AUCKLAND.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 6, 10 February 1860, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

We extract the following from the New Zealander : — The Governor arrived in Auckland, from his visit to the Southern Provinces, on the 16 th January. Land Sales. Several very valuable allotments of land, in the suburbs of Auckland and at the Weiti, were offered for sale at the Waste Lands Office, on the 12th January, and found purchasers, for the most part, at the upset price. But the payment, instead of being in cash, as the exigencies of the Government and of the province required, appears to have been made in land scrip, to £ISOO. The Coal Fields. —At the Drury coal fields, instead of a shaft being sunk, a gallery has been excavated from the side of the hill, and the seam of coal has been found of great thickness and good average quality. The gallery contains a self-acting tramway, for taking the coals out of the mine and bringing back the empty waggons. Two vessels are now regularly engaged in conveying coals from Drury to Onehunga. Closer examination of the Drury and Hunua ranges confirms the conviction that the extent of the coal field is such as not only to promise an inexhaustible supply for our own provincial consumption, but for the whole colony, besides leaving a large and profitable surplus for export to Australia. In addition to the coal, the clays of the district are of the best description for the making of bricks, tiles, and pottery, the manufactory of which can be carried on at a comparatively small cost, in consequence of the abundance of cheap fuel to be had from the coal pits. From what we saw and heard, we think we may safely venture to prophecy that more than one tall chimney will soon be seen lifting its head from the Drury Plain, and proclaiming that this is the first of the manufacturing districts of New Zealand.

Onehunga as a Steam Port. —The Airedale has steamed right up the Manukau, coming to anchor abreast of the Onehunga pier. The inhabitants of Onehunga, and especially those whose patriotism and public spirit led them to subscribe their money and their labour to the construction of the pier, which we hope may be regarded as the first instalment of aviaduct bridging over the Manultau, and bringing the fertile districts of Mangere into closer proximity to Auckland, may well pride themselves on this event. To the owners of property in Onehunga, the event we are now noticing is one of great importance, showing, as it does, that the site of their town has been most judiciously chosen, not merely as a pleasant and healthful place of residence, but with a view to its becoming a commercial port of a high class. After a long and depressing drought, which was drying up all our wells and watercourses, baking the earth, and destroying the pasturage, we have at length been favoured with a fair supply of genial and fertilising rain. The works that have been going on in the city and harbour of Auckland have been paid for out of money borrowed upon the security of the city and harbour endowments.

Land Sales at Mongonui. —The first land sale in this new district was held at the office of the Deputy Waste Lands Commissioner, at Mongonui, on the sth Jan., and was attended by a very large number of the actual settlers, as well as by the “ little men with the land orders,” who were there anxiously awaiting the day which was to put them in possession of their respective “ locations.” Several of the immigrants from Prince Edward’s Island made their selections on the occasion, and with the convenience afforded to intending settlers by the sale of land on the spot, and with the results of this particular sale, very general satisfaction was expressed. The surveys are, we understand, being prosecuted with great vigour, and a considerable quantity of the finest land will immediately be thrown open for selection by the “ forty-acre men.”

Cabinet-making Trade and the New Tariff. —A meeting was held in Auckland on the 23rd ultimo, to take measures for presenting a memorial to the General Assembly relative to the injurious operation of the present tariff on the furniture trade in New Zealand The meeting was numerously attended by employers and journeymen. It was strongly felt by all present that the admission of furniture from England and elsewhere, duty free, was exceedingly detrimental to all engaged in its manufacture in this colony, who are unable, for many reasons, to compete successfully with the home makers, especially as a duty is levied on almost all the articles required in the manufacture of furniture.