CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 141, 21 June 1871, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

PARLOR COLONISERS, AND FEATHEB-BED SETTLERS. To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — Whilst giving you all the credit which you deserve for the cuttings from the Australian papers, concerning the settlement of Waste Lands, which you have from time to time inserted in the Mail, and also for the facilities you have afforded correspondents for discussing the subject, I beg leave to say that your own leading articles on the matter in hand would be far more valuable did they not display that want of practical acquaintance with the geography, character, and condition of the back country districts, which they so lamentably evince, and which experience of travel can alone remedy. If you would only be filled with the colonising spirit yourself, insomuch as to move you to take a ride through the mud of the " execrable " roads in the Upper Buller district, and experience for youraelf, the means of communication, and see for yourself the difficulties in the way of conveying stores and produce, and learu for yourself the hardships and dangers that have been overcome by women and families, stowed away on horses like so much luggage; and having to travel in

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the rain; and ford the rivers in a swollen state to get to their homes; and others";on foot, coming to the end of their journey with skirts and dresses all bedraggled with wet and dirt, and thoroughly exhausted with their falls and stumbles among the roots and mud; if, I say, you would make one such a trip, there would be an end for ever to your holding forth in the Mail in behalf of "bad roads and no roads at all;" and to your declaimings against the want of the colonizing spirit in the youth of the country, who you seem to think are in duty bound to bear the whole burden of colonizing the province, in spite of the Government and Council ignoring their share of duty in the matter. You draw a comparison between the dawdling young men of the Waimeas and their adventurous fathers, who, you say, did not wait for roads to be made, before establishing themselves in the Waimeas. If I am not mistaken, the first, and great business of the New Zealand Company, j was the construction of roads ; but even supposing the first settlers did go from eight to ten miles into the Waimeae, what is that compared to the task you would have the present generation undertake ? But the fact is the old settlers bad just the opportunities and facilities and help from the New Zealand Company which are so essential in the work of colonisation ; which aids and helps were so greatly missed wbeu the New Zealand Company suspended its operations, and which the present Nelson Government altogether fails to afford. In consequence of the New Zealand Company fostering and assisting colonists as they did, the old settlers, whose difficulties and heroism you bo exaggerate, had easy times of it, compared to the difficulties and stagnation of the present time, and they would be only too glad to see the old times back again ; the same chances and opportunities to be embraced by their sons that they enjoyed. But not only are they deprived of this privilege, but they are daily driven into greater straits and difficulties themselves, and the " ease and independence " which you say their industry has placed them in, exists with but few exceptions, in your imagination only; and they are as much in need of reform in the management of the Province as their sons. I believe good cart roads into the interior, with facilities for obtaining land on easy terms, is all that is wanted. " Backwoodsman " goes farther, aud would have the Government give aid in rations, Sec, and yet you sa^ he has hit the right nail,, on the head, and at the same time deprecate the making of roads, until a sufficient population has first of all settled without them, and you look forward to poverty bringing about such an ultimatum. But, sir, how hard it is to say who may be the poor that will feei^the strong pressure you speak of, and who will have to depend on the very questionably prosperity that a •little more poverty is to bring about according to your doctrine. But how different is this to the way in which the Americans colonise. Eefer once more to your cutting, headed " The Want of the Colonies," The young men who are spoken of as going forth to subdue the wilderness, are therein stated to take to themselves " Wives and Waggons," showing conclusively that their mode of colonising, is to make roads — cart roads — (not pack- tracks) first to enable people to settle, and not to vcait for pressure to come to force people to settle without roads afc all, before they decide whfther it is worth while to make them. Previously to reading your articles, I fought there were no two opinions as to the real work of a new country, such as ours, being the construction of roads and bridges. What progress can be made without them ? Depend upon it, it is the " bad roads, and no roads at all " that is keeping Nelson back at this moment. We are Buffering from the effect of feather-bed Engineers, who have beeu in their comfortable quarters in town, when they should have been roughing it in the bush, and in their tents. We are suffering from feather-bed Councilmen, whose idea of gaining practical knowledge concerning the diggings, consists in taking pleasure trips by steamers to the West Coast, and being ieted, and suppered, in the towns ; but who sedulously avoid the muddy tracks of the interior. The true colonising spirit must penetrate all these, as well as the dawdling young men of the Waimeas, before much improvement in the present bad state of things can be expected. Yours, &c, James Gkove. Foxhill, June 22, 1871.