ORIGIN OF THE WEALTH OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 4, 15 February 1849, Page 2

ORIGIN OF THE WEALTH OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.

(Continued from our last.) There are many parts of New Zealand particularly adapted to ship building. The rivers Wairoa, at Kaipara, and the Hokianga, and the harbours of Wangarna and Witiatiga, are, from their depth of water and srcurity, and more especially from the : huge kauri timber on their shore!), peculiarly fitting for such localities. To the Southward, ' «:!>-o, Queen Charlotte's Sound, the Takaka .uni Aorero Rivers in Massacre Bay, Porirua and the Pelorus River, have deep water, with numbers of convenient coves and beaches for sliip building, and the crooked branches of the Black iii.l Hed liirch yield capital timbers and kimes for schooners and bo.its, while tlir Tc'p.i i, Pukcten, and Red Pines afford, excellent '.v)!.:! for planking.

Nov,-, from the advantages which these plnci's possess shi|> building ought to be particularly thought of and nttouded to by the natives settled in their vicinity. From the various European settlements and whaling utations ship and boat carpenters may be i>uyi.'ged ; their payment to be their lood while

employed, anil, a certain SUIU-011 tlib'completion,'or <|>;irt completion of tlio work, Flax, pigs, and money, or a share in the ownership of the vessel, may he tlio stipulated remuneration. The na'ivee call select in the forest, and cnt the timbers and knees, and may assist in adzing these to tint required shape ; tluy might cut the necessary plunking; and spars, and lloul them down l<> the vessel. A blacksmith should also he engaged, and paid in the saina manner as the carpenJcYs ; and if the ivprlc". be proceeded With diligently, '.a very ifood schooner, either'for native iiso or for'" side, may he huilt in the course of six or nine months, in a place where probably nothing larger tlmn a canoc had everhecirconstr'ucted before. While the work is being proceeded with, the natives, more especially the younger men and lads, should attentively watch tlio work of ihe smith or carpenter, and in a short time several of the more clever will be able to assist in the woik, and learn much of the art of the Kurnpcaii. I ... At the Aorere nnd IVlotupipi rivers, in Massacre Bay, several good and handsome

schooners have been t;o built; hut arc owned entirely by natives, the Kuropean workmen having been regularly paid as their woik progressed. So careful were the natives (the Ngatetamti) that the while people should woik steadily and without interruption, that they look, monthly, to Nelson, flax, pigs, dyebarks, and wheat, to raise money for their payment, and on their return brought with them sugar, tea, tobacco, and clothing for the use of tho white men, which they sold to them, paying them first, 111 money, tor their labour. Tliey brought also iron, canvass, tools, nails, &c., as required for the Vessel. The owners of these vciscls, who, five year« since, grew little else than potatoes and maize, have now very large wheat cultivations ; tliey linve traded with the various European settlements and whaling stations in Cook's Straits, andv from the amount of property now belonging to them,' have acquired the appellation ol " Nga Wai Tuonga," or the wealthy men of their district. There are many other parts of New Zealand

ill which the natives have been similarly enterpriMiig, anil have, in tlm same way, acquired properly. Hut numbers of livers and harbours exist 111 New Zealand, where till! natives have never thought of building boats or ships, and yet in these pl ices there is an abundance of suitable wood lor such purpose*, and the natives have the nie.ius of paying, if they chose, the European artizHiis who would be required for the work. The natives at these places continue to cultivate maize niul potatoes, but their condition is little better than it was tivelve years ago. They have more produce than they require for their own use, but yet tlicy cannot sell 11 to any advantage on account of the want o( the means of transporting it to -Jhe larger European settlements. Some of their pigs, mid a considerable portion of their maize and potators they sell yearly to the European coasting vessels; but from the people who thus buy them, a veiy inferior price is obtained to that which would lie realized if they were brought by the natives themselves to the towns. Nor are the articles which are received from the trader in payment, so well adapted to the use and wants of the natives as would bo tin: case were tiny to get money for their goods in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, or Otakou. It will occur to your thoughts that there are many tribes settled in the interior, and in such parts of the country as will render it impossible for them to build boats or vessels. These people, however, in addition to their cultivating, may keep horses, cows, goats, and sheep, in such numbers, and with so little trouble, as to cause them soon to grow wealthy in that particular kind of property. To the tribes of the interior—at Taupo, at Waipa, at Rotorua—how very beneficial would be the possession of horses. Hefore nn iron pot or a dozen axes can be taken to the settlements at Tuupo, much fatigue must be endured by the person carrying them, which would be avoided were a path to be made from the deep rivers to those places, and were the natives to possess horses of a fitting kind to carry loads. By the sides of the rivers in England the bush has been cleared away, and a path made

near to the water to ullow of the passage of horses towing up the loaded boats. A boat containing ns many goods ns would fill a store at Wellington or Auckland, may be drawn along the river, with or against the current, by two or three horses; these latter being changed every seven or ten miles. These liver boats are very long—as long as a schooner or brig—but made very narrow, and of such a shape as to draw but lilile water, in or.lor that they may go near to the edges of the rivers, and in shallow places, without grounding. They move as fast as a largo Tiivai can be poled up against the current of such a river as the Waikalo, Thames - , or Wanganui. and they can carry as much as would fill thirty carts.

Such boats would be exactly suitable to the conveyance of produce and merchandise along the large riveis of New Zealand; and whenever the natives obtain such facilities as Iheso nllord for the transit of what is gtown in the intfiior, both individuals mid tribes will be come wealthy. There is scarcely a part of New Zealand in which the natives might not Keep and breed liorses and niu'c.s; and it woiiM b,* loufid that, by dealing ami improving the paths around the villages ami cultivations, horse? IDlolit be verv usefully employed in i:onnection with farming putposei. The heavy loads of potatoes, maize,. ami firewo id which the tiineii now bear mi bo carried or drawn ' the liorse, while the women would be em.fiyed in some occupation less f.itkuing, and ■which would not cause them to beenll<• old at an age at which the white women are still strong. , In glinding corn, in dragging timher for the construction of pahs, houses, and fencing, ihe work of the horse would lie of great assistance to the natives. Kvery chief and principal man in a tiiba ought also to have, for bis own convenience, one or more horses. 'i'lic natives on the coasts of New Zealand nro now hater clothed, and have, generally, more property than those who live in the interior j and the cause of this is, that they more easily trade with the shipping, nnd can with less labour, and more quickly, dispose of their produce. Now, in England, nnd other European countries, there nre so many loads leading into asul across the interior districts, that by the use of lurge carts, drawn by lour or six liorse3, and cairying very great loads, and by the river boats, also drawn by horses, the produce of those districts can easily bo carried to the large towns, or seat down to the harbour* lor shipment to sonic otlu r country, where a high price may be obtained for it. Now it cannot !<n expected that in New Zealand a road from Taupo to the Wauganni, or from Roloruu to the Thames, or down the Waikato Valley should easily be innde, ns such a road would pass through the land of many different tribes or subdivisions of tribes, each of which might possess a different idea from the other with respect to the work. Hut if each of the chiefs and principal men in those tribes had horses,and if horses were fast breeding in those places, the owners of them would foou widen, and clear out tile old paths of such ob-tucles as fallen timber, supple jack, and fern, so that their horses might more easily go from place to place; and the people of each tribe doing this, the paths wculd soon extend from rivi-r to river, and from the sea to the interior .settlements.

Ilia not to be expected, nor is it necessary, tliat the loads in the interior of the conniiy should, for some time, bt .is well, or as expensively foimcil in those about the l'.urope.m soUlcinciits. Tin! white people require 11 road wliicli shall he easily passable in nil weathers, and sufficiently level and smooth to allow of fast travelling; their toads are ihcrclore w.tde with great cam; lii]ls are cut through mid hollows filled, and tlie whole is Covered with broken Mono to form n h.ird suif.ice. Now all this work 13 not rccjiiircd nt the first in the formation of native ronds. It is not necessary that on every day in the year in wet or in dry weather, or in floods—the roads shall be passable. The Maori is so much his own master, that lie. can r.lwuys choose at what time he will commence his journey, and will generally wail lor line weather. Thus a road formed 11I011# tlin

ridges of the lower hills and in the gravelly or' sandy parts of the valleys, crossing the rivers at the mi-st fordable places, nnd nvoiding large swamps, will be sufficient for present purposes. In ninny places a wide line would have to be cut through the bush ; nnd stones would lie required to be thrown into some of the soft bottoms of streams and the heads of muddy creeks; and 011 the roads so formed, both Natives and Europeans would soon be able to travel on hoisebaek from the north to the south end of New Zealand in nbout onequarter of the time which is now taken to walk that distance.

Another great atlvnntngc would be derived by the nativci from the opening «:f their country by sueli roads—l allude to the rapid and "asy conveyance of letters. No people in the ' oild liuve acquired a knowledge uf reading id writing so well in so short a time us tliu ilives of New Zealand. Tim Manrii's arc exceedingly fon'c! of writing Iters. The members of a family nre fieU'litly mariied inio dilli-reiit and remote ilies, and almost the only means they have communicating one with the other is by ter. The rapid and safe transit of mails n tlic couiiuy of one tribe to that of tier will be ensured by the formation of roads as I have described; and nothing ccs more to the improvement 01 the coif of u people than tiie knowledge and f frequent writing. ither work is necessary in connect inn id to render greater the facilities !>y S'lcli roads, and tli.it is tin- i-sM-

blishment of I'crrics at the several rivers which would have to he crossed. Wherever a road Icadi lo a largo river, which is too deep to bo forded, at that place there should be a village, if the nature of the country will permit of its convenient loration. It would be loiiiul that the traflic, and the number of travellers passini; such n settlement, would very much licnclit its inhabitants ; and fromr the ease with which they could trade with visitors ar.J the nearer loivns, they would have an advantage over those who lived off the line of communication.

At such a place canoes or a large boat should always he kept ready, in order that the traveller, who might be in haste, or the mailhas of letters need not be delayed l>y the difficulty of crossing tin; river, and for the passage a fair pi ice should be charged for e.vli person ferried over; such a price never to vary, nor lo lie 30 high as to cause the traveller lo seek another mode of crossing, but at the same time lo he sufficiently remunerative to the native ferryman. (7'u be continued.)