BOUND NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Star, Issue 3014, 16 October 1872, Page 4

BOUND NEW ZEALAND.

{By our TravdUny Reporter.)

.MAHLBOROUGir. Marlborough Province is like man—wonderfully and fearfully made. This portion of it is of the wood, wooden ; built of wood, living on wood, covered with wood, exporting wood ; and, in consequence, its inhabitants may possibly have become so woodenheaded as to imagine in the lifetime of the present generation that the railway in course of construction will pay. There are three principal townships in this Province—Picton, Blenheim, and Havelock. I hero are three inferior. The three enumerated combined are not as large, as well-built, as populous, or wealthy, to all appearance, asTokomairiro. The first-named 1 have written some “.Notes” anent; the others will come in their proper turn. 1 don’t know whether further inquiry and travel will confirm my conviction or not, but at present I would sooner possess the Taieri district than the whole of this Province.

I am thus particularising because I want your Otago readers to understand what sort of a country the railroad is going through, the number of its population, amount of revenue and expenditure, &e., so as to compare it with their own well known districts, and understand why their claims should be ignored, and preference given to this locality for the disbursement of borrowed capital. The number of inhabitants in this Province is about 4000. Its exports and imports L10,90S and L 57,705 respectively; its revenue about L 12,000 per annum, and its expenditure about the same. Of the revenue received, some LSOOO per annum results from the occupation of land by squatteis, and about LI, 750 from Consolidation Fund and capitation grants. It possesses some 150 miners, and no goldlield receipts. (See B, No. 4, App. No. 1, 1871). The waste lands are estimated to be about 2,500,000 acres, of which some 1,100,000 are held under depasturing leases, the character of which may be inferred from the letter of the Superintendent, of the Ist of March, 1871, in reply to the circular letter of the Colonial Secretary, of the 24th January of the same year, relative to immigration “ There is no land in the Province which could be made available for the settlement of any large number of immigrants, neither do the circumstances of the Province warrant such introduction.’’ In private hands there are ostimated to be 102,000 acres of land suitable for agricultural settlement, while the Crown retains only 25,000 acres adapted for a similar purpose. This block is since mortgaged to the General Government for railway extension. You will thus see that the sarjall block of laud disposed of to Mr Clarke at Moa Flat is double tbc amount of all that is available for settlement in Marlborough, and that the amount paid yearly by publicans in Otago Lr licences is nearly equal to the whole revenue of the Province,

It is refreshing to remember, however, that Provincialism and its paraphernalia are here in full bloom, despite no lands to sell, no revenue scarce to receive, and no goldfields lo look after. ;f railway cost is to be Provincially charged, and the waste lands of Provinces held as a lieu with other sources of revenue for liquidation of sn hj liabilities, the sooner the remaining lands hen* suitable for settlement are impounded the better it would appear to ensure a satisfactory ultimate liquidation. From tlie.se few statistics, collected without much trouble, your readers will understand two things—First, Imw prudent and reproductive an investment it must be to expend LIOO,OOO in railway construction from Picton to Blenheim ; secondly, why the Messrs Brogdcn, in their model proposal to form a company to take.over the .New Zealand Railways, did not include this portion in their proposed “ continuous main lines.” I had intended embracing Massacre Hill—the furthest pr int reached as yet in railway construe ion in this valley, some twelve miles from Picton—in this letter, but shad put reach further thau “The Halfway House,”

and can describe all that is worth in a few sentences. The valley is a one, some forty chains wide, steep hills, hills and valleys both the hills devoted to the cultivation maintenance of the porcine family, and the greater portion of the valley, which is a swamp, to a harbor of refuge for the grey duck and pukako. ■ It has a small, sluggish crock running through it called the Tua Marina “ Diver.” Five miles from Picton there is a saw-mill, surrounding which are a <w houses for the men to Jive in, and chapel for them to pray in ; no hotel nearer than two miles ; and, save this small gathering of people, 1 do not believe there are thirty tenements of any description, nor any visible land under cultivation, between “The Halfway House” and Picton. Now, ei.ht miles and sixty chains of railroad will reach this resting place.