- If at any time the Association should be compelled to relinquish its undertaking, the land will be no longer reserved for the purposes of the Association, and that portion of it which then remains unsold will be discharged from any liabilities incurred under the present terms of purchase.
- The Association reserves to itself the right of making such modifications in these terms as experience may prove hereafter to be expedient or desirable for the general benefit of the settlement, and as may be consistent with the conditions under which the land has been reserved to the Association.
By order of the Canterbury Association,
Henry Frederick Alston, Secretary.
41, Charing-cross, London, 1st Jan. 1850.
EXTRACTS FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS TO J. R. GODLEY, Esq.
the Chief Resident Agent of the Canterbury Association in New Zealand.
THE following document is now, for the first time, printed, with the permission of the Association. The omitted portions refer, without exception, to arrangements having no interest for the public generally.
In giving you written instructions for the performance of your duties as the principal Agent of the Canterbury Association, the Committee of Management are conscious that such instructions must necessarily fall short, in a great measure, of the object for which they are intended. So extensive is the character of the enterprise which it will be your business to conduct, so peculiar its circumstances, so numerous and varied its details, and so inadequate the information possessed by the Committee upon many of the most important points connected with it, that they are convinced its success will be best promoted by leaving to you a very wide discretion. You are thoroughly acquainted with the views and objects of the Association which you are to represent; with the difficulties against which it has to contend; and with the means to which it trusts for overcoming them. Again, you cannot be insensible to the deep responsibility devolving upon yourself, as upon all who have undertaken to carry out so great an experiment; nor is it necessary for us to impress upon you the important influence which its success or failure will have upon the interests of colonization generally, and of colonization as connected with the Church of England in particular. We believe that your mind is already sufficiently imbued with these high moral considerations; indeed, it is in a great measure on account of that belief that we consider you qualified for the task which has been assigned to you. We shall therefore confine ourselves, for the most part, in the following instructions, to a general definition of your powers, a brief recapitulation of your principal duties, and a few leading suggestions for your guidance and direction.
I. Your powers, except so far as they are limited by these or subsequent instructions, will best be defined by informing you that whatever the Association is competent to do in England, you are authorized and empowered to do, on their behalf, in New Zealand. The servants of the Association in the Colony are placed under your unqualified control, and you are empowered to suspend or dismiss any of them, as you may see fit. They will be informed that they are to receive your instructions as though they proceeded from the Association itself,
