IN THE DOMINION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 25, 23 June 1909, Page 5

IN THE DOMINION.

North Auckland Railway. WESTERN ROUTE ADOPTED. IT has been decided by the Government to adopt tile western route for the North Auckland railway, with the modification that the line should be continued through Ross Hill and thence via Young’s Point and Bickerstaffe. The Minister for Public Works states that he hopes to commence a section of the North Auckland Trunk line ou the Western route between Ross’ Rill and Mcijarroll’s immediately. EFFECTS OF THE DEVIATION. The announcement that the Government has finally seleeter the western route for the North Auckland Trunk railway is of widespread interest to the residents of the whole Northern Peninsula beyond the present terminus at Wellsford. To realise properly the immense interests involved in the deviation from the former ly authorised route, it must be understood that from the 80-mile flag at Ro.si Hill (south of Kaiwakal to a point on the Mangakahia river about 138 mites from Auckland by the chosen route, the two surveys never meet, and are, in fact, widely apart for the greater part of the distance.

It is unnecessary to again refer to the great battle of the routes, which, for the past year, has been so energetically waged by the partisans of the rival districts. The circumstances are too well known to Aucklanders to require anything but a passing reference. The route of the railway, as fixed in the first place, kept round the western side of the dividing range northward from Wellsford, and passed round all the tidal waters of the Kaipara Harbour. From Topuni, a few miles beyond Wellsford, the old line passed through Ross’ Hill to the east of Kaiwaka and a mile north of Maungaturoto, through the ‘’eastern” of the two saddles each known as McCarroll’s Gap, to the east of Waikiekie Hill and the Tangihua ranges, and down the Waiotama Valley to the Wailoa, crossing the latter river at 123 miles from Auckland, close to the junction of the Mangakahia. The line then ascended the Mangakahia Valley on its way to Hokianga. Although many objections to the route just described had been frequently forthcoming from settlers in the western districts, it was not until the winter of last year that the fight for •the railway commenced in earnest as regards the section between Topuni and McCarroll’s Gap. The settlers from all parts of the Wairoa, Tokatoka, and Matakohe districts earnestly advocated a deviation from Topuni through the Bickerstaffe Estate, and adjoining the former survey at a point several miles south of McCarroll’s Gap. Several 'Ministers of the Cabinet, Micluding the Hons. George Fowlds and R. McKenzie (Minister for Publie Works), inspected the rival routes. As a result of innumerable deputations and whole-hearted argument, surveys of the deviations were made, the latest being for a new line, including both proposed deviations, and keeping to the Vest of the former survey the whole way from Topuni to the heart of the Mahgakahia Valley. The two routes, old and new, are practically the same, length, the distance from the junction in the Mangakalfa to 'Auckland by either route being about 136 miles. The main arguments in favour of the Eastern route were, firstly, that it was the more central of the two, and, secondly, that, by means of a very short branch, the line would tap a magnificent ■tone and metal quarry at Pukekaroj’O hili, a few miles past Kaiwaka. It was Argued that the population of the district Served, and of Waipu and Mangawai on the East Coast, more than jusfffied keeping to the fixed route; whilst the waatern settlers based their application for * deviation on the claims that the wastwa districts were more productive, that the line would serve all the Northern Wairoa districts, and that it was essential to touch the tidal waters of the Kaipara. The eastern district deputations, on the other hand, held that by no

tapping the Kaipara, as suggested, a costly drawbridge must be constructed where the line would cross the Qtsmatea river. The trouble as to which route was to be followed near tlu Tangihua ranges mainly developed into argument as to which was the 'more direct route, and which was the better district to serve from the standpoints of commercial results and settlement. The views of the Government have thus, it will be se<sh, tended towards favouring the western route at this point-, as in the case of the Bickerstaffe route.

Big Claim Against New Zealand. The Solicitor-General (Dr. Fitchett} left for England by the same steamer that conveyed Sir Joseph Ward, in connection with a matter the details of which have not as yet been made public, but which is of considerable importance to New Zealand, It appears* that a citizen of another country has made a claim on the New Zealand Government,

through the Imperial Government, to the extent of something like half a million, and the Government of the country in question referred the matter to a committee which unanimously decided to press the claim. The Imperial Government is asking for a settlement of the matter; and, as it involves important legal questions which have been the sub ject of consideration for some time, Cabinet has decided that the Solicitor-General shall go Home for the purpose of consulting with the Imperial Crown law ottiCors, as the British Government has requested that a settlement should be arrived at. Regarding Dr. Fitchett's departure, our Wellington correspondent learns that it is in connection with a claim for about half a million pounds.

arising out pt native land transactions by an American citizen in the early d'ays of the Colony. The land in question is located North of Auckland, and was purchased from the Maoris, but seized by the Government, and never banded back to the original owners. The history of every country peopled long with a virile aboriginal race possessed through custom and tradition of an elaborate system of proprletanr rights over landed property, is always fraught with the quicksands of trouble when the European tomes along and pitches his tent on the pleasant places thereof. For the pakeha, especially hp of Anglo-Saxon persuasion, loves to become a landed proprietor, in whatever proportion, and when aboriginal, or the presiding native who, having eaten up the aboriginal, occupies his place, displays a greater fondness for rum, tobacco, beads, blankets, flint-lock muskets, and their concomitants, and other such desirable acquisitions, than for a few thousand of the wide range of acres he claims by sovereign right, it is only reasonable to assume that there are land-hungry and enterprising pakehas in plenty to barter with him. Thus it was with New Zealand in what are even now looked back over and called the early days—days when for a tomahawk and a pair of blankets a sailorman, weary of the sea, could come ashore

and obtain proprietary right to a plot of land whereon to “ sleep,” probably several thousand acres, and purchase a wife to boot. The royal freedom with which the Maori was wont to dissipate his ancestral patrimony to all and sundry who had for exchange guns, blankets, or other desirable acquisitions of European origin, became in fact, so noised abroad that when the infant colony was about to separate from New South Wales in 1846, quite a swarm of land “ sharks” came across from the island Continent, looking for “ good things ” in the way of land purchases from tho natives. But the proclamation of Governor Hobson, fortunately for the future prosperity and progress of New Zealand, upset the calculations of these gentry, who came too late. Thia was in 1840. But as far back as

the dawn of the century whalers and sailors and other hardy adventurers had, either by barter or, as was almost as frequent, by the sovereign generosity of the native chiefs to their friend and brother, tho wonderful pakeha, gradually acquired from the Maori enormous tracts of land all over the colony, but particularly in the North Island. Auckland, from its climatic and other advantages, was the chief area of interest to these early settlers, who had, before the foundation of the colony, obtained real or pretended rights to such tracts of land as began to threaten landlessness to many tribes, and occasioned the New South Wales legislature to pass an Aet appointing a Oommission with certain powers to examine and report upon the claims and grants to kind in New Zealand. Messrs. Godfrey and Richmond were appointed Commissioners, and set about their well-nigh hopeless task of defining boundaries, settling the entanglements of native rights to the various lands claimed and counter-claimed by different tribes, and adjudicating between the measure of the exorbitant and of the just, the genuine and pretender. For It must be remembered that in those days there were neither maps nor surveys, nothing but this hill and that headland, this valley and that rich plain, as more or less recognised indications of boundarySALVING FROM THE “MAWS” Then ii) 1840 New Zealand was constituted a separate colony, and the New South Wales Act had to be repealed, but in the following year Governor Hobson issued his proclamation, and the Commission already constituted continued its work, with some modification, and the result was that the extreme area allowed to any European as purchased from the Maoris, was 2560 acres. This, of course, was evaded in many cases, but largely by reason of certain amendments to the original enactment. It was later, in the days of Sir George Grey, in 1861, after surveys had been made and order to some extent evolved from chaos, that the land “ hustlers ” were dealt with, and their claims settled, THE KING OF WAIOU. But we have to do at present with the result of the earlier commission, When the colony was constituted, there lived on the little strip of land inside the Coromandel harbour, and known as Herekino, a man who has been described as a big, stout, jolly individual, loud of voice and free of manner, possessing, in addition to a strong American accent, a personality that forced its domination upon all and sundry with whom he came in contact. He had arrived some years before as a ship’s carpenter upon an American whaler, and seeing possibilities, both pleasant and profitable, in life ashore in New Zealand that an American whaler would never offer, he east in his lot among the small band of pakehas that wore scattered here and there in the midst of the cannibal lords of the land. William Webster was his name, and very soon, from one of the simple “makers of nations” in New Zealand, he became the dictator and arbitrator between native and European over a wide range of country, including the Hauraki Gulf and all its neighbouring lands. In short, without the medium of William Webster, no pakeha could obtain so much land as would sullies to give resting room to his tent or whore, and he was the bosom friend of the great Coromandel chief, Hooknose, whose daughter he was given in partnership. So Webster settled in the land, and prospered, his busy mind not content with mere idle proprietorship of the vast areas of native demesnes he had either acquired, or of which ho had claimed possession. He established trading stations all over the Gulf ami Firth of Thames, and through these he reaped a rich profit at the time of the influx of immigration to New South Wales by buying whip-loads of maize, potatoes, and other food- from the natives, and sending them across to New South Wales. And his headquarters were at this little spot of Herekino, where he kept a boarding-house for the convenience of the numerous adventurous spirits who came and went, and with whom money or kind was frequently plentiful. From the influence and' power he exercised both over Maori ami pakeha, Webster obtained the sobriquet of “King of W»* OU." DISPOSSESSIONWhen the Commission was appointed to inquire into and settle the <|w.'*tks*

®f these land claims and grants, Webster’s claim to landed property was found to fit with the enterprise of such a man, his possessions or claims of possessions, including big areas in the choicest spots bordering the Gulf, the Waiteniata having been an apparently favourite pegging-out place of his long before the New Zealand Government thought of making it the provincial capital, or even before any sign of European habitation manifested itself round its shores. He also, it is authentically stated, laid claim to the whole of the Great Barrier Island, while the I‘iako country met with considerable attention.

When these various “landholders” were required to give an account of their proprietorship and its origin, Webster agreed to declare himself a claimant as an Englishman, and not as an American citizen, and when the allotments were made his huge estates dwindled down to mere iback-yard sections ‘by comparison. Apparently, with the majority of the other dispossessed ones, he accepted the situation as philosophically as might be, and little or nothing was heard in protest from him until in the early fifties, when he left New Zealand for the Californian goldfields in search of further fortune. Some time after having left the colony a claim was received by the New Zealand Government from Webster, who was then in San Francisco, and either the original claimant or his heirs have at intervals been pressing their claims against the New Zealand Government for this dispossessed property. Some few years ago, how ever, Sir Robert Stout was commissioned to sift- the whole matter and report upon it, and the result was that Webster as a claimant was ruled out of Court.

It is almost certain that Webster is the man referred to in the claim, respecting which the Solicitor-General is going to England, but it also seems pretty clear that there is little likelihood of the claim being substantiated. For before the < 'rowa settled the rights of claimants to land, the- native rights were invariably extinguished first by purchase, so that in the event of a claim being disallowed, the land by right of purchase went to the Crown.

The Acting Premiership. The Prime Minister informed the Press that during his absence the Hon. dames Carroll will be Acting-Prime Minister, and will administer, in addition to his present Departments, the Government Insurance and Public Trust Offices. The Hon. J. A. Millar, in addition to his present Departments, will be actingMinister for Finance, and will also hold the portfolio of Labour as well as having the administration of the Government Printing Office. The Hon. George Fowlds takes the portfolio of Minister for Customs and ■will be aeting-Minister for Defence. The Hon. Dr. Findlay will be acting-Postmaster-General and Minister foe Telegraphs. The Hon. D. Buddo will be aetingMinister for Lands, and will also administer the Lands for Settlement Act. The Hon. R. McKenzie will be Minister in charge of Roads and Bridges.

The Scales of Justice. At the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Arthur Boyce, baker, was fined £5 and costs for selling under-weight bread. Defendant admitted the offence, but said that his scales were faulty. He had purchased them two years ago with the business from a justice of the peace, and naturally thought they would be correct. The magistrate said it was not a deliberate case, and. as defendant had made 300 oz daily out of his customers, he bad * good fund out of which to pay the fine. Matthew Gleeson, baker, of Taupiri, was similarly charged with shortness of weight, in bis ease ranging as high as fioz on the 41b loaf. The magistrate characterised this as a deliberate case, and fined defendant £lO and costs. “This is no hardship on you,” said Mr. Loughnan, “as you have been making GOOoz daily out of your customers. Religion in Schools. The North Canterbury Education Board last week deelined to allow one school day to be shortened by half an hour to admit of that time being devoted to religious teaching. The request for a half-hour Was made by a deputation of clergymen

at the last meeting. The Board, while quite in sympathy with the clergymen in their desire to see the children educated in religion, declined' to cut short a day for the school work which the. Act intended children should do in school. Whaling at Whangamnnin, Cook and Co., of Whangamumu, secured two more whales last Saturday, making a total of five so far this season. Two others got in the nets the same day, but got clean away, taking the nets with them, which ie a heavy loss, as the nets are made of steel wire. Hamilton Waterworks. As the result of representations made by Mr. H. J. Greenslade, the Colonial Treasurer has provisionally approved of a loan of £2OOO to the Hamilton Borough Council for waterworks extension. Imported Domestics. Included in the lonic’s passengers were 27 domestic servants, who came out under the auspices off the British Women’s Emigration Society to fill situations provided by a syndicate of Hawke’s Bay ladies, who paid the passage money. Each girl is to repay by instalments the amount expended on her behalf. The next batch of domestics will arrive in October. Grey Lynn Loan. The Mayor of Grey Lynn (Mr. Geo. Sayers) last week received a wire from Secretary to the Treasury, Wellington, announcing that the special loan of £45,000 authorised at the recent poll in that district, had been approved under the Loans to Local Bodies Act, and that authority for the issue of the loan would be granted at once. This disposes of the long-continued dispute between the Borough Council and the Bank of New Zealand regarding the formation of streets through the bank’s property. It will be remembered that in consideration of the borough undertaking this work, tne bank granted free a large area of land for the purposes of a park, while it also undertook to find the money upon the most favourable terms. In addition to the formation of these streets, the loan provides for tramway extension, drainage, and other important works. The Result of His Indiscreet Speech. As the outcome of the remarkable speech delivered by Mr. A. W. Hogg, Minister for Labour and for Roads and Bridges, on Saturday week the Minister tendered his resignation last Thursday, and it has been promptly accepted. . The views enunciated by Mr. Hogg, and to which he inferentially assumed°to commit the Cabinet, were so completely out of harmony with the policy of the Cabinet that the Premier, it is stated, intimated very clearly to the hon. gentleman that they could no longer work harmoniously together. Under these circumstances, Mr. Hogg adopted the only course that was open to him, and resigned. Premier’s Farewell Message. The Prime Minister has addressed the following message to the people of New Zeaiand: — “ The Motherland, in the great cause of Imperial defence, has called to council with her the free young nations of the Empire, and to-morrow, with the full consent of the Houses of our Legislature, I leave New Zealand to represent you at the great conference in England. “ I go with both hopes and regrets that I have just now to leave for a few months this country and my part in the government of its affairs; hopes that in the part I take in the forthcomin conference I may justify any inconvenience this country will incur by my absence; hopes, also, that the courageous part New Zealand has lately declared herself willing to assume in strengthening the British navy, and the loyal unanimity with which that part has been approved by you, will bind us closer still by all the ties of quickened kinship to the United Kingdom; hopes, above all, that through this conference and the combined assistance of all the oversea dominions, the naval defences of the Empire will be so strengthened and organised as to place the supremacy of the seas, for which

our forefathers spent so much in blood and treasure, beyond question by our foes, and all thia for the benefits of < permanent peace, the glory of the Empire, and a closer union with the people of our Motherland. “ I feel that my mission is a great one. lam fully sensitive of my responsibilities, but with the blessing of Heaven and with the best of my abilities, I shall endeavour to acquit myself as your representative in a manned worthy of your country and mine and. of the confidence you have reposed in me. ‘ln these hopes I bid you a short farewell. “J. G. WARD.” A Nou-Collapsible Lifeboat. A Wellington inventor, named Fisher, tried his non-collapsible lifeboat from the Government steamer Tutanekai. With several persons aboard, the boat was slipped from the deck of the'Tutanekai and fell torpedo-like, the end cleaving the water. It bobbed up again and floated buoyantly. The trial is considered successful. The vessel referred to in the above telegram is described as being to all intents, and purposes a' floating pontoon of steel, cylinder shaped, and measuring 14 feet over all and 5 feet in diameter. It contains an inner cylinder which will accommodate 20 passengers, while provision is made for 30 or 40 passengers outside. The inner cylinder is suspended on pivots, thus enabling the outer cylinder to revolve while the inner one remains stationary. Air valves are placed round the outside cylinder, which are automatically shut and opened. A manhole is placed on either quarter of the cylinder for ingress and egress, so whichever side of the boat is uppermost there is always a way of getting out. The boat is fitted with dead lights, and also six-candle power electric lights, which burn for 40 hours and can always be recharged. It requires neither falls nor davits for lowering, being suspended from a girder athwart ships. Passengers enter the boat aboard ship through the manhole, and it is then shot into the water, life lines and buoys being attached with steel oars and outrigged crutches, so that the vessel can be propelled without a rudder. There is ample space for provisions.