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Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 23, 28 September 1848, Page 2

The rate of wages to the Pensioners in government employ has been cut down to eighteen-pence a day, in consequence, it is said, of despatches from home, complaining of the general expenditure of the colony, and more particularly of that portion of it which is absoibed by the force in question. The reduction itself, in the absence of accurate knowledge, we must suppose to have been unavoidable; the fault is not so much in that, as in thc> ha\ ing placed the men in situations w here thi y are precluded from shifting for themselves, and relieving the go\ernmeut almost entirely from rhe% support. It may be likewise observed order been less sudden and unexpected, much unnecessary hardship would have been spared, v by giving some of the more prudent a chance of providing against tlw pinching times to come. We had ourselves this week intended to have looked carefully into the whole question, to have ripped it up from beginning to end ; but having learned that the excitement in that curps is great, that meetings have been already held in " the Doomed Village," we will not risk the chaige of being accessory to agitation in any shape soe\ef, or of its being said that the men were driven to insubordination by the press. So soon, however, as they shall have resolved upon the course they may think meetest to pursue, we shall take lea\e, without any more such nicety of scruple, to speak our mind about the treatment whichlthat corps has received. The Lieiitenant-fiovernor, perceiving, it is to be presumed, the ufter inefficiency of the natives, under the present system of management, has placed a party of the sSth regiment the roads. And certainly, for ten-pence a day," all that he is aligned to receive, a soldier gi\es double the worßibat can be citracted from a. ( Maori at eightaMJfepence. We have always disapproved of wVnpluymcut of natives in that particular afiv'Ck It has proved highry demoralizing to tHwnseVes; the waste of public money has been scandalous, and the work has not been done. The injury, monw er, that lias been done to the agricultural settler through this system should be Ly no means overlooked. Its practical eflect has been to hinder liim; almust entirely prom benefitting by one of tho greatest advantages this colony was supposed to possess. He cannot afford to compete in oiler of wages with the government. The times ha\e been, that'for nine-pence, a better day's work, with a little management, could begot out of a native on a farm, than can now be obtained for two shillings: even the latter rate of wages being often refused by men who find it p'.easanter to idle out their time for a lesser remuneration upon the loads. It is said, that Sir George Urcy has purchased Mr. Wickstead's house at Taranaki, for the sum of; £240, very much to the mystification of the settlers, who are exhausting avery possiblafconjecture as to the use which is to be wade, o| it. Let us here observe, that

Auckland has been guilty of some want of courtesy towards New Plymouth, in not having offered it a welcome on its reception into the Northern Province. It is the only one of the Company's settlements which has in any way shown itself well affected towards us, exhibiting a neighbourly feeling which it is to be hoped will be heartily reciprocated on our side likewise. Among our extracts, will be found a promising account of its condition. At Port Nicholson, in spite of the large expenditure, they are still much behind us in Custom's duties. The returns are as follows : Wellington. Auckland. Lady-day Quarter . £3,472 £4,95G Midsummer Quarter . 3,728 5,445