RAGLAN.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVI, Issue 1274, 29 November 1859, Page 3

RAGLAN.

To the. Editor of the Southern Cross. ( Sir,— At the poll held here yesterday, only three electors voted, and a vast majority of the settlers never heard of the poll till too late. The first iintimation that a poll was to be held reached the settlement by the weekly mail on the previous day, and the Polling Officer arrived on the evening preceding the day of the poll. It was thus only thoae who happened to be at the village that knew of the poll, and prior to the mail coming in, no one here knew either the names of the candidates, or even that Provincial honors were not to go abegging. The mail from Auckland does not always arrive on the Thursday, and settlers do not care about travelling several miles, until they are pretty sure to find the mail in. The subjoined Protest was signed by some of the electors, and several other settlers appended their names, unaware that they were, for some unaccountable reason, omitted from, the Printed Roll, although they had duly registered their names with the officer sent round last March to revise the old Eoll. There is a general feeling of dissatisfaction felt in this distant settlement, at the neglect which it experiences at the hands of all departments of the state. Isolated from other European settlements, only five years old, and hemmed in on all its landward boundaries by the native wastes (that blighting upas tree of th« province) it has been found impracticable to make roads to it, although a sufficient sum of money was last year granted by the Superintendent for the purpose of making a bridle track to the fertile native district of the Waipa, whose capabilities point it out, as Dr. Hochstetter states in his report, to be the future granary of this i island. But native jealousy, and Native Office supineness, — combined, it is alleged, with underhand advice to the natives from certain Europeans — stood in, the way to prevent the road being formed; for a block of land which would have joined this district with the Waipa river, was last year offered for sale by the owners, but the British Lion succumbed to an ultimatum from his tolerated impenum inimperio, the potentate at the Court (?) of Ngaruawahia. Besides these many natural advantages, of which politics have deprived us for the present, we are Btill left the natural gift of an excellent harbour, which, however, is wrongly laid down in the Admiralty chart. The harbour of Raglan (Whaingaroa) is not yet constituted a port of entry, Government having refused to make it so, or even to transfer the Custom house from the adjoining native harbour of Kawhia, where the entries are io small that the Collector has for the last three quarters drawn his salary from Auckland. There is a large quantity of Government land here unsurveyed, which would be readily taken up if open for sale ; and whole blocks of land have within the last few years been neglected to be taken up by the Purchase Department when the natives were willing, and even after first instalments had been paid, the natives, (having through hope deferred of the remainder being paid, changed their minds) were allowed to draw back. The tide of fortune having thus been lost, this portion of the Auckland province is abandoned to buffet with the adverse force of native occupation which environs it. The evil pointed out in the subjoined Protest, want of representation, is severely felt here, for although we have a. voice in the return of eight rulers of the Provincial expenditure, it is drowned in the din of the more populous settlements in the suburban part of the Southern Division. A considerable time ago your paper contamed a leading article on the out-settlements of the province, wherein was advocated a more extended distribution of the bounties of the Provincial chest : we therefore appeal again to the. fourth estate, and confidently expect that we shall not be unsuccessful in obtaining your powerful advocacy. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, E. O. S. Kaglan, 19th November.

To the Ketuming Officer of the Southern Division, from sundry voters in that Electoral District, by the hands of the Deputy Eeturning Officer for Baglan. Dated Raglan, 18th November, 1859. Sir,— We take the opportunity of a poll being held here to renew a Protest against the want of due representation of our interests in this distant settlement of the Southern Division, which is large and populous enough to Teturn eight members of the Auckland Provincial Council. We consider that we are so immensely out-numbered by the voters in the populous districts adjoining Auckland, which are comprised in the Southern Division, that we are in effect unrepresented in that legislative body. We further consider that this settlement of Baglan should be conjoined with those of Kawhia and Rangiawhia, and form an electoral district separate from the rest of the present Southern Division, having one or more members allotted to it, according as it may be entitled. We have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient servants, [Here follow signatures.]

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Mr. Editor, — I beg to make a few remarks on a matter that has been lying quiet for some time past, and which should not be let remain so any longer. Perhaps, Sir, you remember, and your readers will doubtless also, that some years ago a number of gentlemen in the different provinces of New Zealand were appointed by the Governor as Commissioners to hold sittings to receive and enquire into the claims of individuals against the late New Zealand Company,— claims, I presume, of compensation for damages sustained by persons ontheiraccountorotherwise. In New Plymouth, Sir, several days were occupied by the Commissioners appointed here, in their sittings, the people were called upon to attend, who had any claim to make, and many were led to expect that the Government intended to satisfy those claims that the New Zealand Company had failed to do. Besting implicitly on this belief, Sir, a great number of our settlers left their homes and their business, from the several sections in the Province, at a great loss to some, in the earnest expecta* tion that some remuneration was near at hand that | might partially, if not wholly, repay them for the losses i they had sustained, the damages they had undergone, 1 and the disappointment they had suffered, through the hands of the afore-mentioned Company. I had, Sir, reasonably anticipated that, after the conclusion of , those investigations "made by these worthy Commissioners, the report of their proceedings in the various Provinces would have been transmitted to his Ex- ■ cellency the Governor, and the final' result of all the matters connected therewith been handed over to the people, by his proclamation, for their information. | This, Sir, lam led to believe, has never been done ; in fact, the people in New Plymouth generally are wholly uninformed in reference to the matter in any way. What, may I *sk Sir, caused the Governor to take this step ? It is true that this is but one of the many disappointments we have received in the administratration of the past and present Governor of New Zealand. I have no reason to doubt that those Commissioners recived , extra pay for sitting on this then so-called important bußineM ; while* many penona from the agricultural dis-

tricts, who left their occupations under a delusion, had to undergo further expense and loss of valuable time, and also to contribute to the payment of those individuals designated in the Governor's proclamation or notice as Commissioners, and themselves compelled to be content with nothing. _It may be, Sir, that the Governor has the means in view of satisfying those claims that have been made in this respect, if so I hope that Taranaki may speedily receive the benefit and advantages of this much talked of enquiry by satisfaction in fulfc Yonrs, ke. } Thomas William Shdte. New Plymouth, Nov. 13, 1859.