AUCKLAND MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR THE FEBRUARY ENGLISH MAIL VIA SYDNEY, [From January 8th to February 8th, 1862.]

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1650, 8 February 1862, Page 4

AUCKLAND MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR THE FEBRUARY ENGLISH MAIL VIA SYDNEY, [From January Bth to February Bth, 1862.]

The Provincial Council is still in session, and, as far as can at present be surmized, may continue to sit for mouths to come, to the great profit of the printers and to the great damage of the public, whose substantial interests are suffered to be in abeyance whilst a few factious individuals, inveterate political and personal opponents of the present Superintendent, devote themselves to the work of finding or making a quarrel with him in order avowedly to bring about a dead-lock and a dissolution. They will, however, be beaten at both these games, as these same gentlemen, notorious disturbers of the peace in politics, are, so to say, known to the police and watched with jealous vigilance. The times are critical; there are several questions of large importance to the interests of this Province awaiting consideration; the majority of the members are able to bring to the consideration of these questions sound intelligence, practical good sense, and an earnest desire to promote the public welfare; but, being for the most part new men untried in public assemblies, they have been up to this time overborne and carried away with noise and shouting by two or three “old hands” who have their own small objects to attain, and who, from natural obliquity and long habit, reduce every question, however momentous, to the limits of a personal “ difficulty,” and work up to it laboriously in narrowing circles after their own stealthy fashion.

It was thought to have been a great triumph for these gentlemen, when, by such unfair arts as we shall not now refer to, they succeeded in depriving the Superintendent of that means of defence which, in the persons of his Executive, he had always had in former Councils, but it is now seen that the Council has thus also been deprived of the assistance of that official knowledge and intimate acquaintance with Provincial affairs which could so much facilitate the business of the Session —knowledge which cannot be improvised by any one, and the want of which is felt in the transactions of every sitting day. Seeing the disadvantage at which the Superintendent has thus been placed, we have felt it to be our duty in all fairness to take his side, out of the Council, and to expose, in these columns, party tricks which ought to have been foiled in the arena where they were exhibited. We shall continue unflinchingly to pursue the same course, until the good sense and public spirit which are known to exist in the Provincial Council shall have exerted and established their supremacy in the conduct of the public business. The Council and the Superintendent have not concurred in the nomination of a Provincial Auditor, and, as provided by law in such cases, the appointment must now be made by the Governor.

Amongst the projects which are now upon the tapis, the one of greatest interest is the railway from Drury to Auckland. Drury is the title of a township situated at the head of a navigable creek of the Manukau Harbour; it is the point upon which the lines of road from Wairoa, from the Waikato by Maungatawhiri, and from Waiuku converge. In its immediate neighbourhood are situated the Coal Mines now being worked, from which the supply of fuel for Auckland must be drawn. There arc clays of various kinds suitable for the manufacture of every description of pottery; there are also limestone and sandstone of a very superior quality. The distance from Auckland to Drury by the present line is about twenty-four miles; the laud is occupied and in cultivation throughout the whole distance, and the districts which we have named above, and of which Drury would appear to be the natural entrepot, are rapidly rising into importance. The country to be traversed by the railway is level, and there are, we believe, no engineering difficulties of any importance to be encountered. The expenses of survey and preparation of the necessary plans and estimates have been voted by the Provincial Council, and it is to be hoped that in the next session of the General Assembly, the necessary arrangements will be made to set the work on foot. A Committee of the Proviucil Council have found time to consider one of the subjects referred to in the speech of the Superintendent, namely, the advisability of endeavouring to establish military settlements in certain districts in this Province, and have reported favourably of the scheme which it is to be hoped may, without delay, be carried into practical operation. The Pensioner villages Avhich Avere established here some years since, are examples of the good Avhich similar settlements are capable of producing under judicious management and under favourable circumstances. In these cases the condition of the Military colonists as a body has been greatly improved, some of them have attained to comparative Avealth, all, excepting those Avhose habits Avere intemperate, have secured some property, Avhilst a field of enterprize has been opened to their children which iu the old coxmtry they could not obtain. On the other hand, the presence of these Military settlers on what Avas then our frontier afforded us the advantage of protection at once and of available labour; the rich and thriving districts in the neighbourhood of Onehuuga, of HoAvick, of Panmure, and of Otahuhu, attest the value of the presence and of the labours of the first Pensioner settlers iu Auckland. There is no reason why the experiment should not be repeated with like success in other portions of the 1 Province,

We learn that the agents of the Association of Non-conformists, established in England for the purpose of forming special settlements in this Province, have fixed upon the site for the location of the first detachment of immigrants, who may be expected to arrive before the close of the current year. The Oruawharo and the Pakiri blocks, containing, jointly, more than 50,000 acres, have been proclaimed by the Superintendent as set apart for the operations of the Association, and the survey of the land will be immediately commanced. These blocks He contiguously, and are situated at a distance of about 35 miles north of Auckland ; the land in both is above the average quality, and the Oruawharo has the advantage of a large deep water frontage of the first class to a portion of the Kiapara harbour. The line of the Great North Road runs through the blocks, and the roadway itself, which is now open and practicable for bush traffic to Mahuraughi, may be opened as far as Mangawai before the close of summer if the necessary provision for that work be speedily made by the Provincial Council. We think that, on the whole, a more judicious selection could not have been made. The problem of the existence of a payable gold-field at Coromandel is in process of solution. A considerable number of experienced diggers, attracted by the accounts of that district which from time to time have been published, have come up from Otago on a prospecting expedition, and are now at work at Coromandel. Every possible precaution appears to have been taken by the authorities to facilitate the exploration of the country and to prevent any difficulty or misunderstanding from arising between the new-comers and the Natives Avho arc the owners of the land. News of the results of the operations of the diggers is anxiously looked for There has been a little difficulty in the work of reorganizing our local Volunteer Corps, which the patriotism and public spirit of the force have happily surmounted About the middle of January, a new code, of regulations for the Volunteers was issued by the Government; and the existing companies were disbanded, in order to give individual members of them an opportunity of retiring or re-joining under the new regulations. A general meeting was accordingly held in the Mechanics’ Institute, and the new code was read and explained by the late Commanding officer, Colonel Balneavis. On such an occasion it was scarcely to be expected, but that from a small section at least, these regulations, liberal as they were, would meet with disapproval, and in deference to the wishes of a portion of the meeting, twentyfive delegates were appointed from the different corps, to consider the circumstances under which they were placed, and an adjourned meeting was proposed for the same night of the following week, to receive and abide by the decision of the delegates. Meantime, a meeting, called without authority, was held and attended by some thirty or forty persons, with the ostensible object of obstructing the re-foiming of the Companies, unless terms more in accordance with their supposed ideas of liberality were acceded to by the Government. Resolutions condemnatory of the new Government regulations were passed, though, even in that small meeting, not without division. On the following Monday the adjourned meeting was resumed and the report of the delegates, recommending the immediate re-organisation of the old companies, under the old names, was adopted. The occasion, however, was not passed over by the chief movers of the obstructives without two or three speeches of the paltry spirit of which their fellow-townsmen were so heartily ashamed, although, as reasonable men, they would not deny them a hearing—that they concluded the whole discussion by adjourning the meeting sine die, with the determination of offering their services at once to the Government, leaving it to the discretion and judgment of the authorities to make any further amendments in the new regulations which might appear desirable. Since then meet: iugs for the pui’pose of re-organizing the various corps have been held, and our citizens are daily engaged in the task of repaixdng to the Militia Office for the purpose of being sworn in to one or other of the different City Companies. We see by an advertisement in our columns that the Suburbs and Parnell are endeavouring to raise a new corps, and heartily wish them success. Whilst on the subject of the Volunteermovement, we must not omit to notice that at the last genex-al meeting a communication was received from Mr. J. Cochrane, that that gentleman had received the sum of £l6, being subscriptions from Mrs. Spicei’, Mrs. Wynne Grey, and Mrs. Colonel Grey, towards a fund for the purpose of purchasing a stand of colours, to be presented by the ladies of Auckland to the Rifle Volunteers of this city. This example we trust may be speedily followed by those in whose power it lies to x’ender this movement not only popixlar, but lasting. The greatest damp which the volunteer movement has experienced in this Province has been the apathy and neglect with which, hitherto, it has been viewed by the fair ones whose protection and defence form the first thought and aim of the volunteer. Our Anniversary Regatta, which came off on the 29th ult., was perhaps the most successful by which the festival has yet been distinguished. The Maori race for war canoes, which used to be the great feature of the entertainment, had fallen out of the programme or failed for two or three years, but on this occasion its interest was revived in full force. There were five entries for the race; thi’ee Avar canoes, each of sixty or seventy feet in length, and each propelled Avith paddles by fifty or sixty braAvny arms, started The Ist prize, of £ls, Avas won by “Piki Waihine” by six feet, just a “ nose,” after a contest the Avild excitement of which cannot be described. It is a favourable sign of the times when our Native friends join us in such numbers in our holiday sports. The military force is still busily at work upon the road to Waikato, Avhich it is hoped Avill be completed before the Avinter. If that Avhich has been done is to bo taken as a specimen of that Avhich is to be done, the road will do credit to the Avorkmen and Avill confer a lasting benefit on both races in this Province. The natives are getting over the first feeling of jealousy Avith Avhich this movement of the troops Avas regarded and begin to understand that the road, for purposes of peaceful traffic, Avill be a direct advantage to them; meanAvhile Avith their characteristic eye to business they improve the occasion and supply the camps Avith such articles of provision as they usually deal in. Of the general aspect of the “Native Question ” in the Colony at the present moment avc have written at length in another place.