The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 294, 24 March 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not : Let all the ends thon aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1849.

Queen and Wakefield streets have, for some weeks past, been in course of being sprinkled with metal. Upon what new principle of scientific discovery the former highway has been constructed — not being engineers — we are at a loss to imagine. To our unprofessional vision, Queen-street, from the wharf to the hard at the lower end of Wakefield-street, is but a slough of despond — a miry bog, which the first rains of winter will call into activity, causing it to entomb within its raw and untempeied bowels, all the material (and much more) which has uselessly been laid to give it a/acr. What is there, we would ask, to bind and incorporate the soil loosely thrown together, and piled in a mound over the swamp by Mr. Conry's dwelling % Let any one consider that tumulus after a day of moderately heavy rain, and he will find its level torn up into hill and hollow, and indented with capacious ruts, whilst Its sides are rent and riven into every picturesque variety of miniature gorge and gully. Yet this, forsooth, is, by courtesy, called Road Making ! Ay — Road making after the Short-land-street fashion, which, although a thoroughfare for years, yet devours the metal wasted upon it as quickly as it is laid down, and still insatiately calls for more. Wherefore should money and means be thus worse than uselessly expended ? It cannot be that we are so utterly destitute of practical men that no contractor can be found to construct a passable highway. No theme of public grievance has been more incessantly or more reasonably dwelt upon than the gross mismanagement of our streets and roads. A community which is called upon to pay liberally — nay, lavishly, for a modicum of ground whereon to erect a cabin, and which is penned within an uudrained and unventilated area of marshy soil — an area and a marsh which every medical practitioner has denounced, and de-

momtrated to Va fraught with mortal peril — Surely, such a community have a right to expect its roadways to be formed with at least an aveiage degree of ski]]. V/hcn we contrast the formation of the streets of arid t Sydney with those tho&e of humid Auckland, we cannot but be struck by the antagonistic principles upon which they are severally based. Let us take George-stieet of the one and Queen-street of the other as fitting illustrations of science and its opposite. In George-street, the late very efficient City Surveyor, but now Engineer of the Australian Railway Company, Mr. Francis Shields, excavated the street to a depth of some twelve or eighteen inches, and, upon a solid bed, he packed large lumps of free stone, which were jammed and wedged by the necessary kerb stones, into a compact mass; over this mass he spread the harder metal, strewing its surface with sand, which filled in and cemented the whole, thus forming a highway, which for beauty and durability may compete with the finest of British thoroughfares. Compare this with the Queen-street puddle, and the guess-work imperfection of the one will be as glaring as the scientific excellence of the other must be obvious. But wherefore should it be so ? Is it impossible to achieve similar results in our city? Are there no means of rendering concrete the substructure of our roads before larding them with metal, which is as sure to be imbedded in the mould as currants are in a well-mixed plum-pud-ding. Are there no fascines to he had — no brush-wood to weave with and to incorporate the whole 1 Not a man in Auckland but is loud in complaint. The money that is sunk in our sloughs elicits a feeling of universal disgust, because people reason the matter with each other, and know well that the good money now expended profitlessly might be beneficially disbursed, and secure good and practicable roads for them and their descendants. But, for the construction of good roads, and their after maintenance, good drains are imperative accessories. Inadequate drainage is a fault in almost every city ; but in new ones, arising in a primitive soil, the rulers of which have the cry of the old world ringing in their ears, to neglect those sanitary precautions — drainage and sewerage — is little short of a positive crime. In all towns they are the most essential requisites to the health, the cleanliness, the comfort, nay, the decency of the inhabitants ; and in no town, either of the old world or the new, are those requisites more essential or paramount than in Auckland, where the mass of the population is wedged, as it were, in the mouth of a gorge, the embouchere of the numerous rills — frequently swelling into mountain torrents, — which have not only no artificial channels for their accumulated waters, but whose natural vents have been blocked and impeded by the crush of flimsy buildings, and the filthy lanes and alleys by which they have been intersected in their course. It was in these localities that the scarlet fever of last year worked its fatal sway, and it is in these that our professional men predict the decimation of our townsfolk, whenever a virulent epidemic shall break out. The lower end of Queen street is now in process of drainage. But of what kind of drainage, or upon what principle ? Is the tunnel equal to the rush of water likely to attempt a passage through it 1 Or is the workmanship of that capacity and character adequate to the end it purposes to achieve 1 ? We imagine not. Let any one look at the small squaie duct formed of loosely jointed, unbedded, blocks of ragged scoria, built after the manner of dry stone fences. Is the vacuum sufficient for the volume of turbid water that will endeavour to pour through it % And is its construction sufficiently solid to resist the pressure it will inevitably encounter 1 ? We not only consider that it is not so, but that the drain, both in amplitude, plan, and workmanship, will prove a complete and discreditable failure. The ragged edges of the stones will catch all waifs and strays in the shape of decomposed rags and morsels of putrescent skins. The channel will become blocked, the sewer will burst, and another opportunity, will, we feel convinced, be aiforded to our citizens to dilate upon the folly and futility with which our le venue is flittered away.

The " Adelaide,' in her recent passage from Hobart Town, has brought an accession to our population of some forty souls, — several of them good mechanics. Whether induced by this arrival and the report of the numbers of free labourers desirous to escape from felonized Tasmania we cannot tell ; — nevertheless, an incipient immigration society has been set afoot here, with the view of entering into a subscription for the transmission of artizans to our shores. It is in contemplation to appoint an agent in Hobart Town to make selection of immigrants suited to our wants. To offer them a iree passage hither in the first instance ; such passage being charged at a moderate rate, and to be repaid by easy and equitable instalments from the wages of the immigrant. Captain Gedge, of the Adelaide, we hear, is willing to enter into such an arrangement, and a letter from a Hobait Town correspondent acquaints us of the fact of " hundreds walking about the streets of Hobart Town idle, who would

be glad to go to Auckland if they had the means." We have ample room and to spare for the industrious, and that without the least detriment to those already located here. Wages are at a ruinous rate. Domestic servants spurn at less than £30 a year and their food. Carpenters earn eight shillings a day ; stone masons, bricklayers, and plasterers ten shillings, Bricks are £2 15s. per thousand — and a dairyman and his wife have long been advertised for in this Journal, — the employer giving £70 a year to his former servants. We are the last to grudge good, indeed liberal wages to deserving workmen — but it should not be forgotten that wages may attain such an unwholesome rate as to cause a reaction fatal to employment, and destructive of the labourer's prospects. An Immigration Society, then, conducted with common prudence, would not only be the labourers friend, but a blessing to all classes of our industrious population.

Auckland Market. — A reply has been received, byMajor Matson, from His Excellency the Governor, to the memorial of the inhabitants praying the establishment of a Market Place. His Excellency has expressed himself most favourably, intimating that he 'would introduce a bill for that purpose, and lay the Memorial before the Legislative Council, which, according to report, is shortly about to be convened.

The schooner Marys, from Launceston, via Wellington, arrived on. Thursday, noon. She sailed from Port Nicholson on the 11th instant, but brings no mail ; in consequence, we piesume, of the departure of the brigantine Harlequin, which was advertised to leave for this place the preceding day. We have a few copies of local journals. The New Zealand Spectator of the 10th announces the probability of Mr. M'Lean being enabled to purchase the districts of Manawatu and Rangitiki, from the natives forthwith. A numerous and influential meeting of the chiefs and natives resident upon the coast had been convened for the 1 2th, in order to the discussion and settlement of a question fraught with much importance to the prosperity of our southern fellow colonists, as upon the extinction of the native title, the ability of the Crown to issue grants to the New Zealand Company, and thereby empower the Directors to implement their contract with those settlers who have selected their lands at Manawatu, mainly if not absolutely, depends. The accomplishment of this purchase would place all the lands from Port Nicholson to Wanganui at the command of Government, such districts reserved for the natives, alone excepted. j The ship Duke of Portland, sailed for Shangae on the 6th instant, and the Cornelia for London on the 3rd. The Spectator, as it appears to us, has latterly become effete ; verging upon the despairinglyjdefensive. Or if, as in its number of the 7th current, it risks a sally, it seems to be only to insure its own discomfiture, and the odd hits. It has long run a muck against Mr. M'Donald, the manager of the Union. Bank of Australia, and it hugs itself in extraordinary triumph, because its editorial strictures have elicited a denial of their accuracy from one ; and twenty of the leading men of Wellington ! We ourselves should be content to waive such testimonials of victory. The grand Reform Banquet took place in the theatre on the Ist instant. Nearly two hundred guests were present. The arrangements are represented as having been worthy of the occasion, and the demonstration as in keeping with the honourable independence of free born Englishmen. The details of this banquet occupy eleven columns of the Independent of the 3rd. The principal speakers were Dr. Featherston, Mr. Fox, Mr. Vincent, Mr. Brandon, Mr. M'Donald, Mr. Bethune, Mr. Waitt, Mr. Weld, Mr. Lyon, Mr. Rhodes, Major Baker, &c, &c. The Nominee Abomination was " torn to tatters, to very rags j" — held up in all the nakedness of its own inherent deformity ; whilst the Representative principle was eulogized and advocated in every form and figure, each successive speaker adducing some substantial argument to prove that, under no circumstances, should a Briton be robbed of this his birthright. The petition imploring its restoration, had been transmitted to England, signed by upwards of nine tenths of the adult male population. A similarly stringent memorial had likewise been forwarded from Nelson ; at which port the Mary, from London the 4th, and the Downs the 9th November, had arrived on the 24th ultimo, with immigrants for that place and Otago. The " Mary Catherine," 500 tons, Captain Smale, was to sail from London for Sydney and Auckland on the 20th of November. Tiie " Ennerdale," for Auckland and Wellington, on the 15th of December.

Yesterday's Government Gazette contains Proclamation of sundry numbers of town, suburban, and country lots, to be sold on Tuesday, the 19th of June. Tenders; for Joiners Work at the General Hospital are invited until noon of the 26th instant. Also for two presses with pigeon holes and drawers, and a library table,

*" A Reward of Fifteen Pounds each is offered for the apprehension of John Hill, Rees Griffith, John King, Mathew Clarke, convicts who absconded from Hobart Town on the 20th ult, with the cutter Psyche, of 12 tons, a yacht belonging to the Bishop of Tasmania. A notice and description is given of a LightHouse recently erected on Cape Agulhas. * The sum total realized by the sale of lands on the Ist instant, is stated to have been £2034 4s. 4d. There is a very clear and comprehensive "Tabular Return" of the population of the Auckland District given by Captain Atkyns, Inspector of Police, to which we shall devote a little more attention in our next.

We have, this morning, given copious extracts of Indian news gleaned from the last Hobart Town Journals — together with an extract from a letter received by a gentleman of this place. It will be se en that smart work awaits our gallant fellows on the Punjaub.