BAY OF PLENTY TIMES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 39, 15 January 1873, Page 2

BAY OF PLENTY TIMES.

“ The spirit of the times shall teach me speed." 3IIKQ- JOHJf, ACT IT. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1873.

These is a great want existing in our midst, which calls for prompt measures. It is a want felt universally. , We allude to the impossibility of obtaining any information at the District Survey Office, on the subject of laud, for farming or other purposes. The fact of this want existing has been painfully patent within the last few months. Intending settlers have com© here from Auckland and the South, importuning for information at the Survey Office. The officers of this department, though most willing and efficient, have been obliged to say that there is no datum in the office from which reliable information could he gathered. Wb look on this as most culpable neglect on the part of the Government, and as a disgrace to any community. Is it likely that the country lands in this district will ever —we repeat, ever—become settled if persons, willing and anxious to reside here, have to leave again merely because they cannot get any information ? Does it not stand to reason that these persons return from whence they came, or to some district more highly favoured, and to which th®

Government do all they can. to induce settlement say, for example, Hawke’s Bay; and tell their friends and .acquaintances that it no use coming to Tauranga or Opotiki in search, of land, that tbefr doing so would, be merely waste of time and vexatious disappointment ? And w bat inference is drawn from these statements getting abroad in Auckland a nd tho South? Simply that Tauranga, though surrounded by tine land, having a superb harbour and all accessories to successful enterprise, is not, and will not be for years, a desirable place for settlement. It is most disgraceful that this state of things should ever have existed, but that it is still allowed to exist, is no t only disgraceful, but absolutely dishonest on the part of the Government. •\Ve say the Government, because in the roil of departmental red tape wo are at a loss to particularise any single Minister or officer of the Government, but one thin° r is most apparent, and that is, that whether blame be due to the Secretary for Crown Bands, Inspector of Surveys, or any other official, the Bay of Plenty district is not making that progress which it should make. ¥e alluded in our leading article of last Saturday to the tardiness displayed in tbe location of immigrants along this coast ; we now further accuse the Government of keepj D cr away from this district bona fide colonists, with capital, who, as we before stated, have come and gone, entirely owing their fruitless journey to Ministerial apathy. It behoves the people of the Bay of Plenty to bestir themselves, and to insist that the District Surveyor here shall be immediately furnished with necessary datum; to enable him to answer the questions of, and give all information to the many strangers arriving here in search of land for the location of their families. ¥e shall be happy to have this important subject thoroughly ventilated in our correspondence columns by persons willing and able to offer any opinion on it. As to opinion, there can be but one ; we should have said suggestion. We conceive it to be our duty as journalists, free and unpledged to any particular party, to bring this just and bitter grievance prominently before the public, and trust that under the admirable system in vogue among newspaper proprietors of interchanges of files, this stigma on the Government may become known over the length and breadth of the colony, and that that mighty agent public opinion will work a cure.

The nearest ,station of the Armed Constabulary inland from Tauranga is Tapuaebarurn, not less than 80 miles, and the Taupo road from this end •must be travelled that distance without meeting one ,of these, which are very agreeable baiting places to travellers. It is true that Ohinemutu, a friendly settlement where some Europeans reside, is on the road, within 37 miles, but it is to be observed that on the Rapier side of Taupo the Constabulary station# occur -at, tolerably regular intervals, and furnish nice stages by which the traveller can measures his distance and make himself tolerably sure-of comfortable quarters on his journey., These stations, in many inst ances, are forming the nuclei-of email townships, and so promoting settlement. At T-puaeharuru there is ■a fine hotel, a store, of -course,. and in a short time, will contain representatives of all the orthodox trades considered to compose a country, village. At Tarawera, quite a township has already sprung up ; Opepe will doubtless shortly follow suit, as it i» situated at the junction of four , or five most important main roads through the interior. «There j 3 no reason why a detachment of the force should not be .stationed at Oropi. It h sufficiently.distant from T'e Papa, and is admirably situated for the purpose, as it commands a surprisingly extensive, view of the surrounding country. It would- form a nice stage for travellers starting from To Papa, and would pleasantly break the monotonous ride through the forest which intervenes between here and Koto* rua. Moreover, it is on.the very choicest land in the district, with soil of incalculable richness, .timber in inexhaustible abundance, and an unfailing supply of water. As far as tbe members of the force themselves are concerned, such a station ufford an extremely agreeable relief for a detachment from head-quarters at Tauranga. Instead of being secluded, as at Opepe and other stations, they would be Just sufficiently distant from Tauranga to escape tb© eternal monotony of barrack routine, and the members of the force Would always b© able to look forward With some degree of pleasant excitement to the opportunity of paying a visit to T« Papa. Of course tbe time has gone by when a garrison was needed at that • point for defensive purposes, but we think a section of the force might, with advantage to the oistriot and increase of comfort to the men, be detached for a small station at that beautiful locality. J £ sueh a step should be adopted by the authorities it wouid greatly benefit tbe district, and would hasten settlement on the beautiful lands in its immediate neighbourhood.