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To the council of the land purchasers' society.

I have received a letter from you dated 1st August, in which you inform me officially of the appointment of a Colonists' Council, and request me to enter into communication with it as the organ of the wishes of the body of colonists. In acknowledging your letter I take the opportunity, in the first place, of expressing the satisfaction with which I have received the above intelligence; and in the second, of explaining to you the views which I hold generally upon the matter to which it refers.

I consider myself, as I need hardly say, to be placed here, not merely to act on behalf of the Association as I may think best for the interests of the colonists, but to do so subordinately to their expressed wishes. I hold not merely that the interests of the Association are identical with yours, but that, as a general rule, it is for you and not for me to determine how these common interests may best be consulted; while I am ready, therefore, to bear the full weight of responsibility which properly devolves upon me as an executive officer: and further to exercise my discretion as to the cases which may possibly arise in which I may be compelled to act independently of you, I repeat, as a general rule admitting of very rare exceptions, that I shall guide myself by your directions, so long as I shall be satisfied that your body does really and adequately represent the land purchasers of the Settlement. page 181It is their money of which I am entrusted with the expenditure; it is their interest which is primarily involved in the extent and mode, of that expenditure; I am here solely for the purpose of serving them, and they ought to know how I can serve them best. I shall, therefore, habitually consult the Colonists Council, and through them the body of purchasers, upon every point of importance which may come before me; and I shall afford you, at all proper times, access to the accounts of the Association, and to all documents which may be necessary for your information in forming a decision on such points.

Although the explanations which I am now about to mate have no immediate connection with the special subject of this letter, you will, I am sure, allow me, as I am now addressing you for the first time, to say a few words upon what has been done, as well as on what is proposed to be done, by the Association here. Personally my responsibility may almost be said to date from your arrival only, as until that time I have had neither means nor opportunities of effecting anything, or hardly anything, except the stoppage of an expenditure which had exceeded its proper limits. But I should not be acting fairly or generously towards my predecessor if I forebore to express my opinion that in most difficult circumstances he exercised generally a wise discretion in the conduct of his operations: of course to every detail of his management I cannot pledge myself; but I repeat that, speaking generally, I can hardly find language strong enough to do justice to his merits,—merits which it requires some experience of the difficulties of getting work done in a new country adequately to appreciate. In connection with this matter, there are one or two points of detail which I understand have caused some discussion among the colonists, and on which I wish to make a few observations. One, is the limited amount of lodging accommodation available for the passengers of the ships chartered by the Association: the other is the difficulty of procuring means of conveyance to the Plains. Now, with respect to the page 182first of these points, I submit with, confidence to the calmer consideration of the colonists, whether it would have been wise or right to expend a very large portion of their funds in the erection of buildings suitable to a purpose so essentially temporary as immigration barracks. The chances are very great, perhaps as fifty to one, that we should never be required to find accommodation for more than the passengers of two ships at a time: if the ships had arrived at intervals of a week or ten days, there would have been no difficulty and very little crowding. That such would be the case was infinitely more probable than the reverse; and we were bound to act on probabilities, and to act as seemed most likely to give the most accommodation at the least expense. If we had acted otherwise, and if as might reasonably have been expected, no occasion had arisen for using the whole accommodation provided, I cannot but think that much greater dissatisfaction would have been felt, and with much more reason, at the needless reserve of land and at the extent of an outlay which would have been utterly thrown away. The question being between a possible temporary inconvenience and a certain ultimate loss, it was preferred, as I think judiciously, to run the risk of the former, and though unforeseen circumstances have realised the contingency of inconvenience, I have no hesitation in appealing to the good feeling and good judgment of the colonists upon the propriety of the course pursued. I will only add one word upon the point of assurances of adequate accommodation said to have been given by the Association in London. Now, I cannot know exactly what was said, or what impression prevailed in London on this point; but I presume that the answers to enquiries of this kind were given in the only way in which information can be given at a distance of 16,000 miles, in other words a six months' voyage, from the scene of action; that is by an expression of belief and expectation, by a conjecture in short which may turn out more or less well founded.

If a fire or an earthquake had destroyed the Barracks before your arrival, no one would have accused the Association of not page 183fulfilling its promises if accommodation had been wanting; upon the same principle I submit that they ought not to be blamed if they spoke on the subject with a confidence which would have been justified by the event, had not a contingency not at all less improbable than a fire or an earthquake (namely the arrival of three ships within twelve hours) actually occurred.

The other point to which I refer is the difficulty of procuring boats. I have been repeatedly asked why the Association did not provide boats, and charge freight for goods, so as to prevent exorbitant charges. Now, the answer which I have been compelled to make involves a general principle of great importance. I cannot attempt to enter into the carrying trade with public funds unless I am prepared to undertake the whole of it; no axiom in mathematics is more certain than that private parties would never enter into competition with an amateur Association, dealing with public money: no exertion would be made to procure boats by any body else, if the Association were to engage that boats should be procured without exertion. I had therefore to determine whether I would leave the whole matter to private speculation, or undertake to convey all the goods of the Settlement between the Port and the Plain. Now, I have calculated that within the next few months there will probably be a demand for the freight of at least 10,000 tons of goods per month between this place and the Plain, and I certainly did not feel myself justified in embarking upon a speculation so extensive, so costly, and so hazardous. I had no means for it, I had not boats nor crews, nor money to buy and hire them; if I had had them I should necessarily have done the thing very badly, and I should have squandered means on which there are plenty of more legitimate demands. I thought it far better to let it be known that in the matter of freight as in that of provisions, wood, and every other necessary for the Settlement, I would not interfere, but would leave prices to find their own level, confident that nothing but temporary difficulty, and consequent high price, page 184will stimulate persons to use the exertion necessary to overcome the difficulty and lower the price. Having thus, however, given my own opinion on this subject, I am willing in conformity with the rule which I have laid down, to yield to the clearly expressed wishes of the colonists, and will undertake if they require me, to do my best towards conveying goods and passengers from hence to the Plain. I confess that I am exceedingly anxious that they should not require me to do so. I wish to devote the whole of my available means to the completion of the road to Sumner, which the Chief Surveyor informs me he hopes to complete, if the funds be supplied, before the end of the summer. Now, as you are probably aware, the means at my disposal are very limited, the land sales having fallen far short of repaying what has been already expended; indeed, if individual members of the Association had not consented to become personally responsible for advances made, I should have hardly any means at all. If, therefore, in accordance with the wishes of the colonists I were to embark on behalf of the Association in the carrying trade, it would be obviously impossible for me to proceed with the road. The same principle which I have stated with respect to boats applies to the case of wharfage and storage. If I continue to land goods gratis at the store, not only will no fund accrue for keeping the buildings in repair, and for paying the salaries of proper superintendents, but it will be idle to expect that private parties will put up jetties or stores for the convenience of the public, unless after the demand shall have largely exceeded the supply afforded by the Association. I therefore propose to charge, after the immediate hurry of the first disembarkation is over, the ordinary rate of wharfage and storage, I shall thus be enabled to keep the wharf and store properly maintained and superintended.

The only Public Works which I think it at present desirable to undertake besides the Road, are a Land and Survey Office and a small Immigration Barrack at the chief town.

I have now, I think, treated of all the points which have page 185been, or are likely to be, subjects of interest or discussion among the colonists. The unreserved manner in which I have done so, will, I hope convince them that my first wish is to act in harmony and co-operation with them, and above all things to discuss and explain fully and freely every matter upon which there may be a difference of opinion. I am anxious that there should be no secret dissatisfaction. I wish as many opportunities as possible to be afforded for speaking out, convinced that where both parties mean well the best chance of coming to entire agreement is by promoting fair and amicable discussion.

I cannot conclude without thanking you most heartily and sincerely for the kind manner in which you speak of myself personally, and expressing a cordial hope that our intercourse may continue to the end unclouded and friendly as it has begun.

P.S.—I did not think it necessary to say anything in the former part of this letter upon the question of the Reserves laid off for the Association in this town, because I do not believe that it has been raised among the colonists here; but as some stress seems to have been laid upon it by the Association at home, I think it may be well not to leave it unnoticed.

The Committee, while leaving with me a discretionary power with respect to the whole matter, intimate generally their wish that I should allow the land on which their buildings—i.e., the immigration barracks, the store, the boat-houses, and the agents' house are erected, to be given up for selection. After consulting some of the leading colonists on this point, I consider it so clearly for the public interest that the land should foe retained that I have determined to take the responsibility of retaining it; nor do I think it a point which it would be fair or proper to refer to the whole body of colonists after the orders of choice are drawn and known, because the question being obviously between the interests of the two or three first holders and the rest of the purchasers, to appeal upon it to a page 186general meeting would be merely a formal proceeding adopted for the purpose of relieving myself of responsibility.

If I had permitted one or two persons to select the land on which the Association's buildings are erected, the result would simply have been that they might have made their own terms with us; we should have been completely in their power; the land is necessary for the conduct of our operations, a large sum of money bas been laid out on the hypothesis that it was to be reserved, and, knowing all this, they would have at once perceived that we should have been compelled to pay them any rent they chose to ask sooner than, at such a time as this, permit our buildings to be pulled down. I do not believe that there is a single land purchaser who would wish that the funds of the Settlement should be thus permanently burdened for the sake of assuring an exorbitant income to one or two fortunate individuals. On the other hand, the Reserves as they now stand are public property, which may be sold and the proceeds applied to the general good, if at any future time it may cease to be required for the present purposes.