The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2639, 2 January 1866, Page 4

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUCEO.'iNOItfkTTRO. " If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from tlie spark. l bore."

TUESDAY, JANUARY 2.

It is a well-known fact that the Waikato regiments are under the impression that they hare been unfairly dealt with by the Government. They say, and not without truth, that they were led to expect work for at least part of their spare time in making roads and bridges ; and they add that they were given to understand that the settlement of large numbers of non-military occupants of the land would at once increase the value of their own farms, and supply a labour market by means of which they might live. It is a serious matter for the community that neither of these promises should have been fulfilled hitherto, because it has done more than anything else could have done to shake our hold upon the Waikato country. Hewi and the Maniopoto have not yet been, and, so far as appearances go at present, are not very likely hereafter to prove half so dangerous to our comfortable possession of the Waikato territory as our own treatment of the men whom we brought over to hold it. At this moment, many — we might say very many — of the men originally located in the district, have left not only it, but the province, and even the colony. We have no right to complain of this. The men were at liberty to go, and we assuredly had no claim upon them to stay. The favours indeed have as yet been on their part. So far as they have gone, they have well performed their part of the agreement which they made. They have proved staunch in the field, and have given "evidence of possessing no indifferent qualities as settlers, if only they had a fair opportunity afforded them. Thus we do not complain for a moment of the large number that have left us, some for the goldfields in the South, and others for the Australian colonies, whence they came. We may regret, however, the want of inducement to stay, which has hastened and increased this exodus from our province of a class of men not without value to us in many ways. The late Government we may say was to blame for it ; and to some extent this is true. But perhaps we are too ready to receive this as an answer in full to a great many complaints and grievances. We are second to none in our condemnation of the way in which the late Government of the colony dallied, and blew hot and cold on the very important question of Waikato settlement. So far as this was concerned we can find no excuse for the conduct at all, as it was either hopelessly stupid in its vacillation, or foolishly unprincipled in its attempts to take us in. We incline for our own part to the opinion that weakness, rather than intentional deceit, was at the bottom of their conduct, and that they did not, and would not, do the correct thing with respect to the conquered lands, even after confiscation, not so much because they were afraid of any good thing happening to Auckland, as because they could not rid their minds of a thousand weak foibles and impracticable crotchets. Of course we, and especially the Waikato regiments, have been the sufferers by this. If bhey had gone to work at once to have filled up, on the best terms obtainable, all the open land of Waikato with settlers who would do something, even if for a time they did not pay Government anything for the land, we should now have been in a fair way to have no complaints 'from the men of the Waikato regiments, because they could get no work within fifty miles of their farms, and were too poor to go without help of this kind. We do not believe that, do as they would, the Government could have got people to rush at the Waikato lands, as if through them lay the high way to fortune. We think that inducements must have been offered then — as they will have to be offered now — to men who are to be induced to expend money in bringing the waste places of the

Waikato basin into cultivation ; but we do liold that with fair inducement once offered, the thing might have been done. It will be noticed that we have not gone into the other part of the question — the one, it may be observed, which is most often in people's mouths — of the roada and bridges that were to have offered work for the military settler. We have purposely omitted to speak of it until the last, and our reason is this : We do not so very much blame the Government on this point as on the other; and we feel doubtful whether, in any case, it will do for the men to hold to the hope of this as a sheet anchor — whether the colony or the province is expected to afford it. Let us in this be fully understood : we do not for a moment deny the need of roads and bridges in the Waikato territory ; we do not even deny that the understanding was that work at these things would be available for the military settlers, as soon as they were no longer on active service. On these two subjects there can bo no reasonable doubt, and we do not for a moment propose to raise any. It is, however, unfortunately the case that the law of necessity controls every other; and it is true that the expense of the war was so great, and threatened to last so long, that we can hardly wonder at the reluctance of any Government to dip at all more deeply into the public purse, even for so good a purpose as this } than could be helped. True, the late Government dipped deeply into it for less worthy objects, but these they imagined of first-rate importance at least to them, and while we blame them for this it affords no fresh ground for blame on the other question. But, we may be asked, what now of the future ? The thing is now in the hands of the province : what will it do ? To this we can give no very full answer. It rests of course with the Superintendent and the Council, and we cannot prophesy with confidence as to their decision. We can, however, reason from the facts within our reach, and these lead us to but one conclusion. ' It is true that the province is deeply interested in the success and permanence of the military settlements in Waikato. It is true that their prosperity is its prosperity, and their decay its loss ; but it is also true that the means of the province are too limited to enable it to launch out into great and only distantly remunerative expenses. The work of settlement will, we cannot doubt, be one of the very first things to engage the attention of the Government and the Council, and in this matter we have no doubt that solid progress will be made, and a better state of things inaugurated ; but on the score of roads and public works we fear ifc will be found that the public purse is too low to allow of a great deal being done, however desirable it may appear. We wish it were otherwise with all our hearts, but we think it best to face the truth at once, and we see little prospect of extensive public works for Waikato at present.