JACKSON BAY SETTLEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume X, Issue 1379, 12 May 1876, Page 3

JACKSON BAY SETTLEMENT.

. [WESTPOBT EVENINGf STAB;/ MAY 9.] A graphic pourtrayal of ,the present circumstances 'and the Jackson Bay. settlers, itnjeir .chancis and prospects, has been written; by> the special correspondent or the'"'West Coast Times., , Summing," up" thji'l&ltt&r item he says:—" He-is no pVb'pliet, and cannot pretend to foreshadow the future of the Settlement,any_ f morer than of himself, but herb'elie.Tesaibpto'oii possess good elements which, .iwithoH proper treat m ent, might' ni iake'^' both* better thnn they are, or may' be* : cbW-' ni sidered to be by the mind-uncharitable.. Having started the settlement.';6n: m any g'rou nds of good policy, in' con-' nection wiih the . colonisation of;.the, country, and having no'reas6n'jtbjCon.? lK sider that the available' fand;isv ( vastly shortly of, though, it is ► notv equals! to, expectation, and haying encouraged l '>} settlers to make J a the Government are, bound 'go on with it. There is .no reason. to : a abandon it in anything ' that is pasti And if the original ; selection of land for settlement is insufficient, in consequence of its low-lying situation,- there- :Pt are valleys contiguous which,' now held as runs and not yet occupied,*,,-; are likely to be held and occupied by-r; off-drafts from the settlement. 'Then'" there there is always a 'prospect; bf the',' country proving auriferous,; and that' prospect alone is immensely, promoted,;; by the fact of such a settlement exist- ; 1 ing, as the discovery of the goldfields of Otago was promoted by settlement prei ceding them. If not realised,.then'tlie.''* value of the settlement must be guaged, m not by a comparison of it -with such'<« suddenly created communities !as exists already along this coast, but by coinv !i!! paring it with bush settlements, ixi this or other countries where gold, ' f been found, and where it never.entered ~j into colonists' calculations. The imwi*; mediate prospects of the settlers 1 aire *"- dependent on the good''or ill fortune '"* that may attend the growth of,Hih*eir * crops next season, and a continuance''of the conditions of partial employment on which they settled. The bad weather; the newness of the ground, the; smalk'E ness of the clearings, l ' all" contributed last year to smaller results "than can ever reasonably be-expected" occur again. In :a season oil twb ithep Settlement should,..,be. ( -in many of the common items of cnsumptibn; Butj ; to be'fhbrou'ghljr" sustairiirig/Jit <must ; export:;'/and.what can it export;? :He ■ who itf/r as never being a grain-producing country utters a wlse r ' saw worthy of one who would teach his'grandmother to suck eggs/' The "thing 'would be evident to an infant; butHtf *is "equally evident that there are other ijnierests than f grain-growingj' andj''' "as J simple land settlers, the attention »b T f the residents will apparently tfavetlto be given to root-brbps, rr 'dairy ''produce, and cattle-rearing,? layin'g "down as much ;i of 'the : grouad'in 'grass '-'is it is convenient for thejn_to do." As compared . with opinions ,asy. reliable of the prospect's of the KaVahYe'a Settlement, Jackson J Bay appears the better of the two,i}ut"l;here may be at the Karamea advantages/of Iwhich''the public, outside i the'.. Settlement; kjnqwy nothing. It would, he- , gratifying if, from an .independent..'point of ._view,___ a minute enquiry were - made as to the prospects of the Karamea. Against the specious rreports publisheayQbypj authority,-there has been;as;yet-arrayec| little beyond the cursory observations., recorded by casual visitors, uncheerj, in,j - t tone and predicting failure'. ,-&h,s;<T giving color thereto is each vi/iit of the Provincial. to the Settlement is.invariabiy followed by reports of dissension between him and the settlers. ■■■■■'■ ■'■•"■: '■'■>