AUCKLAND EXTRACTS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 348, 4 November 1848, Page 141

AUCKLAND EXTRACTS.

The Pensioners. — The rate of wages to the pensioners in Government employ has been cut down to eighteen-pence a day, in consequence, it is said, of despatches from home, complaining of the general expenditure of the colony, and more particularly of that portion of it -which is absorbed by the force in question. The reduction itself, in the absence of accurate knowledge, we must suppose to have been unavoidable ; the fault is not so much in .that, as in the hating placed the men in situations where they are precluded from shifting for themselves and relieving the Government almost entirely from their support. It may be likewise observed that, had the order been less sudden and unexpected, much unnecessary hardship would have been spared, by giving some of the more prudent a chance of providing against the pinching times to come. We had ourselves this week intended to have looked carefully into the whole question — to have ripped it up from beginning to end ; but having learned that the excitement in that corps is great, that meetings have been already held in " the Doomed Village," we will not risk the charge of being accessory to agitation in any shape whatever, or of its being said that the men were driven to insubordination by the press. So soon, however, as they shall have resolved upon the course they may think vneetest to pursue, we shall take leave, without any more such nicety of scruple, to speak our mind about the treatment which that corps has received. — Anglo-Maori War&er, September 21.

The Lieut. -Governor perceiving, it is to be presumed, the utter inefficiency of the natives under the present system of management, has placed a party of the 58th Regt. upon the roads. And certainly, for tenpence a day, all that he is allowed to receive, a soldier gives double the work that can be extracted from a Maori at eighteenpence. We have always disapproved of the employment of natives in that particular service. It has proved highly demoralizing to themselves ; the waste of public money has been scandalous, and the work has not been done. The injury, moreover, that has been done to the agricultural settler through this system should be by no means overlooked. Its practical effect has been to hinder him almost entirely from benefiting by one of the greatest advantages this colony was supposed to possess. He cannot afford to compete in offer of wages with the Government. The times have been, that for ninepence a day, a better day's work, with a little management, could be got out of a native on a farm, that can now be obtained for two shillings : even the latter rate of wages being often refused by men who find it pleasanter to idle out their time for a lesser remuneration upon tbe roads. — Ib.

It is said that Sir G. Grey has purchased Mr. Wickstead's house at Taranaki for the sum of £240, very much to the mystification of tbe settlers, who are exhausting every possible conjecture as to the use which is to be made of it. Let us here observe, that Auckland has been guilty of some want of courtesy towards New Plymouth, in not having offered it a welcome on its reception into the Northern Froviace. It is the only one of the Company's settlements which has in any way shown itself well affected towards us, exhibiting a neighbourly feeling which it is to be hoped will be heartily reciprocated on our side likewise. — Ib.

Sale of Stock. — The cattle and horses by Elizabeth and Henry, have been nearly all sold by Mr. H. Joseph at very remunerating prices. On Thursday, 20 fat bullocks realised ten guineas a bead ; 25 cows, averaged eight guineas; 50 heifers, £6 35.; and 50 yearlings, £4 each. Yesterday, there were four draught horses sold at £45 each ; 2 saddle horses, each at £44, and one at £50, and 3 saddle mares at £20 each. — New Zealander, September 23.

Taranaki. — We may be late, but we are not therefore the less sincere, in welcoming the enterprising settlers of Taranaki into fellowship of their northern brethren of whose province their floursbing settlement now

forms a component part. Our intercourse has been, for some time, on the increase, and we have reason to believe that, ere long, it will be very considerably extended. Shippers, erewhilein the habit of transacting business with Wellington, express a frank opinion of the greater facilities and commercial superiority of this market. Vessels, therefore, that were formerly wont to make the passage to Cook's Straits, are likely to make sail towards the north ; and should the Acheron be instructed, as we trust she may, to undertake a prompt and accurate survey of the noble harbour of Manakau, the communication with Taranaki will become rapid and continuous. A cargo of potatoes was recently shipped from Taranaki to Sydney, but at a loss to the shipper. Had they been sent to Manukau, a profit would have been realised, as the article always finds its value in the Auckland market. The land recently purchased by Governor Grey is nearly fully occupied, and the greater portion under cultivation. In short, industry and prosperity are said to march hand in hand. — /&., 30. Road Making. — Amongst the many sources of profligate patronage in the overriden colonies, none have been more fertile of ruinous and reckless expenditure than roads. In New South Wales, and in Van Diemen's Land, where ample labour was at command, where materials were superabundant, and where the utmost difficulty of traffic existed, scarcely a tolerable road is to be found; and that, notwithstanding the numerous gangs constantly employed, and the lavish outlay for their tools, sustenance and supervision. The secret of this disregard of public convenience is to be found in the entire absence of any interest reciprocal to the Governor and the governed. Roads therefore, colonially speaking, have been regarded less as a medium of benefit to the settlers, than as vehicles of personal patronage to the Viceroy pro tern. We have witnessed numerous instances of this maleversation of office — not only in the employment of large gangs in unimportant spots, but in the appointment of Military officers, upon full pay ; some of them doing regimental duty at headquarters with their corps, and merely indulging in an occasional constitutional ride, in order that a colour might be given to their claim of Colonial allowance for the supervising of works whose elementary principles were as Sanscrit to their understandings. * * It should be an imperative instruction from the Imperial to every Local Government, that all roads be undertaken by public contract. The colonies would then have some assurance that the money appropriated for 6uch purposes was judiciously applied, and thai the works would be earned on with energy and ability. The road making system in New Zealand is generally decried, and as far as our own means of observation enables us to decide, most deservedly so. Men are not born engineers, however greatly they may be born poets. Engineering is an art that requires study, application, and practical experience, and to those alone, thus qualified, matters of such vital import to colonial prosperity should be confided. Nor do we think [the operation of atonesplitting is one best calculated for the civilization of theMaories ; whilst by drawing them from the cultivation of their own crops, or depriving the farmer of the labour they might otherwise be willing to render in production of his, the colony is unavoidably compelled to trust to the foreigner for supply of her necessary food. The system is as faulty as almost every other colonial system, but the. voice of the colonies is not the voice of A People, nor is Reform a word yet admitted, into their feudal dictionary. — Ib.

Qualifications for Libebty. — Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their dispoition to pat moral chains upon their own appetites ; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their .sound-, neaa of understanding \% above their vanity and pre* ■umption; in proportion as they are more deposed to listen to the counsels of the wise- ami good' .- in preference to the flattery of knavei.-r-2w*:" * Reason requires culture to expand it' Tt resembles the fire concealed in the flint, which only; shows itself when struck by the steel.