SETTLEMENT OF TAURANGA,

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3043, 27 April 1867, Page 6

SETTLEMENT OF TAURANGA,

The time is drawing near when the Ist Waikato Regiment will be a thing of the past : but of the 700 men formerly drawing Government pay in Te Papa only 56 now remain, and of these numbers are talcing their discharge daily. It is a matter to be regretted that such a disinclination prevails among the men to settle and cultivate their farm sections. We are aware that the threatening aspect of affairs has driven numbers away from our shores, who who would otherwise have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to settle in Tauranga : nor do we wonder at it ; but even before there was any actual danger to be apprehended from fjhe incursions of the fanatics, the same disinclination was eyinced. Colonel Haultain, before he left here for Wellington, gave strict orders that those men who had not already drawn their land were to do so, and be struck: off pay as quickly at possible, although the honourable gentleman could not but be aware that the «aid Und is in the immediate vicinity of the rebels, and that the surveyors had a covering party of Arawas while at work on it. Of course, land in such a position as this is abous as valuable as an estate in the mountains of the moon, and equally practicable to get at in the present state of affairs : but there are some who drew their land in a comparatively practical position, and we fully ex pected to sco .them turning the wilderness into a garden. On this point we must certainly confess we have been very much disappointed, there being only four who are making any show of cultivation at present ; but we ' trust that numbers, seeing the success of their more enterprising brethren, will return and follow in their footsteps. No doubt if those refractory impediments to our progress, the Hauhaus, were removed, Tauranga would nob be backward in its march of civilisation, possessing asit does a splendid harbour and rich land, replete with every natural convenience sufficient to make it one of the fiaesjt places in New Zealand, —Artnu,