OPOTIKI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1872, 15 January 1870, Page 5

OPOTIKI.

(from a correspondent.) January 8. New Year's Eve was marked by the comme'icemcnt of a furious rain, which speedily raised the apprehensions of the settlers. This the Volunteer Cavalry were giving a ball, but dismal surmises were afloat. All next day it poured, and the flat was flooded. There were five feet of water over one of the bridges, and the wharf was submerged Many were the anxious looks cast in the rivers in the drearl of a repetition of the calamity of last yea -. When the Otara burst its bank, and swept away crops, pigs, and cattle, but luckily the rain ceased in time, and the rivers remained in their channels. It was a pitiable sight to look on when contrasting the aspect with that the flat presented a few days before when heavy crops of wheat and oats gladdened the eye, and settlers were looking forward to an abundant crop of potatoes to repay them for their last year's losses. Now, acres lie under water, the potatoes lie rotting in the ground, and for some of the unhappy settlers but little hope remained of any produce being left. Pigs were carried away in numbers, and to add to the bitterness of the loss, some seventy were found to have escaped to the other side of the Waiwaka, and from their tracks and those of men on foot following them, are confidently believed to have been carried off by the Arawas. The utter ruin of this year's crop following on last year's disaster has, of course, much dispirited the the losers, who have expended their money and labour on the land, and in several cases had suffered so much last year that they have had to borrow money to start agian this time. Truly the settlers of Opotiki have had a hard time of it, more indeed than any others. They have had to sustain a frontier warfare which, however, it has taught them bush fighting, has in many cases taken them away from their homes, when their attention was wanted for their crops. What some of them will do it is hard to say. The heavy surf and continuous head winds prevented the Woodstock from leaving. I liad to ride overland and found for myself that the con-plaints of the settlers of the ferry at Ohewliei, are well founded. We crossed this arm of the sea, where it often blows heavily, in the most miserable apology for a canoe I ever saw. Two at a time was all it could carry, and we had to bale out the whole time. For this service, the Arawas, who are drawing Government pay, charge Is. for each man, and ss. after dark. The complaints about their appropriation tendencies are also numerous. Ou reaching the top of the Whatatane Hill, a most villanous climb over a rugged mountain, wo saw below us, instead of tho usual plain, nothing but an expanse of water. Some Maoris with us at once exclaimed that all their crops were ruined. On arriving we found this perfectly true. Hardly a potatoe had escaped, and drowned pigs by scores had floated down the turbid stream-. Had the rivers risen a couple of feet more the flat and the redoubt would have been flooded. As it was, two feet of ioze were left on tho bakery table when the waters subsided. One would liave thought that such a calamity would have rendered the natives eager t > adopt means to retrieve their losses, and they had one at hand. Colonel St. John had been here for some time surveying a road, to avoid the mountain I spoke ot above; ami, as I am given to understand had, after great trouble, succeeded in getting the co-operation of the natives oa the work; in fact, none but Maoris were to be employed. Objection after objection was raised, as if the Maoris were conferring an obligation on the Government by taking its money.

Now that Major Mair, R.M., is down here, and is issuing out flour and biscuits to tie losers, they quietly squat down and refuse to work. To those intimate among the pakehas, they do not hesitate to say that they do not see why they should work now, as they are getting plenty for nothing, and as they expect more, having sent up- their h id chief to Auckland, to represent their distr . One of my companions, a settler at Opot , gave a grim smile on hearing this, saying t... ho doubted much if any one had the power to do for the whites what was now being done for the Maoris, even if the whole of Opotiki were Hooded out. It has always been the fault of the Government to assist a native settlement, in preference _ to an European one. The fact of Major Mair distributing flour and biscuit among thein oil his arrival haa a very bad eflect.