Anglo-Zealand Lottery.

A novel and interesting scene might have been witnessed on Monday at the rooms of the New Zealand Land Company. The purchasers of land in the first township of New Zealand, or their representative, had met to see the drawing of lots by which the order of choice was to be determined. Persons of rank and both sexes had then and there assembled. Lords and "gentlemen well born and bred, with ladies fair" matrons and maidens, were met to try their fortune, among grave men of business and of science, comprising not a few who, with Penn's faith, inherited his colonising propensities. Ladies were perhaps the most daring speculators; but the fact that in the course of five weeks £100,000 had been paid by persons of all ranks for 100,000 acres of land lying somewhere near the Antipodes, and not yet even surveyed, proves that the colonising spirit for which the Anglo-Saxon race have always been renowned yet lives and gains strength in Britain. Perched on a table at one end of the room stood a beautiful boy, about to dispense the gifts of fortune from a couple of tin boxes. For an anxious moment, as each lot came forth, doubtless the imagination of many stretched far into futurity, and they beheld in their mind's eye splendid towns, with churches, theatres, market places, page 31docks crowded with argosies, even palaces and parks, in the land of promise. It was remarkable the purchasers of many sections and large tracts of land were unfortunate, while they who had bargained for single sections and the representatives of the natives obtained priority of choice. For the first time in undertakings of this kind was the welfare of the natives really regarded. The missionaries, as Dr Lang tells us, took care of themselves. The New Zealand Company have set aside for the benefit of the aborigines one-tenth of all the surveyed lands in town and country. Their portion on Monday was 11,000 acres, which, as the orders are already at a premium, bears the proportionate value of £12,000. It is also worthy of mention that their lots of land are mixed up with the white man's lots, so that their chance of civilisation is much better than if they were banished to a "Black town" on the frontiers. Whenever a good number for the natives was announced, the assembly invariably cheered.—Spectator, August 3, 1839.

In a communication from the chairman of the New Zealand Company to Lord Stanley, dated January 25, 1843, he writes:— "Although the company by way of recompense for the moment and to comply with the exigencies of public opinion, has paid down what, according to received notions, was a sufficient price, the real worth of the land they thought they gave only when they reserved as a perpetual possession for the natives a portion equal to one-tenth of the land which they had purchased from him. This was a price which could not be squandered away at the moment, but which as time passed on the inalienable value must continually and immensely increase for his benefit and that of his children. Heir of a patrimony so large, the native chief, instead of contemplating European neighbours with jealous apprehension, as a race destined to degrade and oust him, will learn to view with delight the presence, the industry, and the prosperity of those who, on labouring for themselves, could not but create an estate to be enjoyed by him without toil and risk. Nor is this design confined to barren speculation. In every settlement which we have formed, a portion equal to one-tenth of town as well as rural allotments has always been reserved for the natives. In the lottery by which the right of selection was determined the natives had their fair chance and obtained their portion of the best numbers."