Colonisation Of New Zealand.

We warn the humbler classes of British society to receive all the accounts of emigration with caution and distrust. Let them weigh well and make many inquiries before they quit the places of their birth, even deformed as they now are with prisons, workhouses, etc. New Zealand is an infinitely greater distance than Upper Canada, and to this more remote region we see vast temptations held out to the sons and daughters of labour in this country. Are there no miseries of the middle class in this case? We know that those who tempt emigration have just as great an interest in the work as those who took their victims from the warmer climate of Africa. They are become purchasers of vast tracts of land, the worth of which must entirely depend upon their being cultivated. We observe in a morning paper of Monday a flourishing account of a grand dejeuner given at the West India Dock Tavern by a company "who have purchased 600,000 acres from the aborigines," and are on the point of despatching a vessel to that new land of promise. The soil is rich, the climate divine, the natives "not only exceedingly friendly," but impatient to offer a reception to their new guests. Yet we observe that the vessel which is now upon the point of sailing for that region carries "eight guns, abundance of ammunition, and, though she carries no merchandise except such as shall be fit for barter with the natives, her crew considerably exceeds the average number for such a ship. This is one of the methods, we suppose, by which amicable feelings are indicated. Mr Hutt, the chairman of the company, officiated as chairman at this banquet also. Lord Durham, forgetful, we apprehend, of the account which he had already given of the blessing of emigration to Canada, graced the board with his presence and the project with his approval. Lord Petre and Sir George Sinclair were also present, and each stated that he was going to send a son; and no doubt the possessions which they had purchased may require the superintendence of those whose nearest connexions have so great an interest at stake. But what interest has the labouring emigrant that should drag him from his native home? "The blessed truths of the Gospel are to be there also diffused; their object," it is said, "is to instruct, and not to enslave—to protect, and not to exterminate." Such are the expressions of Sir George Sinclair. "To instruct," we suppose, from the mouths of eight cannon, "to diffuse Gospel truths" by a larger ship's crew than is generally to be found, and prepared with "abundance of ammunition." Our motive in these remarks is to instruct our countrymen at Home also, not to be deceived by specious pretences and pompous narratives. There is nothing said in favour of this expedition which we do not recollect to have been said in recommendation of those the issue of which Lord Durham has described. The object of the New Zealand expedition is the acquisition of wealth to a few at the expense of life and health to the many.—The Times, London [May 1, 1839].