The Anglo-Maori Warder. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1848.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 26, 19 October 1848, Page 2

The Anglo-Maori Warder. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1848.

In our last number we endeavoured to give the plan of a military settlement in New Zealand, as it had been originally laid out by the home euthorities. Let us now endeavour to contrast that scheme with its practical results. With prudent forethought, to make sure of the project being carried out in its full integrity, its contrivers had left to the Governor as little power as possible of interference with the corps—strictly speaking, the Pensioners have no title to the name of the New Zealand Fencibles, nor, in fact, are they a corps at all; but we use the term for convenience sake—taking it almost completely from under his control, by suffering the officers to correspond directly with the War Office, instead of reporting, as is usual in other colonial matters, to himself: a permission, by the way, which must have very naturally have caused the most extreme annoyance to his Excellency, leaving him in continual and uneasy doubt, while composing his own despatches, as to what he ought to say. Still, while debarred from interference with the corps itself, one power was unavoidably left to him, on which the success or failure of the scheme may be said to have turned : that of choosing sites for the villages among which the different companies were to be distributed. His wish, for reasons which we could assign, were it fitting so to do, was to locate the force at a distance from the capital ; and to effect his purpose, he left no stone unturned, taking, nevertheless, all possible care to avoid the direct responsibility of disobeying Lord Grey's instructions. It will be observed that the despatch announcing the intention of the Home Government, was dated Nov. 24th, 1846, which would bring the receipt of it, allowing four months for a mail, to March, 1847. The successive arrival of divisions, was as follows:—

Will it then be credited, that it took Sir George Grey thirteen months to fix upon a location for the last comers ! The first division arrives, under command of Captain Kenny, in the " Ramillies." Nothing had been done out here ; shelter had not even been provided ; there was nothing for it, but to leave the men on board, and [illegible] the vessel on demurrage. Not only the exact site of their location, but even the district, was as yet undecided on. And then began a series of the most extraordinary colonial pranks, that were ever played. His Excellency suddenly declares his intention of sending them altogether away from the capital, which they were virtually to have garrisoned, a change of intention which was in fact equivalent to an entire remoulding of the original scheme. Contem- poranea expositio fortissima est in lege, say the lawyers ; it may be therefore best to transcribe an account of these proceedings, as we wrote it at the time. " We were at first given to understand that the Pensioners were to be settled at Oneunga ; a good position, without a doubt, although outside the five mile circle within which they expected to be placed ; perhaps the best, being the key to Auckland, and the possible site of a seaport town on the west coast. " Every thing went on smoothly for some time ; sawn timber was contracted for—the cottages about to be built; the new comers had already obtained employment, and had entered into agreements with the old settlers; when they were suddenly astonished by an intimation that an out settlement had been resolved upon, and the Onehunga project abandoned.— The steamer was called into requisition, and a somewhat expensive expedition made along the coast, in search of a defensible positron. Mahurangi, which would have proved a second Wanganui, was visited, and Matakana; even so far as the Kerikeri, the coast was tried. Mr. Heki indulged in a little quiet swagger about the matter; saying that he should treat their arrival in certain districts, which he was considerate enough to indicate, as a declaration of war. But the satirical rogue, thinking, like Hamlet, that " old men have grey beards," afterwards assumed a tone of moderation, and promised to content himself with merely disarming them. His generosity was thrown away ; for in the most opportune moment, while surveyors and surveyor-general were in full activity, while the pensioners were encouraging each other in dogged resolution not to re-em-bark, the Minerva arrived from England direct, with those on board who were able to explain the ministerial views, and to expound by word of mouth Earl Grey's despatch, seemingly so difficult to understand, in writing. It appeared that the plainest interpretation of it was the most correct; that the pensioners were sent out distinctly for garrison duty, so as to render the whole force of regulars available ; that at one time it had been in contemplation to arm them not with percussion-lock muskets, but flint, as being equally effective for garrison duty ; that the whole system of military defence devised at home for the colony would be turned upside down if the newly raised body

were sent to the frontier. Had they now been sent away, serious responsibility—a much more effectual check, when clear and distinct, than any Legislative Council with a sure official majority —would have been incurred : no stalking horse was at hand to shoot from behind, or cat's paw to be thrust among the coals ; no loop, no starting hole, no device was there ; nothing was left for it but to send the Government brig to catch the Government schooner, to recal the Surveyor-General, who had been despatched to the North but just before to make arrangements with all convenient speed for their reception, and to constitute himself a Polar star for them to steer by—the Cynosure of the Royal New Zealand Fencibles. We are sorry for the anticlimax, but the upshot of all is this, that the site originally fixed upon for the first village of our new friends, has been again chosen." The discomfiture was signal, no doubt; but even then, with that pertinacity of purpose when once opposed, which so remarkably characterises his Excellency, he adheres to the principle of his design, still determined, if he be unable entirely to exile them, at least to. send them as far away from the capital as he could. As was before observed, he begins by selecting Onehunga for a site. To this no reasonable objection could be taken. It is but a short six miles from Auckland, neither does it entail any new expense in road making : the land, though not of the richest, certainly above the average ; the water is good, scoria for building and fencing plenty ; employment for a fair proportion of the men always obtainable at Epsom ; while the plots of ground which their tenants will hold in fee simple at the expiration of the seven years, will always command a certain value in the market. Those who have had the luck to be placed on that site have little to complain of—save only the loss of that produce which their allotments would have yielded, had they been placed in possession at once. One company is located there. The third choice made—we shall come presently to the second, was Panmure; by the present road about eight miles from the capital. With reference to everything excepting the prospective value of the allotments, we believe it to be a more convenient situation than even Onehunga. It is the site of an old pah; the land of good quality ; exhausted at one time by Native cultivation, but having in all probability lain idle long enough to recover itself. It is well sheltered, and employment can be readily obtained from the farmers of the Tamaki district, One company is located there. The fourth choice, was Otahuhu—about nine miles from Auckland, in favor of which little can be said. It is bleak and comfortless ; the soil is poor ; best towards Mr. Fairburn's farm, but deteriorating in quality as it nears the white clay of Papakura, where land with crown title has been sold, at the rate of half a crown an acre. Should the Waikato ever come to be opened up —which, under the present regulations, is an event not soon to be expected—the settlement will lie upon the road, while it is possible that a limited supply of employment may be then obtained. As to the imaginary cut from the Manukau to the Tamaki river, which was to have connected the two seas, and by which the value of allotments in that locale was to have been so much enhanced, it is a flight of fancy beyond the pitch of Alnascharism. The idea of a canal, on account of the long mud flats which would lie at either end of it, has been long since scouted by all men qualified to pronounce an opinion. If, indeed, a channel across the island be ever cut at all, it will be between the Manukau harbour and the Wau—and even there, we are far from vouching for the practicability of the scheme —a position which was actually suggested to Government for the location of the force. As a military position, it must be allowed that Otahuhu is well chosen, being a barrier to any sudden irruption of natives from the Waikato ; from which, nevertheless, on account of the openness of the intervening country, we believe Auckland to be at all times perfectly secure. Excepting during a moment of excitation, and at a short distance from cover of the bush, the Natives will never face the open against Europeans ; an opinion which we give deliberately and advisedly, with full recollection of all occurrences during the inglorious Wanganui campaign. One company is stationed at Otahuhu. But what shall be said to his Excellence's discovery of Paparoa—Howick, it is now supposed to be called, though we can hardly bring ourselves down to the bad taste of replacing native by European names—as second in order of choice, and as first in favour. A more extraordinary crochet than this of his never yet hung on to the brain of man. The ; distance, about thirteen miles by the present road, is not worth speaking of, by the side of graver objections. Bleak and cold, exposed to the whole blast of the north wind, which pours down between the opposite islands as through the nozzle of a bellows, the soil of the poorest and most impracticable nature, save only in a few patches and veins which run along the dykes—water bad, but welling up through the very floors of the houses—scoria scarce—a landing place so bad that we have ourselves heard boatmen declare that they would never risk it again—[illegible] healthy, with fogs occasional [illegible]

that the eye can scarcely penetrate for twenty yards—employment not obtainable at all—and to cap the folly, if folly it was that chose the site, three companies set down there, cut off from communication with the rest by a broad arm of the sea ; useless to the colonists, and defenceless for themselves. Government cannot plead ignorance of its accumulated disadvantages : warning of what must inevitably be the result of such a choice was repeatedly offered, if not by the officers of the corps, who knew nothing of the country, but were content to take the Governor's opinions, somewhat too lightly upon trust, yet by the more clearsighted people of Auckland, who foresaw the whole. It is already known by the name of " The Doomed Village." One single fact will suffice to shew that the epithet is not misplaced. An allotment was purchased from government by one of our townsmen, at a Howick land sale, for the sum of thirty pounds. He improved it, built upon it, and ultimately sold it again by auction, where it realised, after all his outlay, no more than five pounds in addition. Ex uno disce omnes. And what remedy to this complication of difficulties will it be supposed that his Excellency contrived to find ? No other than raising the upset price of land on the further side of the Tamaki from one pound to two pounds an acre ! thus most effectually putting an end to the Pensioners last hope of obtaining employment, by scaring away from that district all those who might have been otherwise tempted to buy farms in that quarter, by the facility of procuring labour. Let the enormous and unnecessary expense be considered, which the selection of Howick, and, in a lesser degree, of Otahuhu has entailed. The villages are disconnected, not only by distance, but by the very nature of the land : a labyrinth of roads, intersecting a broken and difficult Country, like network, each of which ought rather to have been added on in prolongation of the great trunk artery to the south, must be specially made for them ; special establishments of every order are required ; three hospitals—and there ought to be four—three doctors, three clergymen, and as many churches, two of which have been already built. Let us not make a parade of items ; it is only too clear that the cost, both past and prospective, of partially carring out the scheme, must be an effectual bar in the way of the Home Government completing the benefit which it would have wished to confer upon the colony. After speaking of extravagance on so prodigal a scale, a descent to minor details of waste must look like trifling with the subject. But the slovenly and injudicious manner in which all-the required works have been undertaken, have swelled the bill of costs to an amount that would be scarcely credited. And of this, a single instance must likewise suffice. We have known Pensioners, receiving two shillings and six pence a day in wages, employed by government in clearing their own acres at Panmure, and that with shovels ! With such implements, it takes sixteen men and an overseer to clear an acre of fern land in a day : with fern scythes two men can do the work with ease; and more than that, we will undertake to produce a man that shall get through it single handed. The astonishment of the neighbouring farmers at seeing such a fashion of going to work may be conceived. | The original and crying sin is in the bad selection of sites for the villages; it is that error which has marred the whole. The Governor affirms that there was no help for it —that the land claims interfered with everyavailable spot within reasonable distance from the town. Without adverting to his sudden delicacy of scruple about seizing what he wanted for a great public purpose, (giving a fair remuneration or exchange in return), more particularly after appropriating so muck ! without offering any remuneration at all; I without stopping to ridicule the excuse, we ! prefer coming to the point at once, by affirm- ! ing distinctly that he was by no means driven to j placing them where he did, as the officers of the ] corps, who seem to have taken the contrary for ■j granted at first, are now beginning to find out. | If his Excellency did not know that he had the iland, he ought to have known it. Panmure, | at all events, was fixed upon after the objectionable Howick, not before. It is here that ;issue must be joined; it is to this point that the whole question must ultimately converge. And that it is as we say, shall be presently proved to the satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, of all concerned. What, after all, was to have prevented him from acquiring as much land on the north side of the Tamaki road as he pleased. " The natives," we are told, " were too extravagant in their demands." It is hard to say what price a Government, which used to limit its agents to threepence an acre in the purchase of Maori land, and now demands £3O a rood at Panmure, | may be pleased to think extravagant; but j nothing is more certain than that if individuals j were suffered to acquire that very land by bargain with the natives, it would begin to change hands forthwith, at prices which colonists would be only too well pleased to pay. ■ But should any one, in dealing with natives, be not disposed to purchase from them, nothing '' ,f-.: (1 v: *o take shelter underthe foregoing <*-,:-.-;:::.. price is certain to i------- /. :. . . t ally asked ; proper evidence of ;.s,- 1 -\,-. ■■ . jx have been always secured, and

an accurate statement of the whole transaction made oit: there being not the slightest need to add that neither vendor or vendee ever dreamed of such a price being acquiesced in, or to allow that it was never intended as anything more than a sort of formal preliminary to the bargain. If no better reason can be given lor the non-purchase of the most admirable site that could have been fixed, central at once to Auckland, Oneunga, and Panmure, the (tovernment doings will presently need some stout SU Would it be indiscreet to ask how much of that very land has since come into possession of Government; or whether the project of forming a widows' settlement upon a portion of it has°not been entertained'? Had Howick been placed but there, there would have been hardly a difficulty left that might not have been overcome with ease. What is to be done with Howick ? We can see but two courses open. To consider the first loss as the best—to transplant the whole settlement at once, or else to support it in a state of lingering existence by continuing the men tJr life in Government employ at a high rate of pay. To pay the wages indeed, would be easier than to find the work within those nve miles beyond which they are forbidden to seek it. They would presently be found as troublesome as that indefatigable demon for whom Michael Scott, the wizard, was under the necessity of finding constant employment, and whom he only conquered at last, after damming the Tweed and cleaving Eildon Hills into three, by employing him in the hopeless and endless task of making ropes out of sea sand. May we be suffered to recommend this enduring occupation to the notice of the Royal New Zealand Fencibles. There is a third alternative, certainly, if Howick is to be saved ; though it is hardly worth while to suggest it, where there is no chance of its adoption. It is simply to put up to auction a couple of thousand of acres of land on that side of the Tamaki, for whatever it might fetch, conditionally that it were cleared, fenced, and broken up by the purchasers within a stated time. The low price might tempt purchasers, while the land itself, when once the greater expenses of snbdual had been incurred, would always be kept under cultivation. What is to become of the Howick Pensioners ? They will not starve : for want of employment, they cannot dig, and to beg they are ashamed. It is not for us to give advice ; it is to their own officers that they must look for that. At one time they were for subscribing among themselves to bring an action [against the Government, on the ground, of breach of agreement; while now, on the same ground, [they are beginning to demand free passages home. That a virtual breach of agreement exists is beyond a doubt; but to prove it, modo et figura, excepting on some minor points, such as the double instead of single houses, with nothing but a thin partition of boards between (an un-English, in some cases almost a Mezentian infliction, and a source of enduring discontent), or again, the not having been put into possesion immediately on arrival in the colony, would be not an easy task. At the War Office, they seemed to have considered the being located within five miles of Auckland, and within five of labour, as identical propositions. And the War Office was right enough, for the fact is so; but, unluckily, while the first was promised verbally, the second phrase only was made use of in the printed conditions that were "supplied* The subject is endless, but must be broken off. There is more to be told than we have suffered ouselves to to say'; but it is sometimes ; unwise " to follow even truth too closely by the heels."

The 1 st division Aug. 5th 1847 2nd a Oct. 8th " 3rd tt Oct. 12th " 4th a Nov. 25th " 5th tt Jan. 23rd 1848 6th (6 May 16th "