LETTER No. IV.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 95, 6 March 1863, Page 2

LETTER No. IV.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times. From the Moon in its 20,000,000 th month of the 14th cycle. Dear and Esteemed Friend, One thing which struck me on my last visit to the Province of Hawke’s Bay was the extreme simplicity and economy of the system of Government which obtains there, for whereas in this part of the world, and of New Zealand in particular, I have observed that much money is wasted in providing the subsistanee out of the public treasury of men who are not wanted at all. In your Province I find that there are not more than three people at one time engaged in doing the work of one. So that you see not only is wisdom to be found in the heads of your rulers, but all the seven virtues are practised by their subordinates, greatly to the advantage of the public service, and to the delight of the people. Another matter which gave me infinite delight was the impartial and admirable manner in which the lands reclaimed from the “ Maories,” as I think you call that remarkable people, have been divided, by which 1 find that your Province is thickly peopled by a substantial and wealthy class ot inhabitants, whereas in other parts large tracts ot the finest land in the world have been given away to a few favored men. "With you the regulations for the management of your land as so wise, that not more than 1000 acres can be sold to or held bv one individual at one time. Thus I find that your land is a land flowing with milk and honey, and that your valleys laugh with corn, and your hills are clothed, to the summits even of the most rugged ranges, bv a luxuriant, vegetation, the result of the industry and perseverance of your people. And, moreover, your harbor is crowded with ships bringing in the produce of all parts of the earth, and your roads, which, 1 delight to remark, are ot the very best description, both as to construction and situation, are continually covered with heavily-laden wains, drawn by magnificent teams of powerful horses, bearing to and from your Port the merchandise and manufactures, the result both of your own and of other nations’ enterprise and industry. In short, the signs of prosperity and well-doing are so unmistakeable that even the most determined upholder of the system of maintaining a country in a state of Nature, is, by one glance at your thriving, industrious, and thickly-populated country, utterly confounded. It is unnecessary for me to dwell upon this delightful picture, or to dilate upon the charming effect which it has exercised upon my mind ; nor shall I draw invidious comparisons between the happy state of your little society, composed as it is of so much learning, wisdom, righteousness, and refinement, and the mere ignorant and barbarous communities, who have carefully excluded the cultivation of their parent earth, and, in consequence, the advance of the useful arts and manufactures the-peopling of a country, and the progress of civilization. It is but too well known, that' where a system of “ land-jobbing” (to use the expression commonly applied to buying land on speculation), for the purpose of depasturing animals alone, exists, then the country remains a barren wilderness where the bittern and the owl delight to take up their abode, and where the silence of nature is never broken but by the whistle of the unconscious shepherd, or flight of a stray bird. Solitude remains undisturbed and supreme, and the sound of industry and the mirth of children never breaks the dreary and monotonous silence. Such inhabitants as these are, are to be found a morose and sullen race, who neither join in social glass or merry song, or meet in the Public Grounds, for mutual derision and amusement, —a people whose national god is Mammon, and whose household deity is the Golden Calf. The attempt to purchase some large tracts of my country was made by a notorious speculator, who, fortunately for your happy society, has not been amongst you, but I nipped that gentleman's aspirations in the bud,

notwithstanding his being an honorable, and being possessed of considerable parliamentary influence. I have no intention whatever to part with my fine hills an l valleys for “scrip” or 10s. the acre. Not a bit of it., So I may as well say here, in order to prevent the like attempts upon my estate being made again, that there is no land for sale in the Moon in lots exceeding 500 acres, #nd that the price is regulated according to quality and situation, and that it is not my intention to admit other than real industrious sociable, and honest settlers. I’ll have none of your self-righteous and stuck-up people who get rich and fatten in their indolence upon the corruption of a state, such as I have seen practically in some parts of the earth, and who are the great cause of that section of the uhiverse being unable to boast of more than a few thousand ridiculous looking inhabitants at a time.

Upon the whole, therefore, you see, my esteemed friend, that I am highly delighted with the state of things which obtains in your Province, and particularly with the good feeling which exists there between the Immigrants and the aboriginal inhabitants, and the firm and wise manner in which your excellent code of laws is administered by your prudent and patient magistrates, and that your system of the administration of justice is remarkable as much for its fairness as for the concentrated form in which it is administered. This state of things again affords a striking contrast to that which obtains in other parts of the earth inhabited by mixed races, where I have observed that the white settlers and native inhabitants hate each other with a deadly hatred, and where, if law is administered at all it is through the medium of innumerable channels, and at the expense of either one or the other of the races of people, The judicious precautions taken by your Governor, render it a matter of impossibility for the Natives to entertain the idea of insurrection, being, as they are, conscious of their weakness, of their dependence upon him for support and countenance, in short, showing such a delightfully happy unity of interest and of purpose, as to render it impossible for the two peoples to be other than a support and help to one another.

Thus my friend, having, in a series of letters which I hope have neither tired your esteemed self, or bored the readers of your widely circulated and justly-celebrated journal, I shall now bid you for a time farewell, as 1 am about to attend the conjunction of my two celebrated friends and old acquaintances —Jupiter and Saturn, and must he off on the thunderbolt on which I'm rapidly descending, sent by the former of these two worthies, for my accommodation.

I am, as ever, thine, The Max ix the Moox.