THE KARAMEA SETTLEMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 198, 22 August 1877, Page 4

THE KARAMEA SETTLEMENT.

(By a correspondent of the Westport Times.) 7 Passing along the road which traverses these deserted sections, and which road bas been utilised after a queer fashion, namely hy closing the cemetery formerly at Maori Point and opening another on the brink of a steep cliff where the road terminates, a narrow aigzag path was found leading down to the "Promised Land," where many of (he settlers reside, and who were all busiiy at work. Many of them have already got good first crops off their land, which is of deep choclate soil, and they are building or bave already built, snug huts. Their household plenishings were bare and there was an evident total absence of tbe many little comforts and luxuries which make life pleasant. They had, however, at least most of them, plenty of potatoes and vegetables, aod were in no fear of absolute starvation. Hopeful also they were but not contented. They complained bitterly of _ system of grinding oppression, of treatment as bad as that the Irish peasantry have suffered at the hands of * unscrupulous factors. The complaint was pn every lip. It was not in one house or two, or in a dozen, tbat the tale of harshness on tbe part of the management, of disregard for individual rights and necessities, of bullying treatment to the many, and of favoritism to the few, was told, but it came from every lip with a startling uniformity and earnestness of detail. Making every allowance for the exaggeration arising from long brooding over real or fancied wrongs and the diesappointment of too sanguine anticipations, the listener could not shake off the conviction that the success of the settlement had been dependent far more on the pluck, endurance, s.and forbearance of the settlers than on any effort at consistent and judicious management. The system, if the term is applicable where no impulse save self-interest is manifest, is tbat of a domineering, harsh, taskmaster, coercing his serfs into subjection. Any feeling of respect aud confidence which should prevail between a community of thia special nature and its Director had no existence. He rules them with absolute sway, orders tbeir coming and going, decides who shall have work and who shall not, who shall receive rations and who shall have none. Earning wages from the expenditure of Government money on the Settlement, the settlers never see the color of a coin. Paid in kind they have to take wbat they oan gei over tbe Counter of tbe one solitary store, managed by the brother and nephew of the Director, and in which business there is reasonable ground for supposing he bas an interest. Now and theu it so happens tbat some of the settlers earn a chance pound or two by work for the Survey Department, or in other casual ways. It was told "Your Own" that when such an event occurs an emissary from the store pounces on (he settler who has thus got hold of money, and makes a not too civil demand that it shall be paid into the credit of his store account, under the penalty of the settler getting no more stores until tbe coveted cheque is handed over. Tbis was stated as a subject of common notoriety in tbe Settlement. The prices charged are high, the qualities of either stores or clothing are indifferent, the settlers have often much difficulty in gettiog detailed statements of accounts, and tbe truck system in all its objectionable features is in full swing. At least this is what the Karamean settlers solemnly assert, and their words bear the impress of truth. In aggravation of the truck system there appears also to exist in the management of the store an utter want of obliging or conciliatory disposition, aud a tendency also to little huckstering practices which business men oi good intent carefully avoid. Many were the indignant tales told "Your Own" by careful housewives who avowed that, in pleading for actual necessaries for their little ones, theic appeals were as often as not disregarded with a brusqueness bordering on insolence. "We are treated worse thun paupers at horae," said ore. " The ' Big-Un ' aud his mates," said another, " are only fit for nigger drivers." A geutle reminder that iu the matter oi spare diet aud clothing the Karamea settlers were perhaps never so badly off aa many of the early colouial settlers, who, having no help at all from the public purse, had braved difficulties aud hewed out homes in the wildarnese. was met by the retort, " We can live

on dry bread and have done it, but we didn't come all the way here from the old country to bo treated like dot's. Why don't they put a man over us, "or else leave us to ourselves?" *' Look " says another, «» how we're treated, before we've time to put a bit of fence round our land a mob of cattle is turned out to trample on our little crops." Among many of fjhe women too it was, a frequent complaint that the Sabbath had ceased to be a landmark, that trading at the store was encouraged on that day more than on others, and it is a. matter of local incident that on one: particular Sabbath Day the Dictator, mounting a fence, auctioned some cattle ; he wished to dispose of. Many of the settlers are either Presbyterians or Wesleyan Methodists. The subject of management had aiso its ludicrous as well as a grave aspect. Those who know the Dictator personally will know that tbe bump of selfesteem is abnormally developed on his cranium. They will not be surprised, therefore, to learn that he assumes the role of "Father of the Settlement," coostantly makes boast of the amount of good he bas done and what a publio benefactor he has been, and chidio* hia subjects as a father would wayward children, taunts them also with ingratitude. But yet they are hard of belief. They know that since the establishment of the settlement he has had control of the expenditure of all tbe public money there, and they have never yet heard an account of his stewardship. They know that he has also, in his own right, or iu the right of his trading partners become possessed ot the eyes of the country, and that he shares with euch partners in the profits of supplying all the requirements of a oommunity of at least 250 souls. The Government store now belongs to him or his mates, and was purchased without competition for a mere song. Thus his words of reproof fall on deadened ears, and the Karamea settler's most earnest prayer is " Preserve me from my friend." Passing along from house to house, " Tour Own" found little need for any persuasive cauvaasing^or votes. Knowing there was a real live candidate to oppose their taskmaster, the electors were content. Their only dread was, knowing nothing of the system of voting by ballot, that it would become known who they voted for, and that reprisals would follow. Burners were current that rations would be stopped, and things " made hot" for offenders. This difficulty being explained away, the path was easy, and " Your Owh " went to bed on Thursday night with the comfortable conviotion that he would win the election. On Friday, after a pleasant night's sojourn under the roof of hospitable entertainers, "Your Own," iu company with two good men and true, made the tour of the North Settlement, The aoil and general aspect of the country on the north side of the river is similar to that on the south, except that about a mile iuland irom the beach is a pakihi of perhaps 600 or BG3 acres of deep black friable soil, evidently the bed of a dried up lake, now thickly covered with tussock grasses aod flax, and patches of scrub birch. The pakihi has been drained by an open cutting, and is ail nearly under occupation. Communion with the residents on the northern settlement gave ample confirmation ot the prevailing discontent. It is true many of the men were reticent, and inclined less to talk than to listen, but the reason for this was plain. It ia on the north side of the river that moat of the Government money entrusted to the disbursement of the Director-General is now being expended. It is on the north side of the river that most of the settlers of his own nationality dwell. Without for a moment questioning the utility of the works performed, it is necessary to remark that the Karamea settlers aa a whole, kaow so little of the plan of operations, and are kept so much in tbe dark as to details, that they aver that they are divided into three claaaea: — Thosa who cun alwava get work. Those who can get it by gringidg aud begging. Thosa who get it only when they ore starving. It is a pity, under the pre&ODt system of petty patronage so much suspicion, mistrust, uud jealousy should be engeudered. At a puolic ueeiiug held in the evening, whereat the stranger candidate received a vole of confidence from three-fourths of tbe settlers preseut, the chief auxiety expressed wuh to leura whether iu the event of the County Council spending auy money on the Karamea district, it would be independently die-

bursed, or allowed to percolate ehroagh the devious aud doubtful channel of the "Store."

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