AUCKLAND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 75, 12 August 1843, Page 299

AUCKLAND.

The following are extracts from the Auckland papers : — . Departure of Mrs. Hobson. —We have to announce to our readers the departure, yesterday, of Mrs. Hobson (relict of our late lamented Governor) with her family, from Auckland, to proceed on board the Tortoise, which conveys them to England, attended by the principal officers of the Government, headed by his Excellency the Officer administering the Government. Mrs. Hobson left these shores accompanied by the sincere and heartfelt wishes for the prosperity -mmjd happiness of herself and young offspring, frojg all and every of those to whom she was' knownY'and by whom she was highly beloved and respected. — Chronicle, June 17.

New Harbour Regulation. — In the Government Gazette of Wednesday last, we observe the following addition to our. harbour laws : Clause 5 (a) — ."That, satisfactorily to provide for the due payment of pilotage, no clearance shall be granted to the master of any vessel, unless he produce a receipt from the Harbour Master, or pay the amount to the clearing officer/ V- Ibid, July 1. We have been frequently called upon to notice the shameful and disgraceful state in which Fort Street, the principal landing place in Auckland, the spot where we receive our imports, and where our intended settlers disembark, is allowed to remain. Numerous have been the difficulties which our merchants and the masters of vessels have already experienced in landing their goods. Why has no improvement yet been made ? We call upon the Government for an explanation. — Ibid. New Market. —We have attended the first" weekly markets held in Auckland, on Tuesday and Friday last, and we congratulate the public on their having been at last established, for we consider that they will be the means of a regular and steady supply of all the necessaries of life, and thereby reducing the present scale of household expenditure. — Ibid, July .8. The Emigrants. — We regret to hear that the Officer administering the Government has ceased to give employment to these poor people, and that many of them are really in great want; in want so great, that (we dare not conceal the fact, even for the sake of the place, for it is not the fault Of the country, but its misguided rulers) they are actually obliged to sell some of their clothing to procure bread. — Southern Cross, June 17.

In an article on the Survey Department, the Southern Cross says — " Mr. Ligar, the present Surveyor- General, took charge on the Ist of January 1842 ; we. trace the history of his public conduct from that period to the end of March 1843. Mr. Ligar at that time found in the service five surveyors with four men each, to this number he added four more surveyors, and one draughtsman whom he brought along with him from England, so that he commenced his operations with a most effective staff, consisting of ten surveyors with a proportionate number of men. The expense of this staff during this time, that is from the Ist of January 1842 to the 31st of March 1843, has been about £6,800. The amount of land surveyed does not exceed 6,400 acres, of which 5J600 acres are country lands, and the remainder town and suburban allotments. Without making any distinction between the expense of laying out ground in town and suburban, or in country sections, the cost would therefore be J6l Is. 3d. per acre, or JE6BO per square mile."

Public Sale of Government Lands. — Signal Failure of the Present System. — A better proof of the impracticability of carrying out the present system of selling lands in this colony, could not be given than that which is afforded by the result of: the laf sale of Government land. Outofjtfput eighty allotments, including town, suburban and country sections, five only were sold, and four out of the -five to persons in her Majesty's service. The whole amount realized at this sale did not much exceed £200. — Ibid, June 24.

Suicide by a Native Woman. — About three weeks since, the wife (or rather one of the wives) of a native chief at Kaweranga, on the Thames, was most barbarously, for some alleged offence, hung up by the heels, and exposed to the view of the whole tribe, and most inhumanly beaten. This treatment had such an effect upon the poor woman, that she got hold of a musket loaded with ball, placed her toe on the trigger, and fired the contents through her lungs ; the ball passed to I th» spine, where it remained, and she expired in ten days after. Although there were two subUprotectors of aborigines and two magistrates hi nhe neighbourhood at the time, they did not take any notice of the matter, thus carrying out the principle followed invariably by the Government, that a Maori can do no wrong, or, at least, that no notice is to be taken by them of his crimes or misdemeanours. We regret to find this system constantly pursued, and that the natives are permitted to continue their abominable and barbarous practices, without even' a remonstrance from those individuals called Protectors, who are such a drag upon the revenue of the colony, and the occupation of the majority of whom appears to be to stir up mischief between the native "and the European settlers ; in fact, we believe them to be neither more or less than spies sent about to ascertain if there be any disputes regarding the boundaries of the settlers' lands, and to do all hi their power to cause dissiEtisfaction in the minds of the natives. With regard tp the conduct of the magistrates, we need make no remark ; the course pursued in the case of the murder of Mrs. Roberton and family, some eighteen months since, is too vivid in our recollection to cause surprise at anything that may emanate from men so recklessly chosen, and so ill-adapted, from education and previous pursuits, to fill the important situation to which they have been appointed.— Southern Cross, July 1. A Wharf, or Landing-place. — Why is there no place in Auckland where goods or passengers can be landed from boats ? Not, surely, because we have no persons who understand the advan- ; tages of a wharf. An old lieutenant in the navy, like Mr. Shortland, ought to know the use of a wharf. Auckland is now upwards of two years and a-half in existence, with sailors at the crazy helm of State, and they have not taken the trouble to provide even a wooden jetty for. the comfort and convenience of their brother " tan." — Ibid, July 8.

The Chronicle closes an ably written and impartial account of the Wairoo massacre with the following remarks :—: —

" On many of the points of this dreadful catastrophe we refrain from offering any opinion : it may become the subject of judicial inquiry. We must, however, express our concurrence in the common* opinion, that it was a most rash and unadvised proceeding, and both undertaken and conducted in entire ignorance of the native character. Of the conduct of the survivors we are, almost afraid to trust ourselves to speak. They have, it is true, effected their escape from the field of conflict — they may escape the penalties of the law—but they will neither escape the bitter pangs of conscience nor the indignant voice of public opinion. They may urge that they were not hired or paid, and did not engage to fight — that they had wives and families, and had no interest in the conflict; but, in the eyes of their countrymen, this will not serve them. They ought to have refused to take arms, o4 having taken them, not to have advanced and used them: but they voluntarily took up arms— they advanced, and fired, and entered into the conflict under, the direction of leaders, and thus implicitly undertook to support and obey them : had they done so, had they shown but common mcnliness and courage, it is certain that the most revolting features of the cast would have been spared us, and many valuable lives. As far as it was possible for them to do so, they have ruinously damaged the British character in the estimation of the Maories ; they have done all they could do to prove then* countrymen a nation of poltroons. Having so far entered into the conflict as to fire upon a body of people guilty of no offence, as far as they were concerned, they then — heedless of the rallying cry of Captain Wakefield — dead to the entreaties of Mr. Thompson for support— left their leaders and comrades, in the hour of need, to the savage fury of those they had themselves provoked. As settlers of ' Nelson,' they should have remembered that ' England expects that every man will do his duty.' " 11 The Southern Cross has an article on the

same subject. It consists of a series of the most wilful misrepresentations and malignant falsehoods, and is therefore in perfect keeping with the majority of the mendacious doctor's productions. The following extract may be taken as a fair sample of the whole. After representing our late Police Magistrate as a lunatic, the writer says — f ' And we understand that he [Mr. Thompson] was represented to Mr. Shortland as being unfit for his situation on that very account ; indeed, we have beard that a very numerously signed petition (signed by 2,500 out of a population of 3,000 ! !) by the inhabitants of Nelson, praying for his removal, had been presented to Mr. Shortland when he was last at Nelson.A

"Our fellow-settlers need not be told how utterly false this is — that no such petition was ever presented. If the writer is really desirous tp put his readers in possession of the facts relative to the calamity at the Wairoo, we would recommend to him an attentive perusal of our last number. 11