THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, December 5, 1850.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 51, 5 December 1850, Page 2

THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, December 5, 1850.

The news which has latterly been received from California, we regret to say, has been by no means so favourable to the interests of New Zealand as, some time since, there was every reason to hope it might have been. The adventures of the merchants and shippers of Auckland have, in almost every instance, been attended with very lumvy loss. Timber is seiircely saleab'e, —enormous| quantities having been poured into San' Francisco from every quarter of the globe; ntul nltliouali a fourth lire had burnt down a considerable poition of the town, yet so large was the stock of every description of building mateiiuls, that the prices offered for them would barely pay the cost of carrying them thither. Many of the potatoes, onions, c.irrots, turnips, &c , having been gathered unripe, and badly packed, were completely rotten on their arrival and lit only to be thrown overboard. Flour is procured from a country of South America called Chili; —that Hour is cheaper and liner than the flour of Van Dicmen's Land or New Zealand, so that there is little prospect of any market for the wheat or Hour of this colony. Butj what then ? do not let that circumstance discourage you—let it be no impediment to native industry ; —because it must not be forgotten that New Zealand has never as yet produced a sufficiency of Hour for the consumption of her own inhabitants—that, year by ytnr, hundreds of tons of that article have been imported from New South Wales and Van Dicmen's Land, and that thousands of pounds of gold have gone to enrich the agriculturalists of those colonies which, if our) native farmers had only planted wheat enough, must now have been in their pockets instead of those of the foreigner. The native cultivators cannot be sufficiently industrious;—every year the demand will become greater; the Europeans are flocking fa3t to the new settlement on the middle island; they will require bread to eat, and seed with which to sow their fields. Where should they look for these?—surely not in Sydney or Hobart Town—no, they ought to be able to purchase them here, —but will thoy ? most assuredly not unless the native husbandmen keep extending their cultivations in a degree equal to the demand , that will be made upon their exertionsBut, you may, perhaps, be anxious to ' learn if there be no further prospect of a demand from California? The question is one of much difficulty. It is a question which even they who have visited California appear to be not very able to answer—and for this reason, that California at present is not like any other country in the world, because the people who have tlocked thither do not go t» it as to a land in which they wish to make « stay ;—in which they s?ek to earn an honest livelihood, and to found a future home lor their children and their chi'dren's children. The attiaction that lures men to California is not to replenish the earth

nud subdue it -.-quite the contrary, it is merely to turn over its surface and to take and sift the soil with the hope of digging out a large pile of the yellow gold with which to return to the countries they have left, in the delusive expectation that in California enormous fortunes were to be had for the trouble of picking up. To obtain this gold thousands upon thousands have set out from the United States of America, both by sea and land. The history of these who went by sea is soon told,—they most of them arrived safely—some few did obtain gold, and when they had obtained it they were frequently murdered by disappointed miscreants who were either unsuccessful in their search, or who wero too indolent to bestow the severe and arduous exertion to extract it from the bowets of-ilie earth. The fate of those who travelled to California by land is far more appalling. They generally proceeded in waggons, laden with merchandize, agricultural implements, furniture, &e. &c, these wnggons being drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, ami attended by droved of sheep, goats, dogs, and other domestic animals. These companies had to cms* mountains, rivers, plain', and forest, ii led with hostile native*, savage beasts, and covered with eternal snows. Their course was a long and weary one of thousands of miles, and was beset, on every side with danger, disease and death —immense numbers of these unfortunate people have from starvation their track lias jbeen strewed with the wreck of their property, and their dream of great riches has sulneed to strip them of their rational enjoyments and of lile itself; with which, until California and its gold became the modern temptation of mankind, they had been perfecily contented and happy. The corpses of the«c deluded peop'e cover the wilderness through which.they have struggled. That awful scourge" the cholera is among theai -disease and death is mowing ilietn down by hundreds—and life is only prolonged by gnawing the putrid carcasses of their dead animals—and this too at a spot about four or five hnndied miles distant from the settled part of California. With such men gold is no longer the cry, it is bread —but where or from whom can that bread be obtained ? They have sacrificed the substantial enjoyments of life to indulge in an imaginary dream of gold ! Sueh is the horrible picture that the overland route to California present—and it we look nt the less appalling fortunes of its emigrants by sea, it will-lie found that the ruined have been many, the successful few—and that in the breasts of both an ardent longing to return to the countries'hey have lett is now the prevailing dtsire. With such facts before them, it is little wonder that the best informed on California and its prospects, should regard speculation to tlmt quarter more a 9 the risk of a gambler than as that of a merchant. With this view, then, shipments this season wi'l be much more limited than they were last—still, some will be made. These, we imagine, will consist principally of potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, and the like, and the losses and experience of the former cargoes will render it a matter of due caution that these shall be put on board well packed, quite sound, fully ripe, and of the choicest quality. One vessel, the " Glencoc," is already advertised to load in January, we hear one or two more spoken of, so that there is every likelihood that the knowledge that has been gained wi 1 be endeavoured to be turned to the profitable account of New Zealand-