THE KARAMEA SETTLEMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 88, 16 April 1877, Page 2

THE KARAMEA SETTLEMENT.

To the Editor ov the 'Evening Mail.' Sir— ln reference to an article on this "mysterious" corner of the province, which appeared in Monday's evening's issue, I will, | with your kind permission, endeavor to clear | some of the mystery which seems to overhang the place, owing to what appear to be so many contradictory statements, which are put before the public iv different papers at different times respecting this settlement, and which are simply emanations from two opposing parties, each having tactics diametrically opposed to the other. To one who is not influenced by such reports, and who knows both sides of the question, no mystery whatever exists. All is clear as noonday. The party who are anxious to quiet the public conscience by assurances that the place is in a fair way of progression and altogether in a satisfactory state of thrift arc O'Conorites, and have a tangible interest in the place! The other party who wish to influence the public consists of those who are ready on the least opportunity to circulate any unfortunate state of affairs which they think they see, or which hearsay makes them cognisant of. Ido not sympathise with either party, and am anxious that statements consisting of naked truths, and in no way tinged by party feeling, should be placed before the public. And I. venture and am prompted thus to offer my opinion more from a consideration of doing justice to the pioneers and persuading the public from applying to them auy such shameful and unmerited epithets as "drones," "worthless idlers," and other insinuations of thriftlesaness, whioh all along it has been their lot more or less to bear There cart be no doubt that the settlement is a failure if we compare the small returns the country will receive with the large amount of public money that has been expended there although of course it is not a total failure' as the settlement is sure to crawl along' somehow, but with the aid it has had it ought to have progressed at a gallop, and only wanted judicious management to make it do so. Looking at it in this light, the failure iv my opinion is attributable to the management or rather the mismanagement of the place. Here I would revert to the early days of the settlement, and call your readers' attention to the fact of the pioneers setting out for Karamea under the supervision of little talent and less tact, and the consequent Muddledom which prevailed on our being tumbled ashore amid the thousands of acres of virgin bush at Karamea, not even knowing where to grope for ourpromised sections. Of course Bumbledom in those days reigned supreme and Muddledoni was Jus kingdom. I w ili here briefly state that the printed forms of agreement stating conditions under which we were to undertake Karamean life were utterly discarded and set at nought. Fancy then our chagrin and amazement (when caged up in the Karamea) at seeing such an awe inspiring document, as we looked upon these stipulations to be, so easily cast aside and thrown to the winds. Had these stipulations been adhered to, the £80 and £100 debit accounts which were posted opposite many of our names would have been a thing unknown Every settler iv the place got so heavily iv debt that Kiug Bumbledom had to hit upon a happy plan, and gave contracts at fabulous and ridiculously high prices-as ridiculously high as the price was }ow before, considering the price and inferiority of stores (spades that must have been made out of kerosine oil tins, and tin billies with handles of pin Mire, and which bent iv two when full of water.) This was the time to make money in the Karamea— £60 in three or four weeks and £2 a day were made at contract work. Bumbledom nearly broke his bank, and had actually !o make men "lay by," that is, stop at home all last summer until they expended some of this money in the store, or bought the framework of a cow for £16. When our sections were found we were hustled off to ( them, there to potter along and do the best our "now chum " knowledge prompted us to do, and our painful experience is that after two years of heavy slogging we must abandon those sections as worthless apd unprofitable, not scarcely producing potatoes or cabbages j with a great amount of labor. The surface ]

is made up of decayed vegetation,: which 'V held together by a network of roofs, the whole overlying a bed of cement'; sections three miles up the river ware, given l to us (in the place of these worthless terrace! sections), of the, qualify of winch 1 mast say it is Al; a good crop can be reaped* the" 1 firsV year, and the bush is very light. Are your reader 9 aware, Mr Editor, that no ready money has ever been circulated in the settlement, and that the living has been as bare as the most rigid economist- could desire, and that the rate we paid— or srather ba£ter£dX ' for stores was nearly double Nelaon- ; p rices ? : Consequently a man earning ten shillings daily found it a difficult matter to keep the millstone of debt from clogging his heels. - Woe be to the miserable being who happeued to get indebted to the store! Then he had a practical lesson in absolute monarchy and despotic slavery. He was ordered here, and ordered there, he must take this or thsifcontract at whatever price was fixed upon it, or he must accept the alternative, which was — " Your tucker will be stopped." lam confident that if I had to particularize in matters relating to Karamean life " the hundreds of better men who sigh in vain" for 3uch facilities as we new chums have had of making a home for ourselves, would sigh no longer, but would be thankful that they had enjoyed two years freedom and escaped a practical lesson in convict life—^or perhaps a pauper's Union life is more applicable, because our food was dealt out to us:fdr the most part in quantities and kind determined upon by the workhouse guardians. - 1 We had only "Hob--Bon,!s choice"— take so : ,mnch of this or that, or go without. I am ipdfc grumbling at the food, nor at the quantities which wejreceived, but at the manner <*£ management of the same. A little ready, money would have done away with the disagreeable similarity to pauperism. I may here mention that the men who have left Karamea have been accustomed to work hard- in England, and have lived hardly too in the old country, and have plodded away in the Karamea from " early morn to dewy eve." There Avas nothing certain to get for their work in Karameathe only certain thiug3 there were hard work, hard living, and plenty of humbug. They have brought nothing away from the place. The little homesteads they have left behind are ample repayment for what they have bad there, and if anyone sigh 3 still for such blessings and privileges, perhaps we can give him a shanty and a clear patch to begin upon. We " new chums," although a very despicable class, are in no way greedy, and will share our Karamea advantages with any "old chum" who is still sighing for them. But let me warn him before he starts off to Jwaramea that he must be a rigid O'Coqorite if he wishes to succeed comfortably. The men who have left will prove to the people who employ them that they are neither " drones " nor "worthless idlers."- Had they been such they would have died of want in the Kararaea long ago. ,Theyi are men? Mr" Editor, who have a spirit of freedom and independence within rthera,-and- t who have spoken their "minda too freely in theKaramea, } Consequently they had the rough, doled out to them very plentifully, and hudibug most abundantly, and seeing that they were still aa far away from freedom as ever,;and likely to be caged up in karamfea with, despotism itself, they have cleared out, even" throwing away two years' work, to enjoy the blessings of liberty. I could, say much more louche Ivaramea, but am afraid I have taken iip ,too much of your valuable space already. ' However, if you will kindly, insert this letter ,for the better enlightenment of the public respecting the arrivals from Karamea, and thus try to secure justice to whom justice is due, you will greatly oblige.— Yours, &c., Vbbity.