Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 203, 2 December 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1864.

At last, after infinite difficulties and trouble, the Military Settlers have been induced to go to work. That gross misrepresentations .were made to induce these men to enlist is well known ; and that they were led to expect upon arrival here that they would be employed on the public works at five or six shillings a day over and above the stipulated Militia 2s. Gd. and rations. That they have been disappointed in this particular is not astonishing. The dissatisfaction expressed by the men at thus finding themselves cajoled is very natural, and the wonder really is not that they have at last, after much talk, gone to work, but that they did not break out into open mutiny, and do for themselves what the Government ought to have done for them, viz., turn out that officer to whose misrepresentation and unscrupulous conduct they owe the disappointment of their anticipations.

We blame the• Commandant'.for -his reraissnes? in not. entering more into the question of the conditions under which the men had accepted service, their lauding at Ahuriri, instead-of allowing the ill which had been done to remain unqualified or neutralized by a proper explanation.

Having, then, succeeded in persuading these “ Settlers” to work at a handsome salary, it would naturally enough occur to most of us that their labor would be turned to s ane really useful object, such for instance, as rendering passable some of those lines of road which are now, after a shower of rain very little better than impassable—take, for example, that line between Meanee Bridge and Puketapu. But it seems that such an extremely rational way of employing these men’s labor does nut occur to the Provincial authorities, so it is proposed to begin a new line of cutting somewhere at the back of the bills between Puketapu and Pekapeka. A seven-mile new side cutting , while yet the approach to that charming pass is impassable. Wonders in this Provincial world never cease. Nor does it appear that at present there is any necessity for this undertaking, "he road now in use has been used very extensively for the last two years, much more so, indeed, than any other line tending in the same direction is ever likely to be used again, and although it is not of the best, it is quite as good as all the rest of the line from Napier, and, than some parts, a great deal better.

Is it not remarkable, even in these days of remarkably bad Government, that the present Provincial authorities seem utterly incapable of doing anything properly. Our most respectable of contemporaries, the Herald , used occasionally, in the days of Carter’s reign, to indulge in small watergruel leading articles, in which that harmless gentleman and his Government were stigmatised as “ do-nothings,” aud such-like. At

all events Carter did more than his successor, for al’Lean has done a great deal less than nothing at all, and hasn't a rap to bless himself with the Provincial Account in the bank ; whereas “ old do-nothing Carter” always had a snug little balance of, say, ,£10,0(J0 in hand, and didn’t go up and down trying to raise money under false pretences, and then squander what lie got on personal favorites, and ridiculous military Settlements.