The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1894.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 78, 2 April 1894, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1894.

For the n. 11288 that lacka assistance, Fur thß vrong that noods rseißtanoe, Fsr th* future in the distance. Ati tha good that we can ao.

Open up the Bohepotae, or King Country, for settlement—that has been the urgent cry of Aucklanders ever since the confiscated lands io the Waikato were taken up, and the restraint of the aukati line became a

source of constant irritation to eager spirits anxious to establish homes upon the virgin lands beyond. Sir Donald McLean, Sir George Grey, Mr Sheehan, Mr Bryce, and lesser lights who have presided over the Nalive Office, successively tried their powers of persuasion upon the recalcitrant native?, but in vain. Since the Seridon Ministry came into office, the Opposition press has thundered about the failure of the Government to open up this country, as though they were unique sinners. They have been accused of neglecting the matter altogethtr, of concentrating all their attention upon the South Island, and being indifferent to the most urgent wants of the North. Lectures without number setting forth their sins and shortcomings have been hurled at their heads. We now learn with pleasure that the measures initiated by Mr Cadman while Native Minister, in his habitually quiet unostentatious way, and pushed forward with the impulsive eneigy of the Premier since he assumed the portfolio of Native Minister, are bearing fruit. Since the Court opened at Otorohanga on the 13th of Match, thirty-five orders have been obtained in favour *of the Crown lor blocks within Rohepotae, representing a gross area of 86,243 acres, exclusive of the 37,695 acres of Wharepuhunga still to be decided; In addition to the first-named area, there are 75.495 acres of completed purchases that do not require to come before the Court, and the deeds for which are in Wellington, making a total area of 161,739 acres. The larger portion of this area has been acquired during the last three years, through the efforts of the present Ministry. When the award of the Court is made with reference to the Wharepuhunga Block, the grand total will then be 199,434 acres.

Even the opponents of the Government must admit that the acquisition of nearly two hundred thousand acres in a district which has hitherto been absolutely closed against European settlement, is a splendid record. To Mr Cadman, in the first instance, seconded by Mr Seddon, the credit is due for this notable achievement. But no small meed of praise is also due to Mr G. T. Wilkinson for the energetic and skilful way in which he has executed the task entrusted to him >by the Ministerial heads of the Native Department. He has carried out the negotiations with great skill and success, overcoming by tact and patience the hostility and suspicion with which European intrusion into the King Country is regarded.

Not alone in the Rohepotae, however, is it that the present Government have broken down the strong wall of obstruction which the turbulent non-land-selling natives have erected around their possessions. Under Mr Caciman's administration the surveyor's chain first lound its way into the Urewera country, and now the Premier is about to invade a region wiihin that almost unknown territory into which no representative of the Government has hitherto penetrated. There is every reason to hope that within the next year or two a great impulse will have been given to settlement in the central districts pi the North Island. With the bugbear that has retarded the prosperity of Auckland thus removed, we may confidently look forward to an accelerated growth and increased stability in all city interests.