The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2679, 18 September 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1871.

It is now more than eighteen months since with a loud flourish of trumpets the new settlement at Martin’s Bay was founded. It was advertised Colomally. The Loudon papers noticed the new settlement, and wished it God speed. Bank managers in London, according to Captain Fraser, had plans of the township and settlement conspicuouslydisplayed in their parlors. An Act was passed conferring new powers to alienate Crown lands in the western part of our Province ; a Government survey staff was sent round to cut up some hundred thousand acres of laud, lay off reserves, and form a township ; our contemporary sent round a special •reporter to describe what the country was like; seal fish and timber were reported to be plentiful, and excellent of their various kinds ; fifteen hundred pounds were voted by the Provincial Council for the formation of a road from the head of Lake Wakatip to Lake M'Kenw, passing over a saddle

at the head of the Koutcbuvn only some 4400 feet high j the two rocks on the bar at the mouth of the Hollyforcl were to be removed; a harbor-master appointed —and, crying Jubilee ! the settlement was supposed to be formed. The money voted for the road was spent under supervision of Mr Simpson, C.E., and his successor ; the road was formed to the foot of the falls, about the timber level, some 1000 feet below the crown of the pass on the Wakatip side, since when the settlement has been allowed to take its chance, to thrive or perish at its own good pleasure ; and it remains at the present time an illustration of work half done, and a proof how Governments can at times induce citizens to believe in the bona, Jides of their promises, and expend their time and money in consequence of such misguided confidence. It will be remembered that considerable difficulty arose some time since in obtaining a service to convey provisions to the settlers once in three months. This difficulty would have been much lessened had the rocks at the mouth of the Hollyford river been removed. The expense of so doing would have been a bagatelle, and what is now a comparatively dangei'ous harbor would have been tbe best bar harbor on the west coast from Milford Sound to the Buller River. Failing to perform this necessary task, the road, at all events, should have been completed, so that men could ride or walk from lake to lake with ease and safety—drive sheep or cattle over, to provide themselves, their wives and children, with fresh meat, and not be entirely cut off from the rest of the Province, save by communication four times a year by sea.. The road is made of course over the easiest part of the country. The saddle is untouched, and as dangerous as ever. The money spent in road making, we unhesitat-

ingly assert, is thrown away—and our assertion is capable of proof on several grounds. The most difficult portion of of the track is as yet untouched. The precipitous descent on the western side of the range is almost impassable. A slip of the foot on the side of lake Hands would precipitate the traveller several hundred feet into the deep water beneath. The saddle is snowed up between three and four mouths in the year, which precludes traffic of any kind. Thus are the settlers doubly wronged. They were promised a bad and snowed-up track, which could have been obviated, and a good one given them ; while the track via the Kouteburn, vile as it is, has not been completed. No one even is employed to look after the portion formed, which has become impassable from fallen trees and earth slips. When Dr Menzies proposed that the

head water of the Eglinton should be examined to see if a lower and less snowed-up pass could be found leading into the Holly ford Yalley—crossing the Mavora and Whitestone Rivers—he had forgotten perhaps the advantages accruing from following Hr Hector’s track up the Northern Von, the saddle of which, leading into the Hollyford, is stated by the Doctor to be less than 2,000 ft. above sea level. This should be borne in remembrance ; whether the road is continued through the Routeburn up the North Von, or over the saddle at the head of the Eglington, it is certain that something should be done and that speedily—as summer is approaching —the only time when steady work and progress can be attained at those high elevations. It is idle to say that the Province cannot afford the outlay necessary to form the road, It is only another proof of the suicidal folly that has been followed by the faction into whose hands the Government of the Province has unfortunately fallen. Under favorable circumstances Martin’s Bay might have become a valuable settlement on the West Coast. It was anticipated that a large export trade in timber would have sprung up with the different ports of Now Zealand. Like many other enterprises in Otago, it is suffering from the cramping influence of a clodocracy, and the money that has already been laid out is in great risk of being thrown away for Avaut of an additional trilling expenditure. It is time that wc realised our responsibilities. It is no light thing to induce a number of men to take their families over to a settlement isolated from the rest of the Colony, and to imagine that the Province has done its duty to them when it has landed them there. The scheme of settlement at Martin’s Bay had much to commend it in the first instance, but avc cannot help imagining that political animosity against the far seeing vieAvs of the Superintendent has had much to do Avith the neglect with which the settlers there have been treated.