AWAKINO AND THE NORTH.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9952, 13 March 1894, Page 2

AWAKINO AND THE NORTH.

[by onk ok tiie pioneers.] So little has appeared in your journal for the last year about this, to us, important district, that it would seem that we were almost forgotten, or that we were not considered by the people of jour city so important as we think ourselves. To show you that we are of some importance, or rather that we will be of some importance in the near future, let me tell you that already there lias been a, very considerable export of wool and fat sheep from this district, and the bulk of the grass seed used on the farms on tho sea coast has been grown hero, m.i that eventually the export of seed w ill be a considerable item; and, in addition to the large extent of country now in grass, this year a very large area of bush has been felled and in most cases well burnt, and sowing will soon be iv full swing. Thiß felling, no doubt, would have been largely increased had the difficulty in obtaining provisions been less — and in this matter we think we have a very serious complaint against the powers that be for not having assisted settlement as they had promibed to do, but have thrown the whole of the difficulties of pioneering on the shoulders of those who have taken up the land. In this district between the AwakinoandTotoroaa large area has bean taken up on perpetual lease from the Government, and according to the conditions of this tenure the tenant has to improve to the extent of 10 per cent of the value of his holding the first year, and reside on the land, or by improving to the value of 20 per cent, making residence optional. Yet not one shilling has been spent to give access to the land. This is the more reprehensible from the fact that the Land Board have in hand a large sum of money from accrued thirds and have a grant of £1500 voted by Parliament last session to open up this district. Unfortunately, the Land Board of Auckland seem to 1 a.\ r e got then" back up for some reason, best known to themselves, and while insisting upon all conditions of tenure being carried out to the letter, regardless of cost or privation to the unfortunate lessee, they ignore their own just conditions of that contract. It is over much to expect settlers to take their stock aud stores to their farms in punts and canoes, and along tracks made by surveyors to swag their tucker along, and to do as some are now doing, swag the grass seed to sow on then" new clearings. Now that I am on the growl, Mr Editor, kindly let me have it out, and tell how residence, domiciliary, which includes ivife and family if there is one, is made compulsory when it can be enforced, and where it has not been complied with all improvements have been forfeited, this, too, with men who refuse to sacrifice the education of their children to their own gain. This residence is insisted on in a district where we have to depend for communication with the outer world on the erratic trips of steamers altogether unfitted for the trade, so that at times there is almost a famine, and work is stopped throughout the district for want of provisions and material, and where there is neither school nor church nor any of the conveniences of civilization, not even a butcher's cart to carry around the gossip of the neighborhood ; in fact the fulfilment of the conditions of the bond is insisted on to the letter, and the pound of flesh even to " the division of the twentieth part of one poor scruple" demanded. Of course the inland end of the district is cut off from even this uncertain means of communication, and has to obtain its supplies from Auckland, via. Te Kuiti ; from this last place goods are packed on horseback to the nearest point they can get to the different sections, and then swagged to where wanted. And thus at very great expense and labour the work of pioneering goes on ; and the trade that your leading citizens and merchants should have is now in the hands of the merchants of Auckland. Is not this something that you should see into and at>sist us in having remedied ? or is it that the great trade in butter overshadows all other ? You^ will have to look to it, that the trade of the out-lying districts that you now so thoroughly neglect will, in the future, neglect you, and we, while not disparaging the butter trade, must doubt the wisdom of your carrying so large a portion" of your eggs in so big a basket. There are yet other matters that we can complain of, and do complain of most bitterly ; these are the non-fulfilment of those promises made — let us not think merely to ser-.ure our votes — with regard to the punt en the Mokau River, the connection of the district with the colony by tele i-.iph, the appointment of proper port officers at Mokau and Awakino, and last, but moist important to us and to you, the building of a bridge over that most dangerou-. rivor, the Mohakatino. These are some of the promises made to us at last election ; promises that secured many a vote ; but how much has been performed. So far the road to Totoro from Awakino ha*> been surveyed and reported on as approved ; the plans of the Mohakatina bridge completed, and votes passed by the House for carrying on the" work ; and there it has ended. That the Mohakatino bridge should have been built is unquestionable, as already too many lives have been lost in this river, lives for whose loss no amount of expenditure will compensate. The delay in this work is unpardonable, for even should tenders be called immediately, it will throw its construction late into the winter, and necessarily enlarge its cost. Will this be used as a reason for not accepting tenders, as was the case with the metalling on the East-road ? and now sir, let me finish my growl at those' in authority, by saying that many of us are inclining to the belief that in voting on the strength of these promises, we are like, and yet unlike, that ancient historical colonist, like him in having sold our birthright for a mess of potage, and unlike, in not having the price agreed upon. But we must live md learn, and no doubt some of us will keep this experience behind our ears, and let it come up for our remembrance at next election, at least, such will ba the case with yours very truly,— PIUXKKK.