Auckland Times. Tuesday, Feb. 13th, 1844.

Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 57, 13 February 1844, Page 2

Auckland Times. Tuesday, Feb. 13th, 1844.

We are glad to hear that Mr. Mason, of Epsom, is sustaining the character he has so well earned as an enterprising Colonist, by the progress he is making in the erection of a Mill upon his property, the hoppers of which, perhaps in less than a month, will be merrily going. This is really a service to the Colony ; the harvest has been abundant upon every portion of our settlers’ land, hitherto brought under cultivation, and it is a satisfaction to know that by means of Mr. Mason’s mill, the settlers will have a better prospect than sending their wheat to Sydney, where, at the present moment, it would probably not realize more than 3s. per bushel, although the uncertainty of our supplies of flour from thence is so great, as to keep up the present price to £lB or £2O per ton. The Colonists of Auckland have had many a day of anxiety to go through ; but up to a certain period, there has been for them a large reliance upon the expenditure of the Home Government—this must now be considered as certainly much reduced, and the Colony must therefore look earnestly to her own resources, and every one may be considered a benefactor to the community who helps to develope her domestic means. The ingenious mechanics who are conducting this improvement under Mr. Mason’s superintendance, Messrs. Lowe and Partington, are deserving of mention in this matter; we understand that the necessary work is being conducted upon highly scientific, though at the same time very frugal, plans, and yet that it will be completed upon a scale quite sufficiently large for the probable requirements of Auckland for a long time to come.

V/e congratulated the interests of Auckland, last week, upon the first arrival of an English whaler for re-fit in our port, and we said, with a perfect certainty of the truth of the assertion that there is no port in the Southern Seas where any wants can be more economically supplied than here,—that such arrivals would meet with every possible accommodation, and would return to the laborious field of their occupation with the report that Auckland was in every respect a desirable haven for all and sundry of her compatriote and other reapers of the harvest of the Southern Seas; and we speak now more in sorrow than in anger, more in caution than in reproach, when we allude to the hard terms upon which the jealousies of the commercial men of the place have allowed the very trifling amount of bills, which Capt. Fedarb felt it necessary to negotiate, to be discounted. It is a splendid elucidation of the principles of free trade, where the crime of one Captains dealing with another is sufficient to condemn the delinquent to the fine of Twenty per cent upon his owners—for an exchange of credit between the house of Soames of London, and the facilities which the petty

bank of this place can afford ! ! It is high time that a real establishment of commercia character should be created here, from local resources, or that some branch of the London banks in ti e neighbouring Colonies should be in - vited to come among us ; for what are all the mischiefs of harbour dues, or ad the benefits of free portage in comparison with the usurious charge of Twenty per cent for the nioinentar y loan of a ship’s expenses, to be spent instanter for the benefit of our ow.i labouring and productive classes. We have said we will not flinch from our duty, and though the temporary credit of Auckland may suffer by our honesty, it is nevertheless our duty to record facts. A severe caustic is often the most effective remedy. We have got our own corn crops unsaleable and unusable, for want of a mill ; we import foreign beer and spirits, because we prohibit domestic manufactures; we always use. very largely, foreign tobacco, although we can grow it our selves; we preach up “Free Tradf, ’ ad nauseam , and yet when an opportunity of the advantage of it comes among ug how has it not been abused ? By what conjuration is it that we cannot see the advantage of practice over theory.

We have ever been desirous to speak well of the merits of the citizens of Auckland and the colonists of New Zealand ; but the best wav for them and for us is to speak the truth : —they have not now done their duty.