevent, constituted a distinct Province, with a separate Legislature. If this intention be carried out, they will possess institutions of local self-government to an extent unexampled in the history of new colonies in modern times, and the enjoyment of this boon alone would suffice to stamp the Canterbury Settlement with a peculiar character, and to make it especially attractive in the eyes of all who are acquainted with the evils of the opposite system. Its colonists will possess complete powers of self-taxation, of legislation upon all matters which concern themselves alone, and of control over all functionaries engaged in local administration, without any interference on the part of other and differently constituted communities, While it is hoped that the care exercised in selecting those colonists, and their general unity of opinion on topics which form a fertile source of discord at home, will enable them to exercise with peculiar advantage and facility the privileges with which it is hoped that they will be entrusted.

The population will be concentrated, not by precautions against the hostile inroads of a warlike aboriginal population, but by the large sum of money required to be advanced in the purchase of every acre of land.

It will not have the economic gain, with the moral degradation, of a slave population, to develop the riches of the country; but the immigration fund will supply a larger amount of free labour to the capitalist than has hitherto been procurable in recent British settlements.

We proceed to notice the following distinctive features of the proposed settlement, which give it, as is conceived, an additional claim to superiority. These are—


 * The preliminary trigonometrical survey of the territory to be occupied by the settlement;
 * The method of free selection of land, by every purchaser of a land order;
 * The arrangement for the selection of immigrants of the labouring classes;
 * The preparation of roads, sawn timber, and other conveniences, before the arrival of the first body of colonists;
 * The pasturage system;
 * Religious and educational endowments.

To secure the advantages proposed by the Association, it will be necessary to demand an outlay of 3l. an acre from purchasers of rural land. This will doubtless appear a large price to those persons who have not made the elements of the value of land the subject of a particular study,