THE WAIKATO MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 404, 28 February 1865, Page 5

THE WAIKATO MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.

A pEJirsATi of tlie following valuable communications relative to the present condition and future prospects of the several military settlements in tho "Waikato, which have been forwarded to us for publication, will be read with interest by all those who have, and who in Auckland has not, tho successful settlement of the Waikato at heart. Ar/EXAN'DRA.. Colonel Haul tain, who has been appointed Colonel-Commandant of the "Waikato regiments, has returned to this post, and steps arc being taken to put one 01 two companies of the 2nd regiment on ilie 50-acre lots, 'flic laud extends E. and "W. from Orakau and Te Awamutu to Pirongia and X. and S. from Ngahinapouri to tho Punia Kiver, with means of extension towards Haglan if required. About 350 country lots arc"being handed over by Major Heaphy, Chief Surveyor, who is here, "to Colonel Haultain, and this land—after the fctafF officers have selected their estates —will, be divided between two companies whose pay as militiamen will then cease, but who will be offered work on roads and bridges, and with their families be entitled to free rations for a year. Many of the miiitiamen will leave: but those likely to become, from habits of industry, good colonists, will not re«leet so good an opportunity of settling. ]'or those who leave, substitutes can easil}' l e got, as a town acre, 50 country acres, and rations for twelve months is a capital prize for men recently from England and the

Cape. Major Ileapliy inspected, to-day, the lltli instant, the site for the settlement of Major Von Tompsky's Forest Rangers. They are to have laid out for them a village site of 100 acres at Harapipi, on the road between this and Raglan. Their 50-acre farms will be on the northern slopes of Pirongia Mountain and in the Hnrapipi Valley. It is a beautiful locality, ami one that those men richly deserve. AVe ivent over, to-day, the ground at Waiari. ivlicre the Forest Rangers and their gallant leader so distinguished themselves this day twelvemonths.

Fragments of cartridge paper are yet lying thick in places where the fight was hottest, but much of the scrub lias been cut down or burnt oft", and the ambuscade spots of the enemy are tolerably open. HAMILTON. The time has arrived at length for putting a portion of each "Waikato regiment on the country laud that has been surveyed for them; and parts of IS'os. 3 and -1 companies of the 4th Regiment here are at once to be located on their 50 acre sections. The town of Hamilton is the most advauced of any of the militia settlements. It has very much the appearance now that Onehunga or Howiek had when the pensioners' cottages were first completed and their acres fenced in and cultivated. The acre system is, we think however, a bad one. A quarter of an acre of town land would have sufficed, and been as valuable—always remembering that each military'settler is entitled to 50 acres in the vicinity, and upon which 50 acres it is for his own sake desirable lie should chiefly expend his labor. But the ineu of the 4th have worked well, as their neatly erected weatherboard and shingled cottages and neat gardens evince. Col. Moule—essentially the right man in the right place—is having a market-house built on the western side of the river, for the convenience of the. producers and the public. .Already milk, butter, potatoes, garden-stuff and peaches are for sale ; while the pigs promise great (we mean fat) things. 3he number of w>men and children here is something miraculous, and all the children look sturdy and healthy.

Upwards of 200 50-acre lots have been marked out; chiefly on the eastern side of the Waikato, at this place. The country, though generally a level, is a most difficult one for the surveyors, as it is everywhere intersected by deep gullies, winding along the plain, and leading into swamps which — although high above the river level, and easily capable of drainage—yet require road lines to be carefully led in between them in the most tortuous direction. Col. Moule and some of the superior officers have already selected their 300 and 400 acre estates, and are taking steps to have them fenced in at once. The companies will, we are informed, be allowed a week or ten days to draw their lots, and make interchanges to suit individuals. CAMKIJIDGE. The whole of the huts in the Pukekura Redoubt (Mangatautari) were destroyed ihe other night by fire, a man confined in theguardroom being said to have ignited the place. A3 might be expected with raupo wharcs, the fire swept all before it. The garrison, however (3rd Waikato Militia, and several of the Royal Artiller;;,) saved the ammunition by handing the kegs out of the magazine in the redoubt and passing them into the ditch, a matter of no slight danger. Major Ileaphy, Chief Surveyor, is here handing over the 50-acre lots that have been laid out—about 400 in number —to Colonel Haultain, the Commandant of the Waikato Regiments.

These lota extend from the mountains that divide this plain from the Piako country .on the east, to the Ohaupo lakes near Kaugiawhia ori the west, and from Pukekura Bedoubt to the boundary of the 4th l?egiment district at the Narrows. On this extent of country is much fine land, especially near Tamahere, Walker's Gully, and Ohaupo. Either of the last-named placcs would sell readily in the Auckland auctions at £2 per acre, in large blocks. It possesses the advantage of being perfectly accessible by open dray road to places of cail J'or steamers. The soil of much of the land to be allotted to the 3rd Hegiment is light and sandy, and we doubt if it will bear heavy crops, but white clover grows luxuriantly along the roadside, and would grow equally as well—and mutton and butter along with it—in paddocks, where now everything is waste. The ' Pioneer ' came up through the Narrows yesterday for the first time. She is certainly very long for such work, but just now the Kiver about Eangiriri—her usual post — is too shallow for her to work in, andshe has been transferred to this branch where the water is deep. Captain Fernandez, who commands her, is congratulated on his success in bringing her up. The fine steamer is a goodly sight in the little basin at Camoridge. Captains ."Baker and Blewett were not alJtored t6 go to Matamata to Bee Thompson,

but 'were met by tho wily chief at tho Piako | River, their journey thither not devoid of dauger, strange " PaiMarire"natives3topping them for a time on their w«iy. The bridgo that Captain Pi slier, 40th, so gallantly rushed, and by doing so " got into tho rear of tlio Maoris and sealed their fate," is gone. It consisted of a broken canoe, only, but the three parapets, and tho ditches of the old pah are there, and though broken through now by a dray road, still appear most formidable obstacles to an advancing force. If the enemy had not been in consternation at finding his retreat cut off, ho ought to have been able to have held these parapets against ten times tho force that Captain Fisher had with him ; which, if we remember rightly, was eight or nine men against forty. One cannot help wondering how it is that Captain Fisher has not yet received his brevet majority for his gallant services in last year's campaign. There is another distinction, of a nature dearer to a soldier, that has often been awarded for conduct less dashing, and less successful than his at the AVaiari parapets. No one knows save those who have personally witnessed it, how hard a Maori fights in his own lair, andihe bodies of the enemy that lay strewn on the 11th February, 1564, on these parapets, were a telling proof ot the work of Fisher and his handful of gallant men. At Orakau this ofiicer was foremost in tho assault, and received a wound which for months incapacitated him, but yet no intimation has appeared of his promotion or reward.

We hear that tho 'Pioneer' oncoming down through the Narrows ntruck the ClitVbauk, and carried away her iron steeringhouse. Perhaps she may be all the better without it, as it was heavy " and unnecessary." She is not otherwise much injured. All supply of rations to civilian working parties is stopped suddenly by telegram from the Chief Commissariat ofiicer. This will have the effect of stopping the work of tho survey parties, snagging parties, and sawyers for a time, as their leaders will have to repair to Auckland, to mako arrangements for the supply of provisions. —" New Zealand Herald," February IS.