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A selection from the writings and speeches of John Robert Godley

Lyttelton, June 4, 1851

page 205
Lyttelton, June 4, 1851.

The question of pasturage regulations becomes every day more pressing. Already the discouraging, indeed prohibitory, nature of those which we have published, taken in connection with the far more reasonable terms offered by Government, has had the most prejudicial effect on the prosperity of the Settlement. Several stockholders have come from Australia with a view of settling here, but not one of them admits the possibility of establishing a station, or taking an extensive run on the terms offered by the Association. If no better are offered, our district would soon apparently be, so far as stock is concerned, an unoccupied waste in the midst of pastures teeming with cattle and sheep. Mr. Rhodes has just driven 5000 of his sheep to a run immediately outside our block, and several of the Canterbury settlers who are going to invest in stock meditate following his example. The subject is felt by every one here to be so important that I will make no apology for once more endeavouring to make its difficulties and requirements clear to the Committee. The terms proposed by Government have now been made public; it will charge one penny per head for sheep, allowing, as I understand, a run sufficient for five years' increase. Thus, supposing a run to carry a sheep to every two acres, and supposing that a squatter intending to stock a run of 20,000 acres fully in five years put 2000 sheep upon it the first year, which is the ordinary calculation, he would only have to pay a rent of £8 6s. 8d. at first, increasing gradually as his means of payment increased, until when his run should be fully stocked with 10,000 sheep he would pay about £40 a year. Under our regulations he would have to pay £200 a year from the first, a rent which no possible profit from his sheep in the early years would approach to defraying, and which would be far too heavy to the last. Besides this, the expenses of forming a station are very considerable, especially in a country where timber is excessively scarce, and there is no security whatever for his improvements without buying the land. The mere statement of these page 206circumstances must, I should think, convince the Committee of the paramount necessity of altering the arrangements which have so unfortunately been introduced into the Act of Parliament, and, in the meantime, relaxing as far as possible the strict letter of the law in favour of intending squatters. I have already endeavoured to do so, as far as my powers enable me, as you will see by the enclosed letter to a very enterprising settler from Port Philip, who has applied to me for a run. This case affords a strong illustration of the advantages of bringing such men into the Settlement, if we look at the question as regards the sale of land only. Mr. Aitken and his partner having already purchased more than £800 worth of town property, and being likely to purchase more, he is willing to take such security as I can offer, but there is not much chance, I fear, of getting others to run an equal risk, inasmuch as I cannot secure them against disturbance by land purchasers. Now, I cannot but think that if the Committee agree with me and with the colonists as to the expediency of effecting a relaxation of the present rules, and if it be impossible to get the Act of Parliament altered, they may forward the same object almost as effectually by covenanting with future land purchasers, that the latter shall not select their pasturage within the limits of runs to which arrangements such as I have made with Mr. Aitken apply. If this be done there will be every reasonable security for stockholders so long as the jurisdiction of the Association shall last, and many will no doubt prefer such an arrangement to one under the regulations recommended by me to the Committee in former dispatches. I trust that no delay will occur in letting me know the decision of the Committee on this all-important point. Until I hear from them I will proceed very sparingly in the disposal of runs, so that there will be plenty of pasturage kept always available for immigrants.

I need not call the special attention of the Committee to the minute prepared by the colonists on the subject of permanent investments for the clergy of the Settlement, which page 207they are sending home by this mail. It is a subject upon which they naturally feel considerable anxiety. I feel so strongly the necessity of a permanent endowment for the Church that if sufficient funds cannot be made available for constituting it in the ordinary way, I should recommend a purchase of town land on Church account as a means of providing, at least for the future, and procuring some resources even for the present. One hundred acres thus bought in Christchurch would procure £400 to £500 a year now, and would become extremely valuable in the course of a few years. The objections which justly apply to Church reserves of rural land appear not to do so if town land only be reserved.