HAWKE’S BAY DEPICTED.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 160, 5 February 1864, Page 3

HAWKE’S BAY DEPICTED.

The Napier correspondent of the Wellington Spectator, under date Jan. 20, after describing the “ political crisis” which has just occurred at the meeting of Council, thus concludes:—

“ But for this land question perhaps I should not have troubled you. But it is a melancholy business when the future wellbeing of this island depends on the acquisition of land for the settlement of a European population and the opening up of the country by means of roads, when the settlement of these plains w r ith an agricultural population would give life and vigour and prosperity to this province, to find by this process of etiolation its resources wasted and dried up and its hope of population destroyed ; when the purchase of the seventy mile bush would be productive of the utmost benefit to both provinces, and open the highway from Wellington to Auckland through the heart of the country to find nothing done or likely to be done by the man on whom the duty devolves, and who, if he were to show' but half as much energy in their purchase as individual settlers have done in obtaining leases of runs from the Natives, might boast of a very different result.

Just to show how things are managed, I will quote the following extract from a report by District Commissioner Mr. Cooper to the Chief Commissioner Donald M’Lean, now Superintendent. The report (dated March 27th, 1862) describes several blocks of land under offer for sale by the Natives, among others the following :

“ A block of 32,600 acres, including the Ngatarawa plain, with the grassy hills and

slopes adjoining, and a portion of the Eaukawa bush. This block consists of about one-third plain, and the rest low limeston* hills, almost entirely free from fern, with a sufficient quantity of limber, within easy reach to supply the wants of the settlers. The block, as regards the quality of the soil, is the richest yet offered for sale in the district, and is,know approachable by a good cart road the whole way from Waipureku.” .

The price asked for this block by the natives was £3,600 or at the rate of 2s. 3d. an acre, it is admitted by Mr. Cooper that the'whole sum asked by the natives is a trifle compared with the revenue it would immediately yield,” and it may he safely asserted that this land, if divided into sections of 50 or 100 acres each, would readily he sold at £2 an acre, but it has not been pm-chased. It happens that the Ngatarawa plain, which is a continuation of the Ahuriri plains, and is about twelve miles from Napier, immediately adjoins the Superintendent’s run ; many believe it is rented by the Superintendent from the Natives, as his sheep are constantly on it, but this is denied and it is said to be rented by “my brother.” People, however, persist in believing this to be a distinction witnout a difference, and ask how it can be expected that the Superintendent will purchase for the public land which lies so convanient to his own ? After so vehemently denouncing the “ dangerous principle” of encouraging Native cupidity by permitting settlers to evade the law by illegal squatting, which it is asserted in his despatches would put a stop to all land purchasing, is it not strange to find the Chief Laud Purchase Commissioner at the head of the illegal squatters.”