THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, July 17, 1851.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 67, 17 July 1851, Page 2

THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, July 17, 1851.

When a nation, or people, emerges from barbarism, and begins to discover that mankind were designed for nobler purposes than that of mutual extermination; —when the light of civilization has been shed upon them, and the beneficent designs of an Almighty Creator have become obvious to their understandings;— when the mutual dependence of nations upon each other has become an acknnwledgedfact;—when they are sufficiently clear-sighted to perceive that their rank and influence in the family of nations must greatly depend upon the energy and the industry with which they turn to account the natural capabilities of their country—the practical employment to which they convert its productions—and the intelligence with which they educate, instruct, and improve each other in the great duties of life:—when these first, grind, obstacles to national civilization are felt and overcome, and when a people is disposed to profit by the means of enlightenment, anxiously sought to be inculcated, there can be little doubt that the progress ar.d prosperity of sueli a people will'be commensurate with the zeal which they themselves evince. In the laudable desire to assume a becoming place amongst the nations, there is no race of men who have shown a more commendable spirit than those of New Zealand. Within the course of a very few years they have emerged not only from pagnn darkness to Christian h'ght, but from being the cruel exterminators of each other, to become mutual friends and supporters;—to take a place amongst the successful husbandmen of the Southern hemisphere; to distinguish themselves ns provident farmers, able nnd willing to supply excellent and abundant food not merely to the European instructors whom they have welcomed to their shores! but to all strangers whose necessities or whose inclinations may lead them to visit their settlements. These are the true and infallible means of rendering them an honourable and an opulent people; and we rejoice exceedingly to be told that they have not only profitted largely this yoar by the extraordinary rise in the corn market, but that they are now plying the spade and the plough with indefatigable zeal, in order that New Zealand and all the neighbouring colonies may have bread enough and to spare and that they themselves may reap the well deserved fruits of their manly industry. As every one must naturally be anxious to aid them in such praiseworthy endeavours, and as increased production will require augmented facilities of conveyance to market, we deem it especially incumbent to point out some simple method, by which, in the absence of roads and waggons, the native yeomanry may bring their corn to the stores of the merchant. Where water carriage does not exist, this transport has, hitherto, been effected by back loads carried by the natives themselves. This, in any system of agriculture worthy of the name, would prove such a ruinous misapplication of labour, as to cause the farm to be left in a state of inactivity, until the farmers had conveyed their produce to town:—and,

even when arrived there, look at the utter insignificance of the load, which may very reasonably be estimated not to exceed GO lbs. weight.' Means of transit are invnri'.bly a matter of the greatest difficulty in a new country, and whoever will refer to the condition of England when the ancient Britons were under the dominion o the Romans, will discover that those poor people were compelled to carry their back loads of corn and other field produce, not to the nearest but frequently to the most distant granaries, the country being then, as New Zealand is now, intersected with forests, bogs, and marshes, | and the inhabitants totally unprovided with rouds, carriages, or means of transport Even to the present day, there are many countries the produce of whioli is conveyed to market in many other ways than by means of drays and waggons. The most primitive mode is by the slow and inefficient load strapped to the shoulders of man. The next, and far more effectual method is by means of beasts of burden, of which the horse, the ass, and the mule, are by far the most ready and tractable. The countries where mules and pack horses continue to be most largel employed are Syria, Spain. Portugal, South America and Ceylon. In these lands, a very considerable portion of the produce of the soil is thus conveyed to market, and for this very obvious reason, that the mule and the pack horse can surmount mountains, wind through forests, and pass in safety over morasses where the laden dray or Imllock waggon would cither be dashed to pieces, or remain fast in the slough. The features of New Zealand are in many respects similar to those of the countries named; and, in all probability, many of the spots the most available for cultivation, are the most in-at-cesible to market. The owners and tillers of New Zealand laud so situate'! would, therefore, do well to imitate the example set them by the agriculturists and viiie-dressers of Spain. Let them contrast the weight carried by the human, and that transported by the animal benst of burden—let them calculate the difference of expense in maintaining the one with the other, and above all let them consider how the farm stands still whilst the labourer is gone to market, and they will easily perceive how much they lose by human carriage, and how much money they might gain by cmplou'ng pack horses which would not only plough their fields but carry their produce to town. " Formerly," writes Mr. Martin, in his history of the horse, " a breed of pack horses existed in England, and most ot the internal traffic of the country was carried on by their menus. Since the improvement of our roads, however, the pack horse Iras nearly disappeared, lingering only in the more barren a»d hilly district. These horses used to travel in single file, headed by n leader furnished with bells, so that in the darkness of night, or enveloped by the dense mist which rests so often on the mountain side, the troop are enabled to follow their experienced leader, or, if scattered, to rejoin the procession. During ti late visit to Buxton in Derbyshire we saw several strings of pack-horses, traversing the rough roads in the viciuity." In England pack horses were used as beasts of burden. In Spain the mule is preferred for that purpose, In a future number we shall furnish some interesting and instructive notices of mules and muleteers as their drivers are called; in the meanwhile, we may observe that "The most valuable mules in Syria are bred between the Arab mare and a male ass—that they are maintained at less expense than horses, and being surer footed are better suited for traversing the rugged roads of mountainous countries. The domestic trade with the maritime towns and the mountains is not only carried on chiefly by the mule caravans, but they art sent even to Krzeroum, Constantinople (the capital of the Turkish Empire,) and other remote towns. In these caravans, the male travellers are mounted on mules lightly laden (usually with the mere personal baggage of the rider) and the women either ride in the same manner (sitting astride ns they always do like men), or in a kiud of

wooden cradle, called imihnlTy, hung on one side of tlio mule, with another to balance it, occupied or not. but made cqui-|Jonclernnt to the other. But persons of a certain rank travel in a kind of litter carried by two mules. Within the towns, nnd in short excursions to the circumjacent gardens, osses generally have the preference, and the mules aro charged with the baggage." "Mules will travel stony and steep roads over rocky mountains day after day at the rate of from twenty-five to filly miles per diem loaded with a weight ol three hundred pounds." That which the mule can achieve in tSCfia or in Spain, the pack-horse would n± readily accomplish in New Zealand ; and horses being more readily procurable than mules, to horses the New Zealand farmers will require to direct their attention. Pack-saddles can be easily and cheaply manufactured ; the animals can be as easily and as inexpensively trained, and it is a very simple calculation whether •300 lbs. weight borne by one horse or by five men is the less costly, convenient, or certain means of conveyance. Our native readers must never forget that TIME IS MONEY—and that the time lost by the tiller from the field in bearing its produce to market can never compensate for the much more extensive and effectual means of transporting that produce by pack horses'.