Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 224, 1 August 1864, Page 4

In- our issue of Thursday last we published a letter from a Northern Settler, alluding to a former article of our owu oil the pressing requirements of the country districts as regards the construction of 1-oads, bridges and the establishuieuiofiiiter-eommunication betweeu the v&r'ioUs settlements and the capital by means of subsidized sailing Craft, having good and Convenient passenger accommodation. Our Correspondent complains, and well he may, of the neglect which the North 'lifts experienced at the bands of 1 lie •Provincial Government. As it was at the commencement of the present :aclmiuist'i'ation, so is it now—The settlements remain in the same isolated position with regard to one another, anu to the capital —the onlv •ready i:\eans of communication being that \vhieii nature has bestowed upon them, and which they may deem themselves fortunate that not even Provincial neglect can obstruct —the ocean itself. The one gre;it bbs'iacle which stands in the way of settlement on the waste lands of this provfiice, more especially in the Northern districts, is the want of accessibility to the land sold, unless alofig the river banks or their immediate vicinity and wh<!»v> tiie lands are open settlement t'o'vnparatively speaking there is non'e. the North is largely intersected with fi:ie navigable creeks and .so a large population lias, ■despite Provincial neglect and'thanks to the bounty of Nature, been successfully located —but it is sad to think that hundreds of thousands of acres containing some of the finest lands in the Province, and which have cost the Province a large sum in their original purchase and survey, remain unoccupied and unimproved, and worse stiil, from having been granted to holders of land orders and others, who lindiug it impossible to get upon tliem for purposes of settlement 'have .lett the country or engaged in other pursuits, not oniv remain waste to all intents and purposes, out are likely to continue to remain so. Their original purchasers, who, with | common toresignvoni at- part of the Government. mignt have become useful and pros- | perous settlers, have many of them left the | country in disgust, or joined in ovorcrowdi mg the tnercaiit lie communitv in Auckland, and have, now that they cannot indulge their turmer wish of becoming farmers, made up their minds to let taeir country properties lie till time and the improvements of others I ami the tiiimg up ot the country render ! them saleable at at high rate of profit. | Ihis is not as it should, be, This isnot dcali ing wuu the pubiic estate as a man of bnsi- , liess and intelligence would deal with his own, and wncii our correspondent says as tollows, we believe he echoes the opinion not only oi the Northern settlers generally, but ol hundreds of men in town who feel that but fortius neglect in pro\ idingthem means to get upon their hind and remain there tiicv might have now been independent country settlers, wuere now they are iritteruig money and valuable time away in Auckland in keeping the wolt from the door, until such time as they may yet indulge I lie; wish that mainly led them. Lo emigrate at ail. Our ■correspondent says:—"'lho Northern settlers have never " nad fair play. 1 do not believe there is a " settlement irom the North Shore to Mon"gonui wuere pioneers have not had to get iirsL to their iands the best way they could '■ or not at all it they liked, and have had to wait for years lor a temporary Government " bridge, if they got it at all* Our legisla- " tors think our land but little worth ; it may " require hard work tor some years, but " eventually we will have a very large proportion of right good land. Our land is •' heavy and requires only proper labouring to bring it into proper working soil, such as ' gets oetter and wetter every time it is touched. in our heavy bush laud we can grow • good grass at once ; ami, as some of us iroiu experience know, al'icr about six " years, u itii, oi course,a litt ie labour and taking out a lew oi the remaining roots nor. ' suhieient ly decayed, we can iiv ploughing ' up the soil, grow iirst-rate crops of oats. A ticoten tanner, of the jHuhurangi. of much nonie and colonial experience; assured me he had a crop oi oats oil' heavy busn laud; widen ban heeii in grass seven vears, the iiucst lie ever saw in his iife ; another person in liie same iocaiity could last season '"show 100 potatoes weighing 112 lbs. 1 saw also a sample ot oais, grown at Mata''kana, weighing 4:1 lbs. io the bushel, the best grain .1 have ever seen in New Zealand. Aty own experience is equally encouraging. " No, Air. Editor, the soil of the Nortli"clocs not impeue our progress it well laboured, " it is our want of roads and bridges." It is our want ot roads and bridges." In this one sentence is summed up the dead weight which has held back the Northern district Irom becoming an exporting district of grain, meat, aye and of wool. We have known men soillu on busli funny in the North, the greater part ot whoso time during tiie iirst years ot settlement was literally consumed in the carrying on their backs to their larms ot tiie goons which they required li om Auckland to live upon, and tiie seed to plant during the first two years, and afterwards in "pikauihg" from their farms what they had to sell, until at histthev found cultivation unpi ofitable, and fell uack on tiie rearing ot caLtie and growing no more than was actually required tor consumption ! by their own iainihes and stock. This is how tne prosperit v oi the Aorta ims been kept UO Wil Tue suggestion oi'our correspondent, that the i i'o\ liicial Council should devote some portion ot the sum obtained, or to be ob-

tnined, for eacli block, towards cutting a fcw;| 'main roads into it from the nearest landing 1 place prior to putting it. lip for auction js one worthy of consideration. "Wc fcnow what the nnswor will be to this, —that Vl l .'. pr'co of the land and cost of survey, taken in conjunction with the fact that so much has to be given away to holders of land orders preclude the possibility of opening up the blocks previous to sale. We believe nothing of the kind. AVb are of opinion 'that wore these gentlemen actiii" as private business individuals managing "the .side of their own estate they would argue somewhat in this way—T have so many thousand acres to give away out of the largo tracts I hold, and so many to sell, and I will trive them a\yav so as to render more valuable those left for sale. To do so 1' m'ust give to those who. will, occupy and improve and this only cati be. drvn'e by aifording reasonable | fax.'iKt r f>>; Por them to do so. T will not give part a whole block together but give part and reserve part for s:i.le intermixed with, that gugfii away. "We see this done in the case ofuloclis of land cut up into building allotments in and near town. Gullies are lilled in, bridged over with planks, cuttings made, and every, facility afforded for getting to the several allotments, and every, pains taken to render them, attractive and with what result, but that the cost of doing so is over ai'id over again repaid by the advanced price'obitiined, and a convenience to the purchasers is at once a ffored. This same plan car : ried out on a large scale on a block of .20,000 acres, to be sold in farms,wouldbe productive of a similar result. If one half or threefourths only were allowed to be taken up by land 'M-uers and the remainder sold for hard cash, and roads were cut, and rough bridges built over the gullies to render them passable, not only would the cost of all this be paid for over and over again by the readiness with which the reserved part would be bought for cash and by the extra price per aCt-e which would be obtained even for that taken up by holders of free grants, but the grand object of giving away the land at all would be attained, which is not now the case, namely, the actual settlement of the waste lands, the establishtivent of a permanent rural the increase of the r even Me, and the creation, if not of an export, at least of food for the consumption of Auckland. I Ask a settler of the North what is the first want of his district, and he will tell you roads and bridges." Ask him what is the second want, and he will repeat the words, " roads and bridges"—and he will be correct. It is useless to talk of opening up the North with an expensive subsidy granted to steamers to run betwten Auckland and the Northern ports. To advocate such course, for some time to come, is mere dap-trap to catch the monetary popularity of the unthinking. The prudent man begins life in the garret and comes down to the first-floor, the spendthrift begins in the first-floor and eventually reaches the garret en route to the workhouse. It is just, so with the J idea of subsidizing steamers to open up the North. First open up the country itself; render it possible for the settlers to occupy their locations for tea or fifteen, or even twenty miles around the heads of the navigable riveis, with some prospect of being able to get their produce to the landingplace, and then there will grow a trade that will render any subsidy unnecessary. .Subsidizing steamers will not enable a man to live ten or iifleen miles back in the bush — will not enable him to get any produce he may grow there down to the steamer when subsidised. Give facilities for the settlement of the country, and the growth of produce, and the steamer will follow as a matler of course, when it is needed. To do this the Provincial Government must undertake something more than the making of trunk lines of road; they must, in the first instance, provide road accommodation within the blocks they sell and between these blocks and the nearest landing-place. After- , wards liie settlers themselves may extend, improve, and keep those roads in repair by [ forming highway boards, but in the lirst instance, before even the block is sold, it is , clearly the interest and the duty of the ProL vincial Government to render sucli block roughly accessible. Our correspondent cvi- . dently thinks so when he says— [ " "What would be the result if in opening , " out a block of land for the market the " Government were to employ such a man as " Thomas Hyde, its conductor of a working . " parly of a dozen men, and let them con- . struct rough hush bridges where needed, " and open up if only 12 or 15 feet of a clear . " road through the hush, so that his location , " could be got at bv the settler? If such . a plan were adopted I venture to say the "expense would be more rlian covered by the . extra price the land would fetch."