Chapter VI. — Separation . — Aspect op Native Affairs.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 953, 20 June 1868, Page 3

Chapter VI . — Separation . — Aspect op Native Affairs.

By the year 1855, the district had so far advanced that many of the settlers thought it deserving of more attention than it had yet met with at the hands of the Provincial Government of "Wellington. The treatment the runholders had received so exasperated them, that their complaints became loud enough to alarm the Wellingtonians, and Messrs. Fox and Fitzherbert were despatched to restore harmony. Their arrival was the signal for a great gathering. at Munn'S) who by this time had built a tolerably extensive house, to meet the requirements of the rapidly increasing population. To throw oil upon the troubled waters,' the Wellington gentlemen invited nearly all present to a dinner, and exerted themselves, not altogether unsuccessfully, in restoring calm. The ranholding claims were heard and adjusted ; and, on the whole, a deal of useful business being disposed of, a hollow peace was brought - about. When these gentlemen returned to the empire city, much curiosity was expressed as to how they had fared in their mission; and, a story having got abroad about the dinner at Munn's, a "chaff" was established as to how the Ahuriri people had been got over. This didn't do much good. The port people began to see that political agitation might mean considerable private gain, and several of their number undertook td'shew how absurd it was that a fine district like the Ahuriri should be controlled by a Wellington party, and the proceeds of its fat lands drained away to improve a town 200 miles distant. The country party (for there were two parties) long held aloof, and could not be induced to see the good things the port people prophesied. The firmness of their opinions, however, was shaken not a little by the furious paper war then raging in Wellington itself, between the "Beachcombers" and the " Calmuc Tartars," as the two opposing parties were respectively nicknamed. The up-country runholders hated the Wellington beach mob,- and feared that the Ahuriri townspeople might become equally objectionable; if it had been possible, they would have been glad to have had nothing to do with either, but would have locked up the district and secured their holdings in the way most favorable to their own interests. They didn't want towns, nor population : wool was the export, and "Wellington and Auckland would eat the mutton. There is no doubt that they pursued at . this period an eminently selfish and miscalculating policy. They had no coherent plan, and were naturally distrustful and jealous. Whilst they were in this dubious and incapable condition, the port faction acted with promptitude and judgment. Two men of great tact, and no mean ability, Messrs. T. Fitzgerald and Scaly, pressed their measures with assiduity and .confidence of success. j Numerically speaking, the strength was largely on the side of the latter, whilst the ranks of the country party were, little by little, diminished by desertion. When the great meeting was held at Ferrers' new hotel, with the symbolic title of the "Golden Fleece," scarce a dozen were left to oppose the separation of Ahuriri from Wellington, and even these, before the meeting closed, were reduced to five. Nevertheless the petition might have failed had it not been for a peculiar juncture of political affairs in the House of Representatives, whereby that was granted to political strategy which would very probably never have been yielded to the application on its simple merits. The three "F.s" had assumed, or were supposed to have assumed, to govern the colony, and to perpetuate an empire city. As no greater blow could be struck at their power than the snatching away from their control so large and fair a territory as Hawke's Bay, advantage was taken of an almost unlooked-for opportunity, and the opponents of these gentlemen triumphantly passed the celebrated < ' New Provinces Act, " whereby Hawke's Bay was created an independent province in the year 1858. Thus was a district containing some millions of acres of perhaps the finest land in the North Island of.New Zealand, handed over to the control of its own settlers, and another link added to the chain of proof of the entire truth of the remark of Oxernstein — "."With how little wisdom are states governed." The experiment has been tried, so argument over that which is past is of little avail, and would in these days, when the dying embers of provincialism are giving their last feeble and \iricertain light, be of no value as a warning to the future. Like poor men who have suddenly and unexpectedly come into possession of great wealth, the Government of the new province misused its resources in a manner which at this distance of time looks like fatuity and unaccountable blindness. Their great end and aim appears to have been to sell land as qxiickly as possible at 10s. per acre, and, having acquired the money, to try how easily it could be got rid of. Those who had settled on the coast and in the province prior to these days, were rarely men of mqre than very small capital — under then circumstances, it must be borne in mind that £500 to £1000 represented the chance of an opening equal to more than £5000 would at the. present time. To the runholders who had started under these conditions, the pressure for land which so soon followed the settlement of the district was full of evil augury. The prospect of losing all chance of the pleasant futui'e , which the high price of wool temptingly set before them, was enough to throw men so placed off their balance. The Wellington merchants, flourishing -themselves; were willing to aid those by whom they made their money, and everywhere the ciy was . "We must buy our rims," Men rarely argue soundly under s^ch. pressure, and consequently nine-tenths of the runholders

into;the snare,.6ne encouraging the y:^^^ier>^ffiey smuggled and fotight to get ;; c>w_^t-iey:, could, in rieaily as Tnajiy in--5 r -;bliying what they couldn't afford, ;:';andyl as results have since shewii,: what they ■ifw^uld: have-been better without. Every v t' Jtevelle- 1" was looked upon with' suspicion, /.-"■- and advantage was taken by men who;had ;' ready'moriey .to screw out of many a runT holder some; compromise, effected at enor- !'/' ir -"mo\is'"_iadfitv(xS'themselvißS- and equal loss tc jw- -the'settlers,':-]by:.purchasing, or'"spotting," --•>'asit'waS;not inaptly called, the best por- ; ?s holdings. Foi '/; this\"state of things none were responsible '-:'■ -but 1 tße: Government and the Grown Land ; > Eegulations then iv force.' The markei ■'was open, and, as a matter of fact, every -; _T_an"ha(l a right to go in for what was sim- :. : ply-a lottery under the patronage and pro- ;, -tectipn of the G-ovei'nment. •■ . ; :Setting:aside the benefits conferred^ by - the gold discoveries down south, how is it :' that the prosperity of the northern pastoral :; ;"and" agricultural disti%i,cts cannot be com- ■ f pared tb! those of Canterbury and Otago ? Because the latter.pursued a better system. The Hawke's Bay runholders were peculiarly 1 the victims of a vicious and unstatesman';;like'rpdlicy.;. Tens of thousands'of acres ••■'-••wßre forced into the market,/bought by :ii people who iTiined and enslaved themselves - 'tb r do-so/ and the proceeds scattered as ■}* Hieedlessly • as they had been acquired. ; Lands which, properly administered, would ,' • _aye now 'yielded a princely income to the ; state, were'got rid of as though solely to es- "- capje \the responsibility of their manage-