Ohinemuri.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1694, 8 June 1874, Page 2

Ohinemuri.

(from our own correspondent).

The Natives have not Collided.

The Almighty Dollar AUpotoerful.

When I last wrote to you, I said that the, noise about the sale of the Komata land to Mr. H. C. Young would end in smoke, and so it did. Bombastes Furioso himself was neTer more absurd that were some of the leaders here in their opposi-; lion to the sale by Wikiriwhi and Mataia to Mr. Young; one whole Sunday was spent in casting bullets and making cartridges ; night after night the auxiliaries of the sellers and non-sellers kept stealing in ; mounted men rode through here furiously as if—well, as if somebody was after them ; and the whole ended in this : iWickliffe(thatistheEnglishofWikiriwhi) was told "to be a good boy and not da so again I At the present moment there is absolutely no word of difference amongst the natives about the matter, nor has there been any difference for a fortnight past. Hunia, the son of Tukukino, and Wi Katene, who took the money, h>ye left here as ordered by the ILiriweras. * Had there been a fight, Te Hira wouU have backed Wickliffe, as he belongs- to his tribe, and therefore confusion would have been worse confounded by bringing the chief of the opponents of land selling to support a sale. There is one circumstance in connection with this matter that the.public plight to know, and that gives one a lively idea of how things are managed at the Thames. On the day when there was every likelihood that there would have been a collision between armed natives, here, the European population despatched a mounted messenger with a letter to Captain Fraser, R.M., stating the fact; and in the event of Captain Fraser's absence the information was to be given to Mr. Sub-Inspector Bullen. The messenger found both of these gentlemen absent in Auckland, and there was no one left to represent them who could open a letter '■■ on urgent public business! If this be not government with a vengeance I do not know what is. ; ' '"'>

The power of the " almighty dollar" was never more conspicuous than in this sale to Mr Young. On every hand I hear the natives saying that the mode of purchase and the .payment is good. Mr Young paid, on an average, twenty-five shilling's (25) per acre, and .he 'paid ready money. down. For the Hikutaia and Whangamata lands the Government, through Mr Mackay, paid one shilling and five pence three farthings (ls^jd) per acre—and the natives say that some of the money is not paid to them to this hour. I present you with the facts as the skeleton for a leader, for great part of the Hikutaia and Whangamata lands arc quite aa eligible for settlement as those of the Komata, and to my p rsonal knowledge there arc many persons now waiting to get an opportunity to settle on these lands, and those persons have been now waiting for months past. These people, with a great Government and * great policy, cannot get land to buy, but the Government will give Mr Vesey Stewart and his Johnny Raws from the Worth of Ireland three hundred acres a man of the choicest settlement land in the country—"free gratis, for nothing !" '. I have been very much pressed by a resident here to say how delighted he is that the Provincial Council have passed a vote for a. road through this place to Waikato. lam sorry to siy, however, that it is not on account of the road he is delighted, but, according to his own account in this wise. Being at that time verdant and confiding, he did, about two yeaps ago, .oppept th.o promise of Mr.. Sheehan and bis th,en polleagues, $hat if he could obtain the consent of the natives to erect a bridge ever a bad crossing, on the main road through here to Tauranga, he (the verdant and confiding) should b^ave the money repouped out of Provinpial funds. Tho bridge was erected; the man who was fool enough to have it dona had to - pay for it; and he is now simpleton enough to think that he may get his money back out of this vote. Some people ;are awfully green : I know Johnny better than he does. I tell this gentleman that two years ago Mr.- James Mackay and Mr. 0. P.-Mitchell got a vote q£ £3000 passed the Council for a similar purpose } but did the Super and his Executive spend it on a road ? Nq ; not one shilling of it.' WiU they spend this vote qn a road ? Not if they know it, and I guess they do! There have only been aoven persons drowned since the opening of tho goldfleld for the want of a bridge over the Kauaeranga, and it will be time enough to think of a bridge when there are half-a-dozen more drownings. P.S. and N.B.—Mr. Mackay is expected here directly, or sooner, if possible.

He was expected last year, and so was Christmas, and they both came about the same time. The natives say that the reports as to his coming are all " b——y gammon." ■ , .- .■■■..