Page:The founding of South Australia.djvu/127

 determination puts an end to the project of a chartered colony, and though they would have very much preferred that mode of proceeding, they are of opinion that a Crown colony would be very desirable, provided that the Secretary of State, in founding such a colony, should take effectual means to establish permanently, so as to leave no room for change by his successors, that system in the disposal of waste land, and the purchase-money of such land, which has been recommended by this association. But in the founding of a Crown colony the difficulty is to obtain funds for the purposes of government. It is not to be expected that Parliament should make a grant of money for that purpose, so that, unless some other means can be devised for raising the necessary funds, Mr. Stanley's objection to a chartered colony will amount to a decree against the colonisation of South Australia.

"But the committee are inclined to believe that other means for defraying the expenses of a Crown colony may be employed with effect. They conceive that, if the proposed method of treating waste land and immigration were permanently established and securities given for good government, the prospect of the success of the colony would be such as to afford a fair probability that persons in England would be ready to advance upon the security of the future sales of land and upon the security of the ordinary revenue of the colony, both a fund for supplying the richer colonists with labour until the immigration fund should be sufficient for that purpose, and a fund for defraying the charges of Colonial Government. Their present view of the subject, founded on the assumption that your letter of the 17th instant puts an end to the question of charter, is more fully explained by certain resolutions this day passed by the committee, of which I have the honour to enclose a copy.

"The committee, then, compelled to abandon the principle of a chartered colony, yet trusting that the