New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, November 3, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 444, 3 November 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, November 3, 1849.

In considering t"he introduction of steam into New Zealand as the best means of connecting together the different settlements into one colony, and of affording increased facilities for establishing new settlements, it obviously appears to be just one of those cases where the risk and expense, in the first instance, should be borne by the Government. The chief advantages to be derived from it are the increased value to be conferred upon the land, the increased efficiency of the Government, and the increased revenue to be derived from 'the stimulus given to production and consumption, the natural consequence of an increase of population by immigration, and of an improved means of communication. Now these are public benefits, the effects of which would be diffused over the whole community, and which the Government, acting as stewards or trustees for the general good, should be anxious to confer on the community at the earliest possible period. In using the word " Government," we include in this sense the New Zealand Company, who hav^been permitted to enjoy one of the most important and valuable privileges of the Government in the disposal of the waste lands of the Southern Pi ovince, the value of which would be greatly enhanced by the introduction of steam. We shall not enter into any formal or elaborate argument on this question, as we think the cause will be best advanced by frequently recurring to it, and by such familiar illustrations as naturally arise from its discussion. One of the admitted duties of the Government is the opening up of the country by means of roads, particularly in New Zealand where, from its hilly nature and its dense foiests, the formation of roads is expensive and difficult. The expense of connecting Auckland with Wellington by means of a good road would be so considerable as to be out of the question, but the interest of the sum required for this purpose would more than suffioe to render Britannia's highway, "whose path is on the deep," available by means of steam, and the distance would be performed in fewer days than it now takes weeks to forward overland the mail between the two settlements. Or if we regard the increase of the revenue, even with the present population of New Zealand, {the native population at a moderate calculation being estimated at 100,000) the increased consumption of manufactured goods and other imported articles, from the impetus given to production, might be fairly estimated at £100,000, the revenue from which would be £10,000. This, without reckoning the increased sale of lands and the improved price to be obtained for them, would of itself be more than sufficient to cover the expense of establishing steam in this colony. But among the chief advantages connected with the introduction of steam must be reckoned the effect it would have in promoting the civilization of the natives, and consequently of securing the peace of the colony ; since it is notorious that the most uncivilized trijes are those in the interior of the country, who by their position are removed from those ameliorating influences which, within the last few years, have operated so beneficially on those tribes in the neighbourhood of the different settlements.

iQuaktity of Rain fallen during the. month of October, 1849, 6 inches and 9 tenths.