THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1329, 1 November 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1872.

The sad story of the seclusion and ftarvation of the settlers at Martin's Bay, as printed in another column, cannot fail to evoke sympathy, if that is now of any service to them, and at the same time to provoke — what is more important a livelier interest for the future in our outlying settlements. Unfortunately the experience of tho Martin's Bay settlers i 3 not entirely exception in the history of the colonisation of the West Coast, though it may appear an aggravated case in consequence of the numbers of the community and of the fact that many of them ate of tender years. Scarcely a community has been established on the West Coast without its pioneers having undergone very similar privations, or it has followed, from tho fact of these very privations being felt, that pioneering has failed to be successful in establishing communities. Accustomed residents of places on the Coast which have, by accidental circumstances, become the sites of important towns must be perfectly familiar with such sights as that of men, footsore, half-naked, and hungry, returning to tho townships, beaten back from the bush by the fear of starvation, yet with proofs in their possession that, though they wanted bread, they had the wherewithal to buy it, if it were to be bought. Even from this same Martin's Bay, or from the bay immediately to the northward, some five or six years ago, men arrived in Okarito in physical condition and outer garb worthy of the poorest of Falstaffs ragged regiment, yet some of the same men were found again on the same ground, and others have from time to timo spent months or years among its boulders and blue clay. The same picture has been common to the northward in the history of the efforts of pioneers of digging or settlement — at Mokihinui, the Karamea, and elsewhere. The development of diggings, or the settlement of country has been entirely prevented or seriously retarded simply in consequence of the want of facilities of communication, and, primarily, of supplies of provisions. It does not " pay" steamboat owners to do otherwise than 1o beget big rushes, or to supply, for a good round sum as freight, thoso localities which have risen to the dignity of "commercial depots'' or "centres of population." It is not, indeed, their duty, any more than it would be their interest, to directly promote settlement. It is, however, the duty, or, if not the duty, the practice of Governments to do so. Examples of this abound, and have abounded more than they do now —on the coasts of Otago and Canterbury, for instance — in Blind Bay, as an especial instance — and on a small scale in Westland. With three separate Governments on the West Coast, not yet " rolled into one," the necessity for subsidised boats has, however, never been met, and remote settlements of much promise sink through reglect. How easy would it be for the three Provincial Governments administering the affairs of the West Coast— Nelson, Westland, and Otago — to unite in subsidising one of the present suitable fleet of steamers, to sup- ■ plement her ordinary trade by calling at those secluded places where trade is not at present self-sustaining, but where there is every prospect of population being attracted if they were, at the outset, sure of supplies. What fails to be achieved by separate action might be accomplished by union, and at an inconsiderable cost ; and the return for the outlay, if slow, which is doubtful, would be certaiu and beyond calculation as to amount. Instead, of these shores being a series of barren blank spaces between the few existing " centre*," culminating in . a half-starved ! settlement to the south, there is every reason to suppose ihat a judiciously cxi pended subsidy would be the means of settling many places which now present all the picturesqueness of pristine solitudes, but which are capable of becoming the homes of people, and of enabling them to contribute to their own and the country's welfare.