"iElje spectator," April 20th, 1850
THE CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT
On Wednesday night we were present at a meeting at St. Martin's Hall. The business in hand was colonizing notwith- standing the Colonial Office. A less hopeful task could hardly be proposed. Judging by the past, one should say that the new colony of Canterbury is a desperate enterprise. . . . At the same time, it is but just to add that these newest colonizers appear to have taken pains to guard against the worst impedi- ments to success in former cases. They have got possession of the land with a good title: and they have set on foot a complete previous survey, to the end that every purchaser shall easily select and take possession of the property for which he pays. Their plan carries out in a greater degree than on any former occasion the principles of colonization with respect to the emigration of labour through a fund derived from the sale of land, by means of which Port Phillip, South Australia, and the settlements in New Zealand, have been peopled. And they have deliberately filled their plan with provisions framed on purpose to attract the gentry class of emigrants, who, as ample experience proves, are the most apt to prosper as individual settlers, and the fittest to give stability and strength to a new community. Amongst these, the most remarkable is the careful introduction of that religious element which two centuries ago was the main cause of the rapid progress of English colonization in America.
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