MANGAPAI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4460, 29 February 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

MANGAPAI.

To the Editor of the Herald.

Sir, —In your issue of tlie 6th. ihst. appears a report of a meeting at Mangapai in -which that place is described as a " long neglected aud Government forgotten district." There is no settlement near for ■which the Government has done so much as for Mangapai. The Government had a township surveyed, and sold town allotments at a high figure on account of their contiguity to the landing place for goods and passengers, aud also gave £90 and odd for the erection of a wharf at the said landing place, adjacent to which the settlers erected a stockyard for the shipment of cattle. The Government gave £90 and odd for the erection of a bridge over the Toraru river—the contractor for both wharf and bridge being a Mangapai storekeeper. Several ten-acre allotments were surveyed and allotted adjacent to the township, a number of immigrants were sent up and constructed a long piece of road in the parish, and about twelve months back a courthouse was erected at a cost to the Government of about £110 exclusive of the cost of furniture and land ; and, I believe, the Provincial Accountant is in a position to add various other items to the above list. Goand arrangements for the advancement of Mangapai have been well devised and most " but have been ' entirely marred by Mangapai men. In the I year 1859, and for a long time after, Auckland vessels were in the habit of landing goods and passengers at the Mangapai landing place, and settlers had direct comnuinication with Auckland, which they turned to account by sending weekly their boxes of butter in pats, eggs, poultry, &c., aud one settler's wife was m the weekly receipt of boxes of materials which she was wont to fabricate into articles of millinery and return to her employers in Auckland. It was the prosperity, the result of direct communication with Auckland, that enabled ! the Government to realise high prices for town allotments, and one step in the right direction was all that was wanted to ensure certain success to the entire district, whilst, only one step in the wrong direction would bring certain ruin. The wrong step was taken. The regular trader ceased to come to the landing place, and on Captain Peterson being expostulated with, he said the storekeepers had now got a boat of their own, they refused to pay him any longer his charge of £1 per ton for bringing carge from Auckland to the landing, they would only pay 15s per ton and would take their goods, from Limestone Island — this arrangement deprived the entire district of direct communication with Auckland, and prosperity became stagnation, drove many from the district, and prevented others from settling. So much for the "Government forgotten." Your reporter further states : —That between the site of the proposed wharf and Maungakaramea wharf there is often less than one foot of water, where small boats with only half a ton of cargo had to wait two hours for the tide, and that at the wharf there is only room for a small boat to turn round. Facta are too stubborn to be altered by such Enaggy statements as the above. The facts are that the Challenger p.s. was in the habit of coming up to the Maungakaramea wharf at about half tide, and during the whole time'of her running she never sustained any injury by doing so and found plenty of room to turn at the wharf. Perhaps your Mangapai correspondent is ready to state that she was only able to do so by himself being always waiting- on the shallow, having less than one foot of water, and shouldering her over -without those on board knowing anything about it. Certain it is that the captain of the Challenger said he wished the navigation of the Whangarei river was as safe and easy as the navigation of the Maungakaramea wharf.—l am, &c., O, While Yotr Live Tell Truth, and Shame the Devil.