RAGLAN. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) January 26th, 1863.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1751, 28 February 1863, Page 9

RAGLAN. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) January 26th, 1863.

After, the last account of the road works wag written to you (see Daily Southekn Cboss of ' January 2nd) the Maoris were, at 'their own desire, set to work at piece work. " There /were about one hundred and fifty of 'them at work for about a fortnight, and they di,d a great deal of work. They did not, howey,er, earn* above half the wages that they had previously done at day work, and this because thorp were too many of them together in a gang, . ,-niany of which worked veiy well, some took it'yory easy, and a freat proportion of them did no work at all, but ' untedpigs for food for all hands. Their work lay in the valley of the "Waitetuna, which both on the north and soiith is bounded by high wooded ranges, abounding with fhe descendants of the gift of Captain Cook. They have now been a fortnight idle, and they wish to go upon day work to finish the remainder of the road as ' far as the Waitetuna crossing place. The Ngntimahanga tribe, having exhausted their land at Ohcapopoko, where environed by - European settlers they now live, intend taking advantage of this new line of road, which they have been making for the last ,six months, and. settling at Te Bahapu, a native reserve on the banks of the "Waitetuna, near the proposed crossing place of that river on this line of road. This reserve is a very fertile, indeed quite an exceptional piece of land, and was at one time set apart by the owners for .the purpose of founding a place of learning for, their children, ' its position Tjeing midway between "Whaingaroa and Waipa, in both of which districts the Jf ga- ' timahanga haye settlements. jThis road will therefore serve one important purpose in the development of the fertility of the inland parts ' to. it is to be hoped, a very great extent. These people will perhaps persevere in their intentions to ditch hi a largo piece of land for cultivation, although it would be a more hopeful sign of their advancing civilization, if we saw them separating themselves into families, and not living in the ill-defined communistic fashion which is such a bar to the improvement of the Maori, with whom the words "home" and " privacy " and " seclusion " have no signification. Every one loses his individuality in the , communism of the tribe or sept to which he belongs. They are likely, however, to do better ' in this inland settlement, as th^ land is new, having no neighbours they can run pigs, and they will not be so near their court liouse to spend their time in law making' for their amusement, and law breaking for their advantage. If they are not, however, kept in work during the continuance of the ensuing winter it is pretty certain that they will have a hard time of it, as the government works monopolized all their time while they ought to have been sowing wheat, and they have but very limited crops of both maize and potatoes. Until ready money became so plentiful as it has been for months past among the natives here, they were a very sober race. Indeed, so long as there was only a retail license atEaglan. they were not able to procure grog. The unrestricted and uncontrollable manner in which the law permits wholesale licenses to be granted, rendered it impossible for the authorities to refuse an application w hich they received for a wholesale license in this district. Coevally with the granting of this license, although of course your correspondent cannot insist upon a causal connexion, the natives procured any quantity they pleased of that injurious liquid — about one-half of whose selling price goes, as is much to bo deplored, to swell the Customs' revenue, increasing what statists are in the habit of quoting as an index of 'the "prosperity of the colony." The consequence was that many beastly and riotous scenes took place, and the natives have acquired a taste for grog which they seem very unwilling to give up or to restrict. They have even ruuanga'd that public houses should bo opened to them, which of course no government would accede to, inasmuch as rows and fights between pakehas and Maoris woidd certainty ensue, which might lead to bloodshed, and thence to war and the upset--ting of every good work within reach. So long as they get grog on the sly only, these evil social results are not so likely to occur. The columns of the Daily Southebn Cboss have for some time past I may say teemed with murmurs against murderous and other obnoxious effects of intoxicating liquor, and they are likely to continue so occupied to a considerable extent, bo long as the public revenue contimies to represent in a direct ratio the demoralization of our people, and so long as the licensing law remains as it is. It is not to be tolerated any longer that the peace and virtue of a whole country side are to be staked against such comparatively paltry considerations as the monetary prosperity of a few individuals. Although themselves not teetotallers, many people would willingly give up their shares in the consumption of grog if everyone else would do the same, and thus nave this great obstacle to progress and prosperity banned altogether from the shores of ISTew Zealand. Drunkonness will never be put out of existence by voluntary abstinence societies, because they inculcate merely the observance of a self-imposed, arbitrary course of action, founded upon expediency, and not upon any principle. jS"o; so long^as people are immoral, the monster can. only be put down by the strong arm of the law : by punishing more severely and more strictly those who purvey as well as those who partake to excess of the demoralizing beverage, and by the encouragement of public houses for travellers without the sale of grog, or else by the summary method which the king has enacted in Waikato of forbidding grog altogether. These remarks may appear rather Utopian, biit it cannot be denied tnat something is awanting to bo done in order to remedy tho existing state of matters. Tho following remarks have nothing to do with Eaglan, at least at present. The newmode of applying steam power ,by forcing of water out of nozzles in the sides of a vessel, > which has been commented upon in the Daily Soothebn Cboss, both in an extract from the English "Mining Journal" and by Mr. T. Turnbull, of Onehunga, is, I happen to know, not such a recent invention as even your correspondent asserts. , In i 1845 Mr. Euthven, of the Canongate of Edinburgh, launched an iron vessel of \ms construction, and of about sixty tons, and she . plied upon the Frith of Forth. Mr. Ruthven was a mechanical engineer, and had some years previously exhibited a model in operation upon tho Forth and ,C|yde Canal, in the presence of several noblem.en.and gentlemen of a, scientific. turn of mind. Mr. TurnbulTs idea of ejeoting.the water at the stern, and hot by. nozzles at the sides, would appear to be an improvement, but the propeller described in the " Mining Journal" (see Daiiy Sotfthbbi[ Cboss of *sth Jwroary) i« almost preoiiely the wmeaft'*

that coaitructcd by Mr; Ruthven ; whether deduced from his or from an independent invention, I am not in a position to sny. — "Daily Southern Orois," Feb. 2.

j- • ' 16tli February, 1863. > On the 12th inst&nt an inquest was held by W. Barsant, Esq., J.P., coroner for this district, on the body of a Maori woman of about sixty yours of. age, who came by her death under the following circuuutancet : — Hter husband, Lazarus, having lost hit affection for hor, and preferred to her their slave, a woman of equal age, the lady took her lonesome condition so much to heart that she committed suicide by hanging herself in an old deserted house at Horoa; the pah of the Tainui tribe, where she was discovered with her feet just touching the earth, and the weight of her body supported by a piece of green-native flax about half-an-inch in width, which she had tied in a slip-knot ramd her neck. A jury was empanelled, consisting of seven Europeans and six Maoris, of which Mr. Thomas Wilson was chosen foreman ; and they proceededjicross Whaingaroa harbour to Horea, where they viewed the body, and returned to Raglan to hear evidence ; alter which and due deliberation, they returned a verdict that Elizabeth had " committed suicide in a fit of jealousy." Lazarus and Elizabeth had been on bad terms for some time, and it is not improbable that a native runanga will be held over the unfaithful man and his paramour, especially if they are people of property, to pay for law expenses. The institutions of his Excellency's policy for native pacification have been introduced into the Ngati Hikairo, at Kawlua. This is the tribe which last year showed such a love of the Queen when Mr! Armitage visited Kawhia that they pulled down the king's flag and buried it. They were then in a very disunited state and are now still more so. In fact they are now split up into three portions. They have never held a very chivalrous character in the traditional annals of Maori warfare. They took part in the late war at Taranaki, and have got the name of being rather camp followers than warriors, and going rather for the live stock and booty that they could appropriate, than to aid their distressed friend, Wiremu Kingi to Rangitaako. Of this tribe are the violent Tapihana and the dissolute John Wesley. Major Macgregor has, however, made a very good selection out of the unpromising materials at his disposal. He has taken the best men in the tribe, and they have been duly sworn in to be faithful to her Majesty Queen Victoria, and to do their utmost in their several spheres towards the administration of the laws. John Jones (Hone te One) has been appointed assessor, Wi Hikairo, president of the tribal runanga, and four policemen have also been placed on the books of the peace. This is of course a step in the right direction, and ought to be gladly and welcomcly hailed as such by all lovers of good government and a bloodless solution of the Maori difficulty. But let us not cease to remember that the country canuot be said to be governed, until the executive of the colony can place both magistrates and police, and further establish military posts without lot or hindrance from any one, or even the " movement of a clog's tongue "in opposition. It will be a good day for ISew Zealand and for all its people, both aboriginal and colonist, when they shall all look upon the law as a protector and not an oppressor, as a wholesome and not an unwholesome regulator of their social affairs. Can anybody tell, Mr. Editor, what all these runangas of this district have been doing smce | April last, when Mr. Armitage so faithfully reported their beginnings and their first discussions? Is there no one now charged with ' giving to the public their accumulative -n isdom? Have they made any laws, and, if so, where is the blue book that contains them ? None of oxir settlers are a bit the wiser of any laws that they may have made, and the natives here continue to annoy us by running their cattle, without punishment, over our lands, and by faithfully demanding payment for any damage done by our cattle to their little patches of crops. During this unusually dry season, bush fires are as prevalent here as they are in other parts of jjfew Zealand, and the sun is often quite beclouded with dense bmoke. A great deal of damage has been done to the works of both nature and industry, but owing to the prevalence of swamps and water-courses in our well watered country, these fires meet with very frequent interruptions. Smce my last communication, the bridges on the upper portion of the road, as far as the ford of the Waitetuna river, have been let out to European carpenters, and already one has been completed. This upper portion of the road lies through a much more level country than the rough hills and well-sheltered valleys adjoining the town of Raglan; and the consequence is that much less money is required for the road, and that for two reasons — first, there are fewer cuttings •. and secondly, the road goes in a direct line. From the Waitetuna to the Waipa the j road has not yet been surveyed, but the present track, reaching the Waipa river a few miles above Whatawnata, is by no means an impraccicable line. Indeed, it would be perfectly possible to take a light load on a wheel-cavriage by the present track, were it only cleared and bridged. Of course, to take a heavy dray load, a good deal of spade work will be required, but the making of bridges and the clearing away of the bush is all that is required to make the road agreeable and safe for horse travelling. Jfaylor has been anxiously expecting Mr. Rogan about the sale of his land, but the title to the land is maintained by Naylor, and admitted on all hands. The opposition is not by any means well grounded, the opposers having been merely squatters for a time. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the purchase will be speedily and firmly carried out. The government may rest assured that if theyare firm, the opposition will vanish. Hori, a Waiuku chief, has been here, and I heard him exhorting jNaylor as follows : — " Sell it, my brother ! sell it, my brother ! " Naylor said ho would do so if the Governor would buy it, although it would leave him little to himself. — •' Daily Southern Cross," Feb. 20.