The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 102, 11 March 1864, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1864.

SPKCTEMUE AGENDO. Hivo every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's cenaurc, but reserve thy Judgment. This above alt,—To tbino ownaoll' be true; And it must follow, b« the night the day, Thou canst not then bo false to any man."

TiiEiiK is again a lull in the war. It would almost seem as if the campaign in the Waikato had been brought to a present close. Worsted in every their encounter —strongholds either stormed or turned—their warriors slain or made captive—driven from post to post a tthe bayonet's point,—instructed by wol'ul experience of the might of the nation they had the temerity to despise,—the rebels, after a feeble stand" at Eangiawahia, have broken up and dispersed, leaving their place of retreat matter of conjecture. By many, it is supposed they have crossed theranges, retiring upon the broken country near to Mokau, that locality affording excellent cover, and having many suitable spots peculiarly favourable for the purposes of Maori cultivation. Poßsibly a combination with the Taranaki rebels may be in contemplation, if by a favourable chance they should imagine they might be able to retrieve in the West the disasters and defeats they have sustained in the Waikato country. Preparations, however, have been carefully made against surprise; and the gallant Chief, in command at Taranaki, Colonel "Warrc, is about to have his hands strengthened by a detachment of artillery with three twelve-pounder Armstrong guns. Although the season is still favourable, and may probably continue to bo so for the next two months, it does not seem likely that the army of the "Waikato will make any further forward movement.

Winter quarters arc spoken of. The troops are proposed to be placed in huts at Awamutu. And the Commissariat have called for tenders for a very largequantity of sawn timber to be procured from the mills around Auckland, and to bo transported thence at an enormous expense of time, money, and men, and in the face of all those difficulties of transit which have been the cause of General Cameron's supplies being so continually deficient, and which cannot fail to obstruct in a great degree the transport of other stores.

One is necessarily driven to the conclusion that there must be a lamentable absence of colonial intelligence in a department which can discern no other means of housing an army than by the erection of weather boarded huts, the materials for which are sought for at some one hundred and forty miles distance. Can no comfortable barracks be constructed of materials on the spot ? Kaikatea and other timber is said to abound. These trees it has been suggested to have split and slab huts constructed. Very strong and comfortable huts and other buildings may be expeditiously formed of slabs: and if the slabs be let into grooves in the ground and wall plates, as the timber dries and shrinks they can be driven closer together and the gap tilled up by insertion of an additional slab or two. This is a style of building at one time much in vogue in the Australian colonies for barns, stables, fowl, and dwelling houses. A house so constructed is much more sightly and substantial than the ordinary slab hut, and being bound together at top and bottom by the grooves in the plates, nails are not required. Hut there is yet another, and that an easy and expeditious mode of erecting comfortable dwellings—a mode well known to the early colonists of Australia and Tasmania, under whose cover many influential families have spent the most pleasant and prosperous portion of their colonial career.

The dwell in gs of which we speak are known as wattle and daub houses. They are formed with stout posts let at intervals into the ground. "Between each of these uprights, a paimel of intertwisted wattles, much like basket-work, ].>. woven, si stout wall plate binding the whole, fabric together. The basket frame having been completed the dab or daub is then applied. It consists of wellmixed loam, without lime, but is improved and made tougher by the introduction of cow dung. This mortar is then thrown, by hand, against the frame-work both outside and inside, but not, simultaneously. Every cranny is thus idled up, and a solid wall is formed. A second coat, after the first becomes dry, is laid on in the same way, and the surface smoothed with a plasterer's trowel; the walls are then whitewashed, or, where the proprietor is particular, a thin finishing coat of mortar mixed with lime is applied, and thus a staunch and comfortable house, infinitely cleaner, and much more wholesome than the dirty weather-boarded huts of the Otahuhu camp, is set up in a tenth part of the time, and at a twentieth part of the cost. The writer lias built several such huts and cottages, and knows their utility. They are durable, light and cheerful, and from being frequently white-washed aflbrd much less harbour for fleas and other vermin than either the slab or the weather boarded cottage. They do not become impaired by exposure to the weather, but, with well tempered mortar, set as hard as stone or terre pita. In the early limes ot Tasmania, if our memory be not in fault, the first Colonial Hospital and Commissariat Store at New Norfolk, were both of wattle and dab formation. With such materials the Army of the "Waikato could be cosily and comfortably boused in three weeks. H they wait for sawn timber, many of them will have no winter quarters until spring shall be verging towards summer.

At the time of the formation of the Otahuhu Camp, the Commissariat caused a considerable stoppage to city improvements as well by the demand for timber as for artisans. They now again, very thoughtlessly come into the field, at a juncture when there was reasonable hope that the City improvements, so long suspended because of the withdrawal of our soldier mechanics to the front, might be carried out through the release of our fellow citizens from their militia duties. There are a, great variety of buildings, an immense number of works, public and private, for which contracts have been taken, and which are most urgently required. These will, of necessity, be impeded, and the Commissariat persist "in hutting the troops on the "Waiknto in the manner they propose —a manner not onlv of unnecessary expense but entßiling all the diflieulties of transport which has been the bete iiovi throughout the clto Mid cilisetts put ic he*--? lew. twin-

this very peculiar aspect of the question, it is to be hoped that the Commissariat (which can have no other object than the public interest m Vlew ) will uofc perß ; Bfc { n hutt ; n „ the troops on the Waikato in the maimer proposed; if they do not alter their contemplated arrangements, we fear they will incur a very heavy expense, with all those difficulties ot transport which have been the source ot so much and continuous obstruction m, US out , tl,e Waikato campaign. I he comfort and convenience of the troops cannot be sufficiently studied; but there are other means of ministering to their comfort than by weather boarded huts. Our knowledge of those at Otahuhu does not impress us with any superlative opinion of their comfort. They are dark, dingv, and disagreeable, and, if the sentiments o'f present and previous occupants could be ascertained, we incline to think they would add that they are neither over-clean nor over wholesome. There are numbers of ingenious artisans p t}ie . Provi nee of Auckland ; and if the Commissariat would invite their aid, they would learn how the army can be expeditiously hutted—and without injury and obstruction to the City and its improvements.

It cannot bo denied that man is an animal difficult to satisfy. No sooner is one wish gratified than another is expressed. One would imagine that, seeing the rapid improvements in the City of Auckland of late years—effecting so complete an alteration, that any one having been absent from it since 1860, and now returning, would not recognise it as the same town. One would imagine that after looking at the handsome buildings that line Queen-street and would be no discredit to any European city, and thinking how short a time ago it "is that shabby huts occupied many places now the site of' substantial, brick and stone music halls, banks or churches, that the inhabitants should be satisfied, and too proud of what has been done, to complain as yet of any want of further improvements. " But there is a want, and a very pressing one, which the increase and the improvements of the city only aggravates and makes more evident, and* that is the want of family hotels, where the most sensitive clergyman might place his wife and children without risk of their cars being offended by any unpleasant expressions, or their sense of smell by the odour of tobacco smoke, or of their privacy being intruded upon by an uninvited visitor. Any stranger visiting Auckland and inspecting the lions of the place ; after looking at the display made in the principal buildings, would probably request to be shown the hotels for he would be unable to discover any in any of the main streetß, and his guide, we can imagine with some confusion, would have to point out the existinghotel accommodation. We admitthattherearemanybuildings in Auckland which are very good houses of refuge for single men, and that the worthyhosts would make such a visitor as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. But what we want is the " hotel" proper, according to English ideas,whereafamily may exist according to the national maxim that a man's house is his castle, for just as short or as long a time as he chooses to pay for, where he may be sure that his privacy will not be intruded upon any more than it would be in his own house, and where he may have amplo and efficient attendance from civil, clean, and properly qualified servants. It is true that there are some very pleasant and comfortably managed boarding houses in Auckland, where families may stay, but these ill supply the want of an hotel. There is too little privacy and too much merging of one's identity into the mass of visitors, to suit altogether the tastes of those accustomed to the quiet seclusion and individual comforts and attention obtainable in an English hotel. Of course in a rising town it would be absurd and unfair toexpectall the luxuries and refinements of the old cities of Europe, but it must be evident to all, that the time has now arrived when n.n improvement in the hotel .ucommodationis urgently called for, and would, doubttless, be gratefully supported by the public. While criticising what has been left too long undone, amidst so much that lias been done, in Auckland, (and a man residing long in any town comes to be proud of it, and whilo'he kindly points out its faults himself, desire to see it above the criticism of others) —while criticising in such a spirit, we would touch here upon an omission that hardly accords with the pretensions to outward show, exhibited in the streets of Auckland. We allude to the want of cleanliness, and the necessity for sewers—drainage and ample supply of water. Before another farthing in spent in improvements of the houses, the drainage that makes those houses habitable, should be attended to. A gaudy dress accords ill with a dirty petticoat, and while decking our city we should see that due attention is paid to the little points that are not openly exhibited but are none the less necessary to the due presentation of beauty. Cleanliness, moreover, is next to godliness, and certainly as the first care should be for the soul, so the second should be to have a due regard for the purity of the body and the preservation of its good health by the removal of offensive and sickly contamination of all kinds. To drop metaphor, arc we right with the efforts we are making fo improve the outward appearance of Auckland to allow that spot of bad drainage to sap away out of sight into the good health and happiness of our community. With the necessity increasing in force every summer, and brought home to so many families, that we must attend more to "cleanliness, or reap fhe consequences, in the sacrifice of our children's lives during the summer months, a season that we convert from a time of rejoicing in the beauty of nature to a time of scourging and sorrow, are we right to delay for one moment effecting the proper drainage of the town and the abolition of cesspools, at no matter what sacrifice of money and time ?

These are the two wants that have first suggested themselves ; there are others which prcHß upon the attention, but which will, doubtless, soon be acknowledged—such as the levelling of the pavements and the introduction of Rome uniformity, the use of some other substance than scoria for metalling the roads, and the prevention of dust that has become a plague. But these are minor points which can wait their turn, while the two first mentionedrequirementH are absolute and urgent, and appeal to the public generally, and to bodies representing the public, in arcuTiientH thnt cflunot bo. denied or refitted'.