ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 51, 12 February 1842, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We call tile particular attention of the Surveyor General to the following letter. — Ed.] To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette. Sir. —On reading Major Mitchell’s excellent work entitled “ Australian Expeditions, ” I was much struck with the truth and force of the following extract, and think it may be of some service perhaps in your publishing the same :—the present desideratum will of course be to know the direction of the great Manukau Road and the proposed proper line of Road to the Tamaki farms lately sold : —when every one are aware of these, they can pursue their contemplated improvements with more vigour; as the unsold portions of the Town are I believe being subdivided anew, and intersected by streets at right angles, it shews that the wishes of the Inhabitants are being complied with by the Surveyor General, a gentleman whose bearing towards strangers is sufficient to shew that he will retain the respect and esteem which he has already engendered. The probable level o! hilly places in the Town should always be stated to purchasers prior to their commencing building, had this been done on a previous occasion, Shortland Crescent would not at this moment assume such a lamentable appearance as it now does. Watson’s Hotel is ruined from the level nut being attended to, and as soon as the wet weather sets in, it cannot possibly be approached by pedestrians, at the same time the owner himself must bear a great share of the blame in not evincing a sounder judgment in excavating for his building which must have cost at ieast one thousand pounds.

The extract to which I would call attention in the first Volume of Major Mitchell’s work, page 1 66, and is to the following effect. “The growth of Towns depends very much on the direction of great roads, and must be more certain, and the Allotments consequently more valuable when the most eligible line of thoroughfare is ascertained and opened in the first instance. Such works of public convenience should precede, as much as possible, the progress of colonization. The plan at least should be well considered, before the Capital, or the Labour which is the same thing, is applied. Building and other improvements can then be commenced with greater certainty of permanent value. “ Les despenses utiles sont economie’’said Guibert, but in new countries the economy will much depend ou the permanent utility of Works, for which, in most cases, the necessity should be foreseen. With the example of so many old countries for our guidance, obstructions to the spread of population in a new one, should be removed, according to plans of general arrangement keeping in view the best distribution of towns, with respect to local advantages, and best sites for ali public buildings requisite for the towns still in embryo. The most advantageous general lines of direction should be ascertained for the roads.—that public means may be applied with certainty to their substantial improvement, by removing obstructions and building bridges. On good roads, there is greater inducement to individuals to erect Inns, and in well arranged streets to build good houses, than were uncertainty as to the permanent direction of the one, or irregularity in the plan or line of the other, discourage all such undertakings” The above extrract may serve to confirm opinions already formed but perhaps not so well matured. I am, Sir, Your ooedient servant, John J. Montefiore, To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald and Auchland Gazette . i My Dear Sir, —Allow me to correct two clerical errors which the compositor has made in the report of my speech at the meeting of “Claimants of Land, held at Wood’s Hotel, the 3rd of February last ; namely, in the forty-third line of the first column of the third page, read allodial for altodine, and in the eleventh line of the second page, read one iota tor in toto. By inserting this in your next publication, you will greatly oblige, Yours, very truly, , , . C. B. BREWER. Aucxland, Feb. 3, 1842.