HIS EXCELLENCY AT MANGONUI AND BAY OF ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10018, 3 January 1896, Page 4

HIS EXCELLENCY AT MANGONUI AND BAY OF ISLANDS.

|We have no doubt that the people of Auckland will be gratified that His Excellency should have paid a visit of some duration to the districts north of Auckland. He has been received with the most cordial loyalty, and with every mark of respect on account of his ! personal oharacter, and the manner in which he discharges the duties of his office. The North has always presented features of special interest. The early voyagers were attracted to its harbours, and made their longest stays in them. All the chief events of the very early history of New Zealand were transacted there. From the Bay of Islands issued the conquering armies of the Ngapuhi, whose raids to the south to some extent prepared the way for European colonisation. . The Rev. Mr. Marsden and the early missionaries landed at the Bay of Islands, and founded the first missionary/establishments there. And there in due time was signed the treaty of Waitaugi, which gave to Her Majesty the sovereignty of New Zealand. One <of the addresses somewhat plaintively mentions that in material advancement the North has not kept pace with other portions of the colony. That that has been so is greatly owing to peculiar circumstances. The products of the North hitherto have been of such a nature that settlement and advancement do not accompany their production. For example, we showed on Wednesday that the value of shipments of kauri gum made last year was -5393,600, a value far exceeding any export from this part of the colony. And yet all this is taken avay, and nothing permanent is left. In the North one may ride over miles of land from which kauri gum has been taken to enormous values, and he finds tho country unoccupied and uncultivated, Something of the same may be said as to the wealth in timber. All this is hard on the North. But a change will come in time. Gradually the special products for which the North is suited will be cultivated by people who know how to deal with them, and it will become one of the finest and wealthiest districts of the colony.