INTERNAL DEVELOPEMENT.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1860, 25 April 1863, Page 2

INTERNAL DEVELOPEMENT.

Amidst the rapid strides in progress and di • velopement made by some of the other Province ' of New Zealand, ii has become customary t* underrate and sneer at Wellington. This pestilent habit, is to some extent due to the tone of a certain section of our local press, which loses no opportunity of attempting in its feeble and illogical way to show that the Province has commenced the descent of an iucline which leads to a bottomless pit of utter ruin. Of course people here know the absurdity of all this, but though such assertions are comparatively harmless at home, they are excessively mischievious abroad. |Tbe key-note thus struck in Wellington, is re-echoed in Auckland, and Canterbury plays a de capo of the same tune. The Press, pats us on the back and talks patronisingly of Wellington as "a placid little watering place ;" while the New Zealander coolly informs it's leaders " that our City is built on the crater of an extinct volcano ; that its • harbor is rapidly shallowing ; and that we have no back country to support the town." Truly, if all those evil prophets are to be believed, we are in a had way, but the practical logic of facts ' tells quite a different story. Our settlers live iv comfort and pay their way; there is abundance of work at liberal wages for rne.n of stout heart and strong arms ; our Customs' Eevenue shows a gratifying increase ; and production, so far as the quantity of land under cultivation, goes on with a steady degree of advancement. Wbat : then is wanting to ensure » continued and accelerating prosperity in the future? The ; answer to this may be stated iv the words : — " Developement of our natural resources, and a steady stream of immigration." We may be heartily amused when an Auckland journal says "we have no back country :" but when ( our laugh is over, at the combined ignorance 1 and malice of the assertion, we had better think ' a little of employing some means to make avail- ' able the immense tracts of fertile territory we \ do possess. i Within forty miles of the city and harbour of Wellington, commences a large plain of \ fertile laud, sixty miles in lerigth by ten iv ] ? breadth, and containing a superficial area of ' between three and four hundred thousand acres. I This valley is blessed with every gift which ] nature in her most lavish mood can bestow. ■ It has a fertile soil, needing but the tickling of , a hoe, to bring forth it's fruit; it is watered by j several rivers — it contains thousands of acres of ( open and undulating land- tbere are forests o * the most valuable timber ; and forming its \ Eastern boundary exteuding to Castle Point, x there is a grazing country capable, with but | slight improvement, of sustaining a million of j sheep. Such is the Waivarapa Valley ; which, ( though not to be compared with the famous \ Canterbury Plain for extent, mure than rivals ] it in natural advantages. i But all the resouices thus revealed, are com- ( paratively useless from want of a cheap and expeditious means of transit. Il is tiue there y is a road between the Valley and Wellington, \ but the cost of cartage by that means is so « heavy, that, comparatively speaking, it does not J pay to grow wheat or fell timber for transmis- 1 aion here. B Doubtless, a certain amount of tiaffic exists, { but that is but a tithe of what could be created, < were the means of transit better and cheaper, J Near the sea border are two lakps; but, a strip of sand wblou intervenes, prevents the entrance 1 of vessels of any considerable tannage. It is

ly not our intention at present to enter into the to macj schemes which bare been suggested by ie settlers there, to establish an oullett by sea; it n is enouarb to suy that their expense iv the pren sent state of the Provincial Finances, interposes t, an insuperable bar ,to their adoption. Let us w see then what can be done by land. r lbe ord diuary road does not supply the desideratum, 11 but a tramway,— a horse railway, will. The 1. idea, is not a new one, it has been sugis gesled before, and it is by no means impracts ticable. If a tramway were laid through the V cnltivated valley of the Hutt; a short tunnel v cut through the summit of the lange i. of the Kemutaka, tbeu an easy descent could a be made on Featherstou, and the line continued to o Grey town. The custofduing this, we are assured c by professional men, would not much exceed „ £100,000 and looking to the benefit which I) would accrue, the scheme is by no means y Utopian. 9 Something must be done, and that speedily, 5 to develope our internal resources— to connect f the country with the town— or our present pros- • perity will net continue. Already our supply • of cattle, of sheep and of timber is unequal to the ' large and fast increasing demand from the • South, and every effort should be made to open > fiesh §elds of production. This applies to live » stock and timber, bat the same means which p are empleyed to increase, that description of 5 wealth, would soon rendw us independent of 3 Canterbury, for supplies of wheat and other f agiicultural produce. Itis perfectly clear, that 5 in a young community like this, it is the duty of the Government to initiate any undertaking » of this kind. We are fitmly convinced that it would be self supporting, within but a brief ' time of its completion, and the ultimate benefit, that would accrue cannot be estimated. In ' the sessiou just commenced it is to be hoped, the Provincial Council will entertain some such project, ss is here so briefly indicated.