AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 212, 11 January 1865, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

(From the Weekly Newt, Dec. 31.) By the arrival of the schooner * Fortune* oh Tuesday from Cape Bunaway, we learn that great preparations ase being made by the East Coast natives—extending from Cape Runaway to Poverty Bay—to hold a monster meeting shortly at Opotiki, near Maketu. A large number are daily expected to arrive from Waikato; and as there is every appearance of an outbreak there, two of the principal chiefs —named Wm. King and Turton—have arrived by the ‘ Fortune’ for the purpose of communicating with the Government on the subject. The coal mines at Taupari, on the Waikato, continue to be very profitably worked, under the able management of Mr. W. Bowe, inspector of mines. Several branching shafts have been struck from the main line of shaft, and extensive chambers dug, the superincumbent mass of earth being supported by wooden pillars. Tramway lines have been laid from the various chambers to the shoot, which has been recently erected, and enables the workmen to fill the coal-bunkers of the steamers very speedily. We regret that, owing the late heavy rains, one of the side-shafts fell in, and some earth at the mouth of another; but workmen were engaged, and the shafts are being set to rights. These accidents did not, however, interfere with the working of the other shafts. The box and shoot will h old 100 tons, so that a large supply will always be kept for consumption on the river. The coal seam is in some places ten feet thick, and tapers off to a thickness of a few inches towards the top of the mountain. The quality of the coal is improving as the seam is farther worked. Puee Wateb. —The people of Auckland have been of late talking a good deal about the inconveninece certain officials would have to put up with in being obliged to remove from “civilized” Auckland to “ uncivilized” Wellington, and they have thereupon attempted to display a laudable spirit of commiseration in this behalf. We have no doubt that when the gentlemen in question arrive in Wellington, and reflect upon the stupid statements which have been put forward in the Auckland papers, they will cordially exclaim “ Sava me from my friends." The city of Auckland must bo in a frightful state of barbarism. In our last issue we published an account of how the citizens narrowly escaped being devoured in the streets by bands of hungry mongrels, and now we find another difficulty which is more torturing than that, viz.—bad water. Oh! ye unfortunate officials who are about to be “ transported” to Port Nicholson, we can assure you that you avoid at all events these two dread evils, and that you can not only walk the streets with safety, but you can at pleasure imbibe a glass of the purest water. A correspondent in the Southern Cross, Dec. 25th, says:— “ Pure water from the spring the people of Auckland have not got; and yet there is almost an unlimited supply to be had if proper steps are taken to get it. There are never failing supplies of this pure element around Auckland, but up to this hour the people have been content to drink the drainage of cess-pools, partially filtered through the soil, which they draw, in a diluted state, from their wells. Sometimes the water placed upon our tables stinks. It is not that it tastes nasty, that it looks nasty ; but it really stinks ! It is as offensive to the nostrils as to the taste. * * * Having myself a repugnance to drinking sinking water, and as great a repugnance to drink stale and adulterated beer, I am frequently driven to my wits’ and to obtain an unobjectionable beverage wherewithal to wash down any morsel. Often I am forced to go without in a half gasping condition, until tea-time; when I get the nauseous draft, which my senses revolted from at dinner, in a different form. It is then black ;it was muddy. • * I have myself tried all manner of dodges to kill the taste of the water, but in vain. I have endangered my liver by adding an undue proportion of vinegar; but it would not do, although I held my nostrils with a firm clutch to prevent the villainous stench arising to sicken me. I have tried rum, whisky, old tom, three-dagger, and sherry, by way of making the water palatable, but I only spoil the drink to no purpose. # * * Would that the poor bewildered public had had as copious draughts of the “ pure elementwould that the total abstainers agitated for a supply of pure water, and when they succeeded in that agitation they will have a better chance of success in persuading men to become water drinkers than they now have; for they ask conformity to what is unreasonable, and unthinkingly preach to Aucklanders the very questionable morality of self-murder: for what man soever drinks only the well-water from the springs of this city is surely Undermining his health, and inducing disease which will carry him to an untimely grave. * * Disease is daily on the increase. Young children are dying weekly by the score. Strong and healthy men are being prostrated, or pass away from our midst suddenly, and without a note of warning. There is no drainage—no water! Disease and death—death and disease/ And population increases at the rate of 1,000 a month; and still there is no water and no drainage. Cess-pools are emptied ; the fiscal matter is increased ; the ground is becoming more and more impregnated with it, lessening the chance 'of purification by natural filtration; and the wells, even those opened in fresh new ground in high situations, stink abominably. The water is rotten. It contains a plague. Let there come s long spell of dry, hot weather, and the chariot of death will be yoked to the steeds ‘Fever’ and ‘Cholera;’ and soon there Will be room enough for all in Auckland. No want of house room then. No dwelling in tents by the brinks of the river, or in the sheltered nooks of the numerous gullies that intersect the city and suburbs. * * If cleanliness comes before goodness, O people of Auckland, what is your condition ? You have no water to purify your persona, houses, and raiment. You have no pure water to drink; you must drink that which is nauseous to the taste, aud offensive to the smell, and injurious to health—in the shape of water; or you must drink vile compounds of liquor that madden and debase a man, and shorten life. Then how can you think or live cjeanly ? • •”