Correspondence.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 26, 19 October 1848, Page 3

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Anglo-Maori Warder. Sir —You would confer a great benefit on the public, could you suggest any means o obliging Government to notice the neglected state of the town, more especially of the backstreets, which are pestileotial, pouring out miasma even into those which are clean, and ought to be healthy. When we see fever raging

amongst us, deaths occurring by families, while the doctors, one and all, attribute this mortality to the game cause, it is high time to insist upon common sanatory precautions being taken. It is easy to say that the fault lies with the inhabitants ; that it is ther own business to keep their own town clean ; it is easy to taunt them with helplessness and with asking too much at the hands ufr Government: but who ever heard, in practice, of individuals undertaking public works ? or whence would their authority to interfere be derived, were they disposed to take such duties on themselves? Let it not be forgotten tKr the carters some time ago volunteered carrying - ■.. to lay down upon the streets, at a time wher rL-r1?. ■■,.., could get past the very office of the Colonial S^cr< -cwv without sinking to the axle trees, and was ringing from morning to wit ■,;,!;„ '.r,,i lashing of whips ; that they offered to r '.*>■■■-</v the w > vernment of what ought to have been O-. m ;= :• 4?e part of the operations (for cart hir- ■<. 255. a day), and that their services we ■>—- i; ut« .: r . But is it not an idle excuse, at - .- thw poverty stricken dwellers in back ■- sewerage, draining, and metalling :>r> r ;r :vn ar.count. If ihe Government be too mucis o- -p- ■> v ■- ing flattering representations oi • jl; > ;c .• v: home perusal, to find time for giving some small attention to the health and comfort of the colonists, or if it be really the duty of the townspeople to gee to thess things for themselves, suffer that duty at all events to be systematically performed. Let municipal institutions be organised, means placed at the disposal of the corporation; and improvement will then be speedily seen. When I say improvement, \ mean, as much as the nature of the case will allow; for unless the whole town were pulled down and lebuilt, the mischief could never be wholly subdued. The real blame rests with the survey office, lending itself too readily to the nig* gardly policy of Government, when the town was first ! laid out ; striving to make the most of every foot of I land, concentrating its whole and sole attention on swelling out a land fund. To this end some of the most extraordinary devices were resorted to, with an, account of which I may trouble you on a future oc* casion : for the present, it will suffice to say, that with hundreds of available acres behind the town, vte find ourselves cooped up within the smallest inhabitable spice, with three tolerable streets to show, but the rest more like what the purlieus of St. Giles* used to be ; the natural advantages of our position sacrificed, and Auckland itself thrust almost as closely into the sea by art, as Wellington is by nature. I have been told that the narrow back streets were originally intended for mews. It is not unlikely; but owing to the judicious management of landsales—the dealing out of houseroom, sparingly and carefully, till at last it was snatched at lor almost any price—men and women have been forced to take shelter in what was laid out for horses. Seeing what enormous sums, by a system of peddling trickery, narrow, filthy lanes have been made to yield to her Majesty's treasury, it is surely not unreasonable to ask that a trifling portion of the interest of that money should be expended in rendering them habitable. A memorial to Government on the subject has teen suggested. Without being very sanguine of success, I still think that an effort should be made to rouse it from this state of culpable and impolitic apathy. Expendi ure is lavish enough where less worthy objects are in view. Pater-famllias. [We are no great advocates for memorialising "the deaf adder;" bur agree in thinking that, where so many lives are at stake, even a trifling chance of success ought not to be thrown away. What our correspondent says of flattering representations devised for English readers is only too true. Pavoneggiarsi—-' 1 to peacock himself,'' has been all along Sir George's game; but moulting time must come. He may paint the colony as he will, —Pictoribus atque poetisl Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas—she must still remind us of an undomestic beauty, sluttish at home, but tawdry out of doors. No one can say that her head looks well in paper. Where our correspondent speaks of the impolicy of such neglect and apathy, he has likewise struck a true chord. This unconciliatory carelessness possibly the result of habitual procrastination—has impaired his Excellency's influence, has gathered up more ill will against him, than many juster causes of complaint, bmall attentions, les petits soins, will often go farther to create a good understanding than more substantial benefits. There is an art in easy government which Sir George has yei to learn; his deficiency in which is likewise r*ndeied doubly glaring by the very nice power of contrivance which he evinces in his wsitten despatches. But, as Lord Bacon has told us long ago, "There be some that can pack the cards, vet cannot play well. —JEd]

To the Editor of the Anglo.Maori Warder. Sir, —You seem to be unaware of the peril of your position. Governors and bullocks are alike unsafe when overdriven ; when *' raised"—to borrow a stockyard term —into a fit of bovine running a-muck. Forewarned, forearmed* Hia Excellency is ssid to have broken out with Bolingbroke's passionate cry :—• " Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear ? Have I no friend ?•• Monitor. [Not one—Ed.]