HAMILTON. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) July 3.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3118, 15 July 1867, Page 4

HAMILTON. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) July 3.

Owing to a breakdown in our postal arrangements, I fancy some -of my jottings have misoarried ; but there is very little news of a pleasing nature to write about. In numbers our settlement is daily decreasing, and, as to trade, it is niL The public works in our district are quite finished, and oiily two men are now employed to keep the roads in repair. The houses tbat were erected so rapidly are disappearing quite as fast. This may be considered strange, but so it is. The only work being carried on in the district is being done by tbe Maoris, at Tamahere. The chief Hargreaves is having a tine house built, and Bice, another chief, is having a great quantity of fencing and ditching done. And, what is more, they give a price that men can really get a living at — not, like some of the white chiefs, taking advantage of men's misfortune, and having them working for 10i. and 12s. par week, whilst the storekeepers charge for everything at famine prices, flour being 24a. per 1001b., and other provisions being at the same extortionate rate. We have in round numbers somewhere about 150 men, out of 420 men of which the regiment was composed. Included in this number there are about 15 taking care of a blockhouse situated in the swamps between Hamilton and the Fiako, and at this season of the year they have to wade up to the armpits, going and returning. But, as a set-off against our hardships and cheerless prospects, we have two colonels, both on full pay — and that is something handsome— with six of a staff. We have three medical gentlemen $ no employment ; we have four Justices of the Peace ; three resident Christian ministers, and an occasional visit from a fourth j and last, though not least, a limb oE the law, who has grown fat, both in person and pocket. There is one thing which, in justice to the poor men, ought to be made known, and I am sure the Government is no party to such a transaction. A man goes to the orderly-room for his scrip— the only thing which entitles him to a Crown grant, and for which he has struggled very hard this l»st two years to obtain, and also the only thing he has to show if he wants to sell. He is very coolly told by the commanding officer, " You owe Mr. So-and-so bo much, and he has been to me to stop your scrip, and you had better hand it over to him ;" and in nine cases out of ten this has been done, A short time ago one of our settlers— a trained teacher in the other colonies—opened a school in the Redoubt, and under his tuition the children made rapid progress ; but this last week he was taken away by the commanding officer to do some military duty at Raglan. Would it sot have been better to have appointed tome other to that situation, and paid him for the duties for which he was so well qualified ? But the education of the youug forms no part of the Government policy ; and I regret that the ministers in our midst did not raise a voice in the matter. After a spell of fine frosty weather we have had a fall of rain, heavier than any we have had previously this year, and there is every appearance of its being a wet spring. The majority of the crops put in this season will be in the township, those who are remaining farming the acres of those who have gone to seek pastures new. The majority of the acres will be in wheat, and which I believe will bo a success.