Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume 6, Issue 594, 8 January 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1879.

No speech ever gave greater satisfaction to the Assembly than when the Native Minister, m making his statement, uttered these words : — " I may say that the whole of the Hot Springs country — Rotomahana, Ohinemutu, and other places where those great natural wonders exist — is under Proclamation to the Crown; and we shall, if possible, acquire the freehold of the natural wonders of this country, because I understand the feeling of the House to be that on no account should we allow it to pass into the hands of private people. So far as we can possibly do it, those lands shall be held, not only for the benefit of the Maoris themselves, but for our own benefit also, so that they may be open to the whole world to resort there and recruit their health and enjoy the wondrous scenery of the place. Although we cannot obtain the freehold of the whole of these lands, I think we shall be able to save them from alienation, and we shall at the same . time be able to. obtain the freehold of sufficient to enable proper accommodation to be put up for visitors to the district." Great is our astonishment, says a contemporary, and we say so with him, to read the following paragraph m the Bay of Plenty Times: — " During his short stay at the Lakes, Mr. J. M. Dargaville proved remarkably successful m dealing with the. natives, as may .be guessed from the fact that he persuaded them to v lease him for a long period a lot

of land immediately adjacent to the terraces. Although numerous Europeans have frequently attempted to achieve this object, they have invariably failed, so that Mi\ Dai'gaville may well be proud of his purchase. In order to clinch the bargain a deposit was handed over, and an agreement signed. Mi*. C. O. Davis, who happened to be m Ohinemutu at the time, declined to act for Mr. Dargaville, but afterwards expressed his surprise and gratification at the success of negotiations. It is sincerely to be lloped that the Government will not interfere with this little mattei\" It may be supposed that " the terraces " spoken are the celebrated terraces of Rotomahana, but one can hardly credit the truth of the paragraph at all. We very much even doubt that Mr. C. 0. Davis expressed any "gratification" at the result of Mr. Dargaville's negotiation, though his " surprise " may be easily imagined. Our consolation is the fact that the district is tinder "proclamation to the Crown," and that the Native Minister will have something to say about Mr. Dargaville's transaction. Whether the land was proclaimed or not, "the agreement" is valueless and the " deposit " has doubtless long since found its way into the publicans' tills at Ohinemutu, or some other place; "but the "great natural wonders "of the Lake District should not be allowed without protest to pass into the hands of any speculator.