NEW PLYMOUTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 512, 30 September 1857, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH.

(From the Taranald Heralds August 29.)

Our readers will one and all rejoice to learn that a block of land has just been offered to the District Commissioner by the Natives, an offer to -which all the Natives interested are consenting parties. At the head of the movement is Katatore, and the only circumstance that casts a gloom over it is that blood was ever wantonly shed in the struggle to retain that which, after all, the natives on both, sides now unanimously agree to part with. For it was whilst employed in cutting the boundary of this very land that the friendly chief Rawiri and his companions were slaughtered just three years since. Considering the work upon which they were engaged, and their proved friendliness and fidelity to the colonists, we may well apply to them the Bishop's feeling apostrophe to the memory of our lamented countryman who fell at Wairau, on the subsequentpurchase of that district by the Government.

" The half of the Middle Island would have been too dearly purchased at tiie price of the life of Captain Wakefield alone. The whole of the plain lias since been bought, at a price which I will not mention, lest I should seem to place it in comparison witii these inestimable lives. -Peace to their mortal remains in their lonely graves by the still waters of the Tuaniarino !"

Apart from this single circumstance, the change time has wrought in the minds of Natives of this district will be hailed with die liveliest satisfaction. The retention hy a mere handful of Natives of a vast tract of waste country, as far beyond their want as their means or ability to cultivate or use, has teen infinitely more embarrassing to them than to ourselves. The land under notice contains perhaps 20,000 acres, and, with the exception of occasional clearings is all timbered; and were we to view the offer by itself, apart from those complicated and harassing difficulties the offer frees us from for the future, it would calj for little observation in tiiis place. But seeing that it comes from those very natives who opposed our occupation of the Bell Block for fiVe years after it was purchased, and the sale of an inch of the coveted land in that neighbourhood to the present time, we cannot well estimate it too highly. The example has already wrought a similar beneficial change in the Natives of oilier ouf lying districts, who are now as anxious to sell as they have hitherto been opposed to part with the land. The question, in fact', now resolves itself into one of finance. And here consists our only difficulty, for with the Natives all has happily ceased, and should the General Government be unable, we will not say unwilling ,to advance the funds requisite to enable Mr. Parris at once to close with the Natives for this particular block—for this he must do; as well as to carry on the purchase of other blocks which may be had for the money—it will be a question for the consideration of the community immediately interested in the success of these negotiations, whether they shall not step forward and advance the money. The Province must be spared the disastrous consequences which would ensue from-the Natives being in any way put off.

An important element in the present offer of land is that it disconnects Katatore from Jiis quarrelsome friends in the south who so readily engaged in acrive hostilities in his behalf with the object of tabooing this very land from sale. The chan°e in Katatore's views will have the effect of decfdins these Natives for the future to attend to their own business, and not embark in others' quarrels. And i( s they should by this time have a tolerable acquaintance with Katatore's character, and self-will in particular, they will not expect to succeed in expostulation with him.

In November last, Mr. Alexander King, with the view of procuring a horse of the purest blood, ventured, (as an old soldier,) to address himself to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, requesting the -Prince to assist him in procuring one. In less than • nine months His Royal Highness Prince Albert has, through Major-General Grey, most graciously 'signified his willingness to accede to Mr. King's request, provided that satisfactory reference be given to some-agent in London, as an evidence that his purchase of the animal is for the purpose of improving- the breed of horses in N.ew Zealand.