The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1875.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 2293, 31 March 1875, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1875.

The Thirty-fourth Anniversary of this Settlement will be celebrated to-day. There are periods in the lives of nations, as well as of individuals, when it becomes a duty to pause and survey the ground traversed, aud the course in which events arc impelling us on, and no time is so appropriate as the natal day of the Settlement. No Province in New Zealand has passed thvougli more vicissitudes than Taranaki. From the first day the "Pilgrim Fathers" ianded on these shores, till tho present time, there aeems to have been some fatality respecting tho progress of this portion of the Colony. "Hoping against hope " almost, the early settlers have remained true to the Province, and after many years of waiting they are now beginning to realise tho picture— the ideal of which haa been for such

a length of time fixed in their mind's eye. Tho Native difficulty, which has been the greatest stumbling block to the progress of this district, may bo now said to bo settled, and the victory has been achieved more by moral than physical force. What the sword did not accomplish, thno has succeeded iv doing. The natives have learnt the value of peace, and are adapliug themselves to the new conditions that it will bring ; whilst on tho other baud the white inhabitants are feeling the beneficial effects of this Maori pacification, and are enjoying a degree of seourity, and freedom to follow out then 1 avocations, which has never previously been attained. This chauge from uncertainty to confidence, and the disposal of the surplus land by the natives, has produced the effect that might be expected. The settlers arc beginuing to have a prosperous look about them ; agriculture is slowly but surely extending ; and the resources of the Province are beginning to be developed. Tho first portion of the railway is on the eve o£ completion, and its extension further inland is provided for ; the harbour is likely to be a reality ; telegraph communication we have ; whilst immigration is slowly flowing into tho Province) and with the prospect of a further increase of population, there is no reason to doubt but that the prosperity looked for — waited for during so many years — is now on the eve of visiting this Province.

Mb. Charles Fellows is a gentleman very little known even by name here, but who, in Otago, furnished the Daily Tinws, some time since, with a series of letters signed " Master Humphrey," in which the financial policy being adopted in New Zealand was severely criticized. These letters were at the time answered, and the statements in them shown to be fallacies. This gentleman is now in England, and when there forwarded a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, which contained most untruthful statements respecting the ! Colony. He has now followed up the attack in JFraser's Magazine for January, where there is an artiole in the form of a letter to the editor, which extends over sixteen pages, and bears the signature of Charles Fellows. Tho principal charges in this letter are: — That the interest on the loans is being paid out of the" loans themselves, as also is a portion of the ordinary current expenditure ; that tho public works on which the loans are being expended are being in many cases uselessly and wastefully constructed, and that they will entail a very considerable annual loss ; that the present prosperity is therefore unsound ; that half the immigrants imported re-emigrate to other Colonies ; and that many of those who are making money by the present condition of things express their determination to leave the Colony as soon as the reaction sets in and taxation is resorted to. Sue 1 ! Un .varrantable and untruthful statements appearing in a magazine that has a large circulation could not be allowed to pass without an answer, and the Hon. Mr. Yogel, although "slowly recovering from a serious illness, and with but few books and documents accessible," has undertaken that task. In the February number of JFraser there appears a letter from the Premier on the "Finances of New JZealand," which thoroughly refutes the grossly absurd statements made. The letter of ' Mr. Yogel contains facts patent to every one iv the Colony, and shows that the statement " that borrowed money is used to pay interest on the public debt," is a scandalous perversion of facts ; that immigrants are not leaving the Colony, nor the loans being wasted on "useless public works." He shows by figures the 1 steady progress of the Colony, and that the people of Now Zealand can better afford to pay in taxation £4 now than they could iv 1870 pay £2. With regard to the Defence Loau, he goes very fully into the matter, remarking that the Imperial Governinenfc failed with nil their expenditure, because warlike and not a Colonising policy was adopted. "Had it been a Crown Colony," writes Mr. Yogel, " things might have been different. As it was, the Colonial Government could devote themselves to colonising, and could replace the sword and the gun by the axe and pick. If the Imperial Government could have adopted similar colonising measures — had money beeu available for peaceful as well as for warlike purposes — they might have done as much as has been done. It was a generous and highspirited act of the North Island to accept the position of a Constitutional Colony. Had it remained like others in which military movements have been carried on — a Crown Colony — New Zealand would have been some millions less in debt. Do not blame the Colony because it roused itself to the task of improving its means to bear its liability for unproductive expenditure on native purposes." In conclusion, referring to Mr. Fellows, Mr. Yogel says he cannot acquit him of intentional misrepresentation concerning the immigrants, and adds that it is cruel of him in the extreme to tell persons in England that then* friends jind relatives who have gone to New Zealand have cast themselves upon a country from which one-half of them will find it necessary to depart. Mr. Fellows, it appears, is one of those discontented men who can see no good in any Government^ and therefore one on whose opinion not much can be relied. Concluding his letter, Mr. Yogel says : — "Upon its people depends ft country's success; and the colonists of New Zealand have those virtues of frugality, faith, industry, and energy, which ensure success and happiness to their possessors. In the New England States, the grand qualities of the early Puritan founders show themselves in their remote descendants. Generations will live and die in New Zealand, and stiil the homely virtues of its pilgrim fathers will be reproduced, and will earn for the land a great place amongst the dependencies of the empire to which I believe they will, like their ancestors, glory to belong. To tiie people of New Zealand, who have won their way to success through so many difficulties, that happy phrase, • the heroio work of colonisation,' is peculiarly applicable." The Quarterly Meeting- of the Taba>"AKl AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY/ was held at Omata, on Wednesday last, but through the paucity of members present, some veiy important matters that were to have been brought forward, had to be postponed. It is very strange that the farmers do not attend these meetings, for by their absence they are neglecting their own interests. Not only do they do this, but they cause others, who are willing to assist them, to waste their time in waiting about ; which time might probably be more profitably employed. It may be nsked by some what good can be done at these meetings, and why should not the farmers bo left to go along by themselves? Well, there is a reason appreciable to people who are accustomed to associate with the prosperity of agriculture the cheapness and plenty of such produce that comes from the Junds. Doubtless farmers could get along without agricultural societies. For instance, a man with a family, on hia forty or two or three hundred acres of land, can get enough, with but slight exertion, for his own subsistanco; but in this scupo ho is working for himself, and not for the community. It is a very different thing to the community, whether ho just gets as much from the land entrusted to him aB will sustain himself aud his dependent house, or whether over and above this his skill and vigour produces a greater surplus. Whilst the roturn from the land is at a minimum, stagnation prevails, all public works ure in abeyance, lines of inland communication are unmade, and public burthens would be heavy to be borne ; whilst on the other hand, I when the return ie at the maximum, an im«

petus is imparted to all tht^gs, and there is money to satisfy every di Jire, and lighten every burthen. If we aro-content to continue on at a slow, stolid pace, the>..perhaps we want no Society ; but if wo wiel, to see quick and largo returns from the land} and a large surplus produce exported, then the farmers must meet together aud discuss matters, so that by assisting each other in the way of getting information regarding the best stock, seeds, implements or machinery, they may be enabled to raise produce and dispose of it at as profitable a price as is done in other places. It should be remembered that these Societies are not so much established for the benefit of the principal supporters of them, or for those who attend the most punctually, as for the help and encouragement of those who through ignorance and iudifference lag behind, und make not half the use they might of the land in their keeping. The Provincial Government has come liberally to the aid of the Tarauaki Societies, and granted a subsidy of £40 to each. The Patea Society is reported to be in a flourishing condition ; and it is to be hoped, therefore, that the Taranaki Society will not be allowed to founder for want of the support aud attention of its members, but that at the Special Meeting, to be colled next month, there will be such a muster from all parts of the district that it may be truly said the Taranaki agriculturalists take an interest in the avocation they are following.

Tuat Ergot has made its appearance in different parts of the Colony is very evident from tho various accounts that reach us. In Canterbury it is causing much uneasiness amongst the farmers, who are losing large numbers of cattle. In Wellington the ergot has proved fatal to the sheep, whilst in Auckland, its effect on young stock has been noticed. Inquiries are being made as to the cause of ergot in rye grass, and numerous are the theories advanced by practical agriculturists accounting for the presence of this obnoxious parasite. Mr. Connett, at the Agricultural Society's meeting on Wednesday last, read a very interesting article on the subject. In the Lyttelton Times some further information is given on the subject ; and a correspondent to that journal states that ergot is a fungus springing from an exhausted seed bed, and that wherever it shows itself the land should be broken np at once, sown with a root crop, and afterwards re-sown with a change of grass seed. It is the most prevalent in swamps and reclaimed swamp land which give out a miasmatic vapour. A good dose of lime or nitrate of soda ,will renovate the grass plant, and prevent the development of the fungus, which eventuates in ergot ; but a proper system of drainage and attention to vegetable irrigation will thoroughly eradicate all poisonous matter affecting crops of grasses generally. The correspondent also advises the spreading of a little rotten stable or farmyard dung on meadows of grass lauds, when, he adds, farmers will never be troubled with ergot, excepting in the shape of mushrooms. Sir George Grey has been Elected Superintendent op Auckland. Although twice Governor of New Zealand, Sir George was never popular in Auckland ; nor is he likely to be, if we can judge of the opinions that are already expressed in the newspapers, from the country correspondents. Here is one we clip from the Auckland Herald, written from Northern Woiroa, to a paper of which the proprietor formed one of the deputation to Sir George Grey asking him to allow himself to be nominated as Superintendent : — " Sir George Grey's candidature for the Superintendency does not gain converts up here (Northern Wairoa). Whilst admiring the brilliant talents and statesmanship of Sir George Grey in the past, and the fact of his having been twice Governor of the Colony, the electors of this district at least would rather see Mm, like Sir James Fergusson, go home and seek a seat in the Imperial Parliament, aud there advocate the cause ■ of New Zealand ; but to see him contesting tvu election with a noms homo, the ex-representative of Royalty with a citizen subject, is, to say the least, too derogatory, and it is sincerely to be hoped that Sir George Grey will be prevailed on to liaten to the advice of the two members of the deputation, to him, to refrain, from seeking a political status in New Zealand, but to enjoy his otium cum dignitatc at the Kawau."

Me. Hulke, the Immigration Agent, has by this mail received a letter from Mr. Burton, in which he states that he has secured a number of very suitable immigrants for this place. He speaks of the trouble he has been at to get people to come out) and of the several obstacles that are continually springing up and interfering with the work he has in hand. The immigrants he has secured he speaks very highly of, aud are of that class the fanners appear reluctant to lose. Mr. Burton does not mention the ship they are to come by, but as Mrs. Burton, in a private letter to a friend here, mentions the ' Hindostan,' which has sailed, it is very probable they may be in it. Mrs. Burton's letter is written in the same strain complaining of tho difficulty they have in persuading persons to leave England. She says, however, they seem to have better hopes now from Lincolnshire.

Useless Timber for Building Purposes. —As there are numbers of new buildiugs in the course of erection we would caution carpenters who are not acquainted with the woods of the Province from using what is known as white pine. We were shown yesterday a portion of a joist taken from the shop of Mr. Gilniour, which was perfectly rotten, the dry rot having made it like a piece of honeycomb. The Excelsior Minstrels. — We would remind our readers that these popular amateurs will give an entertainment to-night, when a programme, containing some of the newest and choicest songs of the day, will be delivered. The extravaganza composed by Mr. Robert Holt, and entitled, "Hamlet," is, we believe, a most amusing and mirth-provoking piece; and, from Mr. Holt's abilities as an actor, a treat may be anticipated. White Hart Hotel. — A change in proprietorship has taken place in this hotel, and Mr. James Day, from Wauganui, is now the landlord. Mr. Day is so 1 well known to ! many here, as well as at Wangauui, that it will be almost superfluous bur Btating that the house will be conducted as it should be. We wish Mr. Day every success in his new undertaking. Proposed Hechabite Benefit Society. — Persons interested in the temperance cause met on Monday evening in the Freemasons' Hall, for the formation of a Ilechabite Benefit Society, Mr. Finchum in the ohair. A list of about thirty names was read of persons willing to become members. A Tent, to bo named " Unity Tent," was organised, and the principal officers chosen. It will be instituted early in April, and will be under the jurisdiction of the Central District of New Zealand. Parties desirous of becoming charter members will see by tho advertisement that they can do so by applying to Messrs. M. D. King, Hugh Barley, T. G. Leech, or W. G> Clarke (at Clarke and Bunbury's), before 8 p.m. on Saturday next.