and that they are to perform no act, in relation to the affairs of the Association, except with your concurrence and under your direction. In case you shall be obliged to exercise this power of suspension or dismissal, or in case any of the Association's servants should voluntarily resign, you will supply the vacancy as you may best be able. You will also, from time to time, make all such appointments as may be necessary for carrying out the objects of the Association, and consistent with the means at your command. The disposal of the land within the Canterbury settlement; the regulation of pasturage; the selection of sites for towns and public buildings; in short, the affairs and property of the Association generally, will be under your exclusive management and control, subject, of course, to such regulations as the Association has already made, and to such instructions as may be from time to time forwarded to you by the Association itself.
II. Your duties may be classed under two heads: 1st, That of preparing for the reception of Colonists; and 2nd, That of superintending and promoting the establishment and progress of the settlement. The Committee trust that much will have been done before you can arrive in the Colony, towards effecting the former object, by their chief-Surveyor, Captain Thomas.
As soon as the Association shall have effected a sufficient amount of sales, it will place at your disposal the means which it may consider to be required for completely establishing its settlement, and fully providing for the public objects at which it aims.
You will, as soon as possible after your arrival, communicate with the Bishop of New Zealand. You will express to his lordship the anxious desire of the Association that their design may be conducted under his superintendence and sanction; you will entreat him to favour you, so far as may be in his power, with his advice and assistance; and you will invariably pay the utmost attention and deference to his opinions and wishes.
The surveys, the allocation of the land to purchasers, and the measurement of the sections after allocation, belong more particularly to the province of the chief-Surveyor, and detailed instructions have been already furnished to Mr. Thomas on those heads. Over this, however, as over all other departments of the Association's service, you will exercise a general superintendence and control; and the chief officer engaged in it will make his report to you. But there will, in all probability, be one very important function connected with this branch of the Association's business, which must be exercised more immediately and directly by yourself. The Association intends, after the first body of colonists shall have gone out, to convey the right of selection to its purchasers, according to the priority of their applications at the Land Office in the Colony. It also intends that, from the same time forward, land shall be sold in the Colony as well as in this country. You will be prepared, therefore, to offer land for sale in the Colony, as soon as you shall receive intelligence that the period above referred to has arrived, on the terms and subject to the conditions detailed in the plan of sale published by the Association, or such other terms and conditions of sale as may be in force at the time being in England, except so far as regards the disposal of that part of the price which goes to the emigration or passage fund. [1] It is almost unnecessary to say, that no part of your duties will involve you in heavier responsibilities than this, or to urge upon you the paramount importance of exercising, in such event, the utmost care and discrimination in the admission of new settlers;
- ↑ The appropriation of this sum being governed by an Act of Parliament cannot be interfered with.
