PORT NICHOLSON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 44, 7 January 1843, Page 175

PORT NICHOLSON.

By the Elizabeth, we have received the | Gazette to the 24 th and the Colonist to the ' 27th of December. We are indebted to the former for the following intelligence : — The New Zealand Company have offered to send out lights for a light-house to be erected on Pencarrow Head, at an expense of £1,500, to be charged on the harbour dues. The matter for the present waits a reference from Lord Stanley to the Governor of the colony. The Company have also voted the sum of £200 towards defraying the expense of building a Catholic chapel at Wellington. A Catholic priest accompanies the Hon. Mr. Petre in the Thomas Sparks. A road for pack bullocks is about to be I made, that will traverse the Takapu, Pawaitanginui Porirua, and Horaki districts, besides opening a°communication,withthe coast road to Manawatu, &c. The dressing of flax for exportation is felt to be matter of Vital importance. The Gazette says — I "An effort is being made to endeavour to induce the natives ttxengage themselves ia«he' employment of flax dressing. Native baskets, containing a certain quantity of a particular quality, with a money price attached, have been sent to the native villages, in the hopes that thereby the advantage of again resorting to flax dressing will be made apparent. The natives are now quite acquainted with our coins, and the relative amount of the description: of goods they need which can be obtained with them ; and we think they will find it better worth their attention to dress flax than to cultivate potatoes at the relative prices they can obtain. Their market for flax will be certain, while that for potatoes must daily diminish, as the Europeans will soon supply potatoes in .abundance, with certainty, and at moderate prices ; and must cultivate them as essential to their -progress in- farming. As the natives carry their loads, we cannot conceive anything more unprofitable to them. They come for miles with": a basket, for which they obtain one shilling. The same weight of flax would be worth six times that amount. Those who have influence with the native^ and speak their language, should point out to .them how much more profitably, consequently, they could expend their time on flax. It is estimated that if the natives again become flax-dressers that two thousand tonspralued at £40,000, may be collected alone in Cook* | Straits." The following is from the Colonist — " Within the last few days, a contract has been taken and executed by a native, for the delivery of 15 tops Hinau bark, at £3 pound per ton. This circumstance affords a proof of willingness of the natives to engage in any employment from which they can derive a fair profit, and shows also that they are becoming accustomed to tour methods of transacting business. We see no reason to doubt but that contracts might be msdr fes the same manner for the deliver/ of 4*9* -arid w« believe that one is now being n«fcoo*toeT *«• that purpose with the same native. of preparing flax also affords amesjtsofcMfiPjsnent

for the children of settlers from ten to fourteen yean of age, .which they could pursue within doorsr under the . eye of their parents, and by which the earning of a labourer's/family might be very considerably augmented., c T.he method pf stripping the, flax is easily acquired, and every such child might readily earn by this method 'rom one to two shillings a day." "We feel great pleasure in learning that fhe oeasures to which we referred- some time since, which had been commenced for the purpose of rendering the labour of the natives available for the production of the flax, are now in' process" of being carried out A large number of natives are now engaged in the preparation of this article, and from all that we are able to learn, the employment will probably extend widely among them. Tn addition .to this, a school has been opened for «te instruction of the* children of the settlers in she native method of preparing flax, and an. intelligent native has been engaged as teacher. Several persons pf different ages have already entered themselves as pupils, and their numbers may be expected to increase. The labours of Mr. .Beauchamp Halswell in inducing the natives to devote themselves to this task, and in securing the establishment of the school to which we have referred, are deserving of honourable mention. The extent to which this method of securing an article Of exportation has been already carried, is due, in a great degree to him ; and it is, we believe, to his exertions and his influence with the ■natives, carrying out the suggestion of Mr. Partridge, that we owe the establishment of the school for the settlers. If these exertions meet with the success which at present we are fully warranted in anticipating, the settlement will be under very great obligations to this gentleman. We understand also that Mr. E. J. Wakefield, who has recently left this place for Otaki, and whose knowledge of the native language and customs have given him great influence among them, is engaged in endeavouring to induce the Maories of that district to apply themselves to the same work. If the merchants of this place should be able to pay the price which the natives have been led to expect, their appears no reason to doubt that by this means alone a very valuable and important article of export will be at once created." A long an? important correspondence has taken place between Mr. Swainson and the Police Magistrate of Wellington, relative to some annoyance which the former gentleman has experienced from the Maories on the Hutt. It appears that Mr. Swainson has a section of one hundred acres of hind in that district, and ; that, previous to July last, a parly of natives, < with their chief E'Kuri, seized upon the greater part of it and commenced felling the timber. Mr. Swainson applied to the authorities for protection, and the Protector of Aborigines and the Commissioner of Land Claims visited the Hutt for the purpose of settling the matter. . It was then arranged that E'Kuri shoud be allowed to get one crop of potatoes off a certain portion of the ground, on condition that he did not molest certain men to whom a few acres had been let, nor cut down such trees as Mr. Swainson wished to keep standing. A few days after this arrangement, E'Kuri and his followers drove off the tenants from the land, and possessed themselves of ninety-three out of Mr. Swainson's hundred , ' acres. But what is still more serious, is the fact of their purposing to set fire about this period to all the timber felled on the land in question, as well as on adjoining sections, which Mr. Swainson considers fraught with danger, not only to his own house and crops, but should a high wind prevail, he thinks it by no means unlikely that the whole district may be destroyed. In support of these fears, he instances the fact of some natives setting fire to a piece of bush at Poverty Bay last year, for the purpose of driving out pigs, which communicated to a forest, and burnt for nearly three months. On the other hand, Mr. Murphy 1 considers the matter to be out of his jurisdiction, as Mr. Swainson consented to the Maories clearing part of the land, and ends by '-telling that gentleman, for his satisfaction, that 1 it is not yet determined who are the trespassers -~the natives or the whites. At the Wanganui Petty Sessions, Mr. Dawson, the police magistrate, and Dr. Wilson and Captain Campbell, two of the justice's, came to an open rupture. Some papers, said to relate to Mr. Dawson's removal from his office, were sought to be obtained by one of the police by offering a bribe to the servant of the gentleman in whose possession they were. Mr. Dawson, after great difficulty, committed the aergant of police to take his trial for felony* . put allowed him to be at liberty on his own re- ; cognizances. The justices of the peace -s^o sought to interfere, appear not .to have been listened to, and on Dr. Wilson asking if they i. were cyphers, was politely told, yes. The Gazette of <he 24th presses on the con- . sideration of the colonists the . necessity of -forming an association for Hfce better detection of thieves, and prosecutiog tirem at the expense ' of that body. - By the Colonist, we learn that a Maori woman, who had been living with a white man namjed. Whining, had been murdered at Cloudy a ncr iufant-^child, eighteen., months oM. JpCn old straw hat and a tomahawk .were I discovered near where Jtpe bodies lay, but no farther due to the murderer. The Thomas Sparks, with passengers and cargo for this place and Wellington, struck on the Whale Rock, while entering Table Bay, 'Cape of Good Hope, and became leaky. It was found necessary that she should discharge her cargp to be repaired. We are indebted to a friend ,fpr the sigl# of a Cqpuitt cf December 30th. : . T^e weather at " Piort Nicholson has been of an unusually stormy character, notwithstanding which, farming »pexatipns have pot suffered, and at the Hortaenlstunl exhibition, there was- an excellent show of •vary description of fruity flower, mad vegetable in atason. j •- ' = <

Printed and. pnbli»heAe»«y Saturday morning," Jgr tin Proprietor, CaA.Ki.st Elliott, at Urn pibjoy BSAMif B» Oflkr, Ndten, New Zetland.-