THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. “The spirit of the times shall teach me speed." KING JOHN, ACT IV. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1874.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 164, 1 April 1874, Page 2

THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. “ The spirit of the times shall teach me speed." KING JOHN, ACT IV. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1874.

No one residing in Tauranga can fail to remark the substantial progress of the district. Settlers of four or five, or even eight or nine years standing, have waited long and patiently for the evidences of the prosperity that is now becoming developed. Tauranga is no longer an * ‘ old soldier’s settlement,” the traders of which were once termed “ camp followers, dependent for support on Government expenditure.” They are, and their number has greatly increased and is daily increasing, purchasers and exporters of the produce of the place. Wheat is largely cultivated both by Europeans and Maoris, and the quantity received for shipment very considerable. Moreover, the sample is of superior quality, pronounced better than that brought from the Middle Island, as proved by the prices realised. Not a small quantity of kauri gum has been exported hence, and latterly a large export of live sheep has been constantly canned on in all vessels leaving here, the quality of which stock has been highly praised. At the present moment there are not fewer than three steamers trading between this port and Auckland, which are promised shortly to be superseded by others of a larger size. This is irrespective of the sailing craft owned in the place, by which a great part of the goods traffic is conducted. Soads to the interior have been completed for some time, and wagons have almost, superseded the inconvenient system of pack horses. Erosh settlers are arriving here almost daily, and allotments of land scarcely to be had at any price. Iti is now rare for the district to be without numerous tourists passing through to the Take Country or elsewhere, and whose enconiums on the beauty of the scenery and excellence of the harbour are uniform. When we contrast this state of affairs with the condition exhibited some years ago, when the prosperity of the place was dependent on military expenditure, when industry was compara-

j tively at a standstill, and when the labouring man’s highest hope was to be placed “ on pay,” we cannot be otherwise than gratified. It was at one time prophesied that men once engaged in soldier’s pursuits and barrack routine would never settle down to habits of steady labour, but the contrary has been the result, as may he witnessed in the number of cottage dwellings and small farms which bear evidence of the persevering application of industry and skill. Moreover, many of those who had trades have pursued them to such advantage that they are now substantial and prosperous freeholders—dwelling, so to speak, under the shade of their own vine and fig tree in all the ease and comfort which their industry has earned. The place is now studded with cheerful and, in many instances, picturesque dwellings, rapidly becoming embowered in groves of trees springing up on every side. As, perhaps, a subsidiary advantage may be mentioned the reported discovery of a goldfield between Poverty Bay and Tauranga, which, if substantiated, may lead to very important results. Altogether we have the best of reasons to believe that the “ good time coming ” is indeed near at hand.

It may have been tolerable in days of yore, when the community had not been properly settled down into the condition of a civilized people, to pass without notice the habits of our Maori neighbours and visitors, but now that they are becoming amenable to police regulations it is very desirable to put some restriction on their exposure of nudity in various forms, almost daily to be witnessed on the beach. There is possibly no actual immorality in these exposures while wading out to their boats or their nets, but, at the same time, the spectacle of naked men and women is not an improving one to the youthful, or agreeable to the refined mind, and we cannot observe without discomfort the almost daily exhibitions of this sort to he witnessed on the arrival of a fleet of Maori boats and canoes. Of course it is not hinted that the slightest impropriety is contemplated by the Maoris, who can doubtless discover nothing outre or bizarre in the public exposure of their frames, nor, perhaps would toe act be suggestive of mischievous consequences; but it must bo remembered that they are only savages, that we were once like them, that it has taken us a thousand years to emerge from that state, and that our greatest endeavour is to improve on the morals and imperfect civilisation of that remote period, and that it is, moreover, the object of advancing civilisation to get away as far possible from the condition of the “ noble savage.” There was a time in Australia when the natives were permitted to roam the streets almost unclad, but those days have passed away, and the natives too. On behalf of the Maoris themselves, of the morals and comfort of the European community, we raise our protest against a toleration of savage indecency in a growing and highly civilised community, and would be glad to see the natives taken to task for an exposure which would inevitably consign a European to fine or imprisonment.