CAMBRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 229, 6 August 1864, Page 8

CAMBRIDGE.

Our readers will, doubtless, feel interested in any information we can a fiord them as to the new cities wlrch are being laid out at the present moment for the gallant Waikato sJilitiamen,.the three or four thousand men that, as a result of their failure, the present New Zealand Government liavo managed to settle in the rebel territory. Cambridge is the name of the new township which ix being laid out by the Surveyor-General, Major Heapliy, for the 3rd Waikato Regiment. It is situated, as will be seen by a correspondent's letter, some three and a-half miles above Pukerimu, and the soil is represented as being suitable for agricultural purposes. As we before said, in noticing the complaints of some of the men of this Regiment, it may very possibly turn out that this light soil is not only easily worked but rich also. The letter of our correspondent, whose information may be taken as worthy of the utmost reliance, is as follows :— Pukerimo. The town for the 3rd "Waikato Regiment is being surveyed at a landing- place about three and a-half miles above this, and at both sides of the river. The Waikato, which is so broad and placid at Nganiawahia, here flows between steep and high banks —precipitous in places—and has a current that is rapid and eddying. The water, however, is generally very deep, so that there is no danger to a wellmanaged steam vessel. The banks rise in tcrraees — the levels of the river-bed in former ages, and the soil is uniformly fertile, both on these steps and on the wide plains above. The mould is rather light, being composed chiefly of decayed pumice and lava, hut is very easily worked, and 1 should think would grow potatoes, barley, garden-stuff, and grass. Under tho ranges tho soil has a greater admixture of clay, and may he fit for the cultivation of wheat, but in New Zealand nothing can safely bo predicted in agriculture until some kind of experiment is made. The Maories, however, have for some time grown wheat at Kirikiriroa and Horatiu, as this district is called, but of the precise yield we have no knowledge. Cambridge—for such is to be the name of the town for the 3rd Regiment—is at the head of the present easy navigtion of tho Waikato, a branch creek from the eastward hero comes in, and there is a smallbreak-waterbasin and convenient landingplaco —the ' Rangiriri' lying alongside. Above this point rocks impede the river, causing rapids and intricate navigation. A comparatively email expenditure of engineering labour and skill would cause the removal of these rocks, and the clearing of the river, but for the present it might be inexpedient to force the navigation to a higher point, although Capt. Cadell has twice taken the' Bangiriri' up to Maungatautari. The streets _ at Cambridge are being laid out 66 and 99 feet wide, with a tramroad running across the plain, in tho direction of Taupiri, 132 feet wide. "When Major Heapny and tho surveyors first arrived there, about ten days since, a Maori scout, on horseback, came to the edge of the table-land, aero: s the creek, and having coolly surveyed the preparations of the surveyors, rode off towards Thompson's settlement, and on the following night a Maori spy was detected actually in the camp, but escaped in the high foru, As the place is on the eastern side, and a considerable distance from any military post, Major Heaphy applied to Col. Lyon at Maungatautari for an armed party, and 25 men of the 3rd Waikatos, under Lieut. Hensen, were detached to Cambridge, where they are now erecting a redoubt, and building a Government store-house. '