CO885(1-2) — Page 197

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

C.O.

· 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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With regard to the government of the Australian Colonies, it can hardly be necessary to observe, that a bill for granting Representative institutions to those which do not now possess them was during the last session brought into Parliament, but was not passed into a law, from the want of sufficient time for the discussion of so important a measure. This bill was founded on a very carefully prepared Report of the Committee of Council on Trade and Plantations, and will be again brought forward in the present year.

IV. New Zealand has continued to advance in prosperity during the last year, in the same satisfac- tory manner with which it was described at its commencement to have done during the two former years. There has not been the slightest interrup- tion of tranquillity; trade and the revenue have continued to improve, and the native population to make the same rapid progress as before, in civili- zation and industry.

The Governor has succeeded also in settling most of the difficult and embarrassing questions with regard to land, and in purchasing from the natives, on exceedingly moderate terms, a vast extent of of fertile land, admirably adapted for the purposes colonization. Advantage is about to be taken of this by the formation of a new settlement, to be calledthe “Canterbury settlement," for which a large sum of money and a body of very respectable set- tlers have been collected.

Nor is this all: the Governor has availed him- self of the powers conferred upon him by the Act passed in the beginning of 1848, to establish a separate Legislature in the Southern province; he has done this in such a manner as to prepare for the establishment of Representative institutions; and he

has reported that he sees no reason why they should not be called into existence at the expiration of the five years, for which their being so has been sus- pended by Parliament. By that time also it is con- fidently believed that the whole charge now incurred by this country on account of the civil government will cease, and that a large proportion of the mili tary expenditure will likewise be saved.

See despatch of Sir G. Grey of

July 9, 1849. Appendix, No. 9.

Sir W. Colebrooke to Lord Grey; Barbadoes, No. 55, October 6,

1849.

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V. In the West Indies generally, a marked im- provement has taken place in the state of affairs, both commercial and political. The reduction of wages which the planters were enabled to effect by the removal of the protecting duties still holds good in these Colonies generally, whilst the price of sugar has somewhat recovered; and though West Indian credit is still greatly depressed, it may be hoped that, should the cxisting prices be maintained, the planters who have withstood the late crisis will be enabled to command a sufficient supply of capital to improve their methods of culture and manufacture, and thereby compete successfully with foreign sugar- growers.

In Barbadoes, where the wages have risen.again

in a slight degree with the rise of prices (from 74d. to 83d. per day), the planters are nevertheless reported to be prosperous, and to be making increased crops,

In British Guiana Governor Barkly reports (18th June, 1849), "At the present moment, in- deed, with reduced wages and increased prices of produce, sugar cultivation must again become ro- munerative, and for a time at least the abandonment of estates be arrested. While deeply deploring, therefore, the fate of those who have been ruined in the struggle, or who are left so irretrievably involved as to leave no prospect of extrication, I will not allow myself to despair of seeing the agriculture of this fertile colony placed on a sounder basis than it was possible for it to rest on at any previous period of its history, when its prosperity was founded either on slavery or on fiscal protection." And on the 18th July be says, "I could adduce many sufficient proofs that at the present moment cultivation (whether wisely or unwisely yet remains to be seen} is being daily extended." On the 19th September he reports a tendency of wages to rise, occasioned by the combined effects of improved prices and the cessation of immigration which had necessarily ensued upon the stoppage of the supplies. The planters had yielded but partially, but he thought that the renewal of immigration, which is now set on foot, could alone avert the rise of wages and a renewed monetary crisis.

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