prize gradually engaged in its cultivation. For this grain there can hardly fail to be a considerable demand at the Australian ports, as the engagement of labour in pastoral and mining pursuits on that continent renders its population partially dependent on foreign supplies.
The climate, too, has been found peculiarly suited to successful brewing: and when it is considered that a vast quantity of malt liquor is exported from England to India, Australia, and the west coast of South America, every year, it may be concluded that the cultivation of barley and hops will prove very remunerative in New Zealand, situated as it is in comparative proximity to those countries.
Coal.
Extensive carboniferous formations have already been discovered at either extremity of the Middle Island; and the coal procured from one of them, on the shores of Coal Bay, near Nelson, has been tried, and very favourably reported on by the commanding officers of H.M. steam-sloops Driver and Inflexible.
Summary of Advantages.
The advantages of New Zealand as a field of colonization may be thus summed up: they consist in—
- Fertility of soil, including the abundant promise of minerals, especially coal; and plenty of timber and water-power.
- Excellence of climate.
- Geographical position and conformation; involving easy access to markets, and good natural harbours.
It appears to the Association, that, on the whole, a greater amount of these advantages, in their combinations, is to be found in New Zealand than in any other part of the British dominions; and they believe, accordingly, that it offers the best field for the undertaking in which they have engaged.
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS AND ECONOMY OF THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT.
THE rapidity of the growth of most of the ancient Greek colonies, which was such that, at the expiration of a century, the wealth and population of the colony frequently exceeded those of the parent state, has led many to compare the colonial policy of those days with that of our time and nation. The result of the comparison has been the discovery of three most important differences between the two systems, which are quite sufficient to account for the very different measures of success which have attended them.
The Greek colonies sailed from the parent states perfectly organized, and, for all purposes of internal government, independent societies.
The territory occupied by each was closely limited to that which sufficed for the agricultural industry of the colonists, by the necessity of a concentrated population, to protect the lives and property of all from the inroads of the original owners of the soil, whom they had dispossessed.
They had slaves, which secured to them abundance of labour.
It cannot be expected that these three conditions will be fulfilled in the proposed settlement of members of the Church of England in New Zealand;
