THE ALBERTLAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1725, 20 September 1862, Page 3

THE ALBERTLAND SETTLEMENT.

The experiment of special settlement on a larger scale than has hitherto been attempted in this province, which is now being carried mil at Kaipara, is one which recommends itself to our especial care and attention, and it is with pleasure that we re-publish for the benefit and instruction of these and other newly arrived immigrants suclt letters as those of and " Old Settler," and the accompanying account of Experiences which have fallen under our own personal notice, which we now re-print from our issue of December 2(ith, 1860, and in the truthfulness and value of which we can place implicit reliance.

Nine tenths of the failures which would otherwise occur might be averted, if those who have already travelled over the same course would only jot down for the less experienced a chart by means of which the difficulties and dangers could be seen and avoided. To all, even to the experienced agriculturist, the business of settling in the New Zealand bush is novel and perplexing, and too often by the time that experience has been gained, the power to avail himself of that experience has also passed away, the capital has been irrevocably sunk in an unrenumerative manner, and the settler finds himself in as awkward a position, with experience and without capital, as lie was before under exactly opposite circumstances. Failures there always were, and, no doubt, will be again; but the reason of failure exists rather, we are inclined to believe, in the unfitness of the adventurers themselves than in any other cause, unless, indeed, it be in the attempt—often obstinately caivied out—to force home notions into practice, where an entirely different course should have been pursued. In having been already "colonised," perhaps, and in their consequent power of adapting themselves to a new mode of operations in a new country, lies one main reason of the great success of the Nova Scotians in the special settlement of Waipu, compared with which no settlement in this Province, or, we believe, in any other, can show the same rapid progress, stability, and general prosperity. What these men have achieved may be easily done again by others. There were no peculiar facilities for settlement in Waipu. The element of success lay rather in the energy and perseverance of the founders of a settlement which, a fewyears ago, was nothing but an untenanted wilderness. These men were moderate in their expectations, experienced in a country life, and suited to the " rough and ready" style inseparable from the first two or three years'mode of existence in a new Colony, and of which any icasonable and reasoning man who would only think twice upon the subject must at once become aware. Like Mr. Lamb's friend, if they wanted a sofa, or more likely a plough, they would not have hesitated to have carried it, as he did, seven miles through a bush survey lino upon their backs; they were not above putting their hands to any work, however irksome or inconsistent with previous notions and ideas. Nor are these disagreeables, alter all, so irksome as they at first sight may appear; the very novelty is a relief [for ri time,—the knowledge that all alike,

whether rich or poor, are subject more or less to the same inconveniences, the certainty that it is but for a time, and that the result of two or three years' endurable hardship will end in an after-life of comparative ease and independence, such, indeed, as the greater part could never have realised iu the old country: all these feeliDgs, we say, tend to reconcile the new-comer to what we know by experience will, Avhen they have passed away, seem but as a light trouble—nay, be even reverted to with triumph, and form no unpleasing theme of reminiscence. Under the special settlement system, we shall find, perhaps, the surest guarantees of success. The district so set apart is not only allotted but populated. Instead of a few scattered settlers, powerless to unite for any object of common interest, too isolated to admit of even the necessary support of a school for the education of their children, and with little hope, for years to come, of any alteration in this state of affairs, because, perhaps, the intervening sections or blocks of laud have been purchased and held by non-resident proprietors; instead of all this, the settlement proceeds under an entirely different aspect. Coming from the same country at home, with the direct sympathies of connection, neighbourhood, and early associations, and with the further ties of acquaintance on shipboard, and a unity of interests in their new and struggling community, it stands to reason that many of the first difficulties and hardships will be overcome by the presence of a mutual good feeling, and by a mutual assistance, which could hardly he looked for in a heterogeneously settled population, utter strangers the one to the other. Again, too, under this " special settlement" system we have, in the standing of its recognised founders and heads, a material guarantee, to a great extent, for the respectability and fitness of each individual member; and in their very association in such an undertaking a defined and implied intention of entering at once upon the occupation of their land, and thus avoiding, with comparatively few exceptions, that bane of all new settlements, even of the Colony in general—the interspersion among them of speculating non-resident proprietors, who retard the real progress of a district, yet gain in the advanced value of their laud by every acre which the Avorking settler brings into cultivation around it.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —As some little encouragement to new settlers, and also with a view to refute the aspersions of certain parties upon the capabilities of the Province of Auckland as a field for agricultural pursuits, I cannot do better than give a somewhat detailed account of my own experience and success as a working settler. I should preface these remarks by stating that I have been bred and born to labour and accustomed to farm work, and was previously employed for some years, in the Australian colonies, as a bullock driver. I arrived with my wife in Auckland in the month of October, 1855, and at once proceeded to search for an eligible investment in a piece of land. After rejecting several oilers of farms in various parts of the Province, I succeeded in meeting with a section of 100 acres, distant about twenty miles from Auckland, the soil a heavy black loam on a yellow clay subsoil, the rubbish on which—fern, korimiko, and flax—was so high as to hide any cattle from sight at that time. The land was unimproved, just in fact from the hands of the surveyor, and had been recently selected by the then owner from the unpurchased waste lands. I paid 4125 or 255. per acre for the farm. Having provided myself with ft tent, and such tools and stores as I considered necessary, I proceeded to the occupation of my land, accompanied by my wife. My first work was the erection of a small but substantial weather-board house —the cost of the timber alone amounted to £27 (at present prices onehalf the ii oney would not be required)—and with some little assistance from a neighbour (afterwards repaid by return work) I was my own carpenter—the doors and windows were purchased in Auckland. This was completed before the commencement of wheat harvest, when I entered into an arrangement with one of the older settlers of the district to receive ploughing in return for my services in reaping, by which means I was enabled to break up about two acres of ground. .My farm is entirely open land on which there is no bush whatever. As is usually the case there was plenty of Government bush in the neighbourhood, from which I could obtain both fencing stuff and fire-wood for the ctftting, but the want of a team of bullocks to cart lliem home, a distance of two miles, was a serious drawback. Meanwhile, at odd times I had contrived to break up and fence rather more than a quarter of an acre of garden, in part of which, although late in the season, I planted a crop of potatoes and some maize. The potatoes, although not planted until December, were a good crop, the maize but an indifferent one. During the summer I lost no opportunity of collecting manure; there were many cattle running on the fern ranges around me; the bullock droppings were collected inn bags, and carried home of an evening when the day's work was over. These were formed into a heap, with alternate layers of soil. After standing a while the heap was turned over with a spade, was intimately mixed, and left to rot until required for use. By thia means, towards the end of the summer, I had obtained a sufficient dressing of manure for the garden, for it became evident to me, from all I heard, that the two acres broken up late in the summer, could not be much depended upon for a return the first year, and that my mainstay must be the garden ground, the management of which I thoroughly understood. On one half I dibbled wheat and reaped, exactly six bushels; the remainder I kept under a constant succession of vegetables, the refuse of which went far, with the help of thistles, &C., to keep a couple of pigs. Upon part of the two acres I raised about ten more bushels of wheat and a little maize for the poultry. In the early part of the summer I invested nearly all the remainder of my capital in the purchase of two cows and calves, which cost me £26, from the increase of which, I have at the present time a team of six working oxen. The greatest difficulty under which I laboured at the commencement arose from the want of a team with which to break up my land and cart fencing stuff and fire-wood from the bush, distant some two miles. Still wherever a man is able and willing to work it out in return (and I have noticed this in many similar cases since), there are always opportunities of getting some portion of his land broken up for him by those neighbours who have teams of their own. The wheat, the produce of the garden, together with the assistance of cows, poultry, and a pig or two, enabled me to struggle on another year, when a neighbour, throwing up his farm to live in town, left his team of bullocks in my charge, with the privilege of working them until sold. By this means I was enabled to break up eight acres of land and to cart the necessary fencing stuff, making in all a square paddock of ten acres. Part of this again I managed to get cross-ploughed by working out the bullock hire, and to sow with oats and wheat, both of which crops were moderately good. The manure from my est tie, which were stock-yarded at night, was saved for ;,bout three-quarters of an acre of potatoes, the ground for which 1 worked by hand, and from which I obtained thrce-and-a-half tons of saleable potatoes. This year I had two steers fit for breaking in, and I exchanged one of my heifers for a third; a neighbour of my own had three broken-in-bul-locks onlv: and so we made a team of the two lots. working alternately on either farm. This year I broke up an additional six acres and fenced it. The wheat that vcar on the original ten acres averaged over twenty bushels to the acre, the oats just thirty. On the new ground the six acres which were ploughed in September and cross-ploughed again in May and June, and could not for the rain be sown earlier than the 10th of July, I reaped sixty-six bushels, or eleven bushels of wheat to the acre. During this last year I have broken in three other young steers of my own raising, and have now a full team, and have broken up au additional seventeen acres. My crops look well, my cattle have increased; I have had many hardships and annoyances to pass through, but am perfectly satisfied with the results. That my success, such as it is, has not been more rapid, is partly owing to the advice of some of my neighbours, settled a year or two earlier in the district than myself, and partly to my own folly in allowing myself to be influenced by them. I was over-persuaded that cultivation in New Zealand was useless, that crops would not, except in a few favored cases, succeed; and so was loth to lay out a few' P° una s as first for the ploughing up of a paddock, liad 1 none so, I should have been at least a year m advance. Even when mv first few crops were growing, H was constantly being dinned into my ears that though they .night grow at first they won d ultimately die outand so they did-but net until the proper tune for sd ' doing.

Some men there are who never did and never will prosper in their undertakings, cither from indolence or ignorance of the pursuit they take in hand, or through some other cause; and it unfortunately happens for society that these men allow themselves to give way to a feeling of envv against their fellow-men, and show that feeling openly by holding up their prospects to them in the darkest possible light. New settlers should give no heed to such people, but should at once ask them, when they begin their lamentations and croakings, why, if the country is really as bad as they represent it to be, they do not themselves remove to a better? The greatest difficulties in the way of young colonists are to be found in their own minds—want of energy and resolution, and a too ready credence to the insiduous attempts of interested individuals, whose own early career in the colony ought rather to cause them to sympathise with, instead of discouraging, new arrivals. There are hundreds besides myself whose success has been far greater than mine, and if this brief outline shall have the effect of drawing out from a few others a similar narrative of their experience for the benefit of new beginners, I shall (eel that I have not penned these remarks in vain, We all have felt on arriving in a totally new country (however sanguine may have been the hopes which led us there) an undefinable feeling of uncertainty and anxiety for the future. None but those who have experienced this feeling can appreciate the stimulus received from a few words of encouragement and a manifestation of kindness, even though coming from strangers; or, on the other hand, the depressing effects upon the energies of a man in constantly having it dinned into his ears that he has nothing but starvation and ruin before him. The one is a duty which, as fellow-men and fellow-labourers in the same work, we owe to one another; the latter is the elmlition of a mean and contemptible mind, only the more aggravated when it springs from a feeling of party spleen or for the purpose of advancing some political intrigue. I am, sir, An Independent Settler. Auckland, December 20, 1860.

Keven's Reef Company.—Wo perceive by the advertisement which appears in this issue that the second call of £2O per share will be due on Monday next the 22nd.

No. 1 South on Keven's Reef. —The shareholders of this claim which is now called the Kapanga Quartz Reef Company, met at Mr. Michael Woods office yesterday afternoon, when Mr. A. Beveridgc was appointed solicitor to the Company, and instructions were given him to draw up Articles of Association under the Joint Stock Company''s Act. The capital is limited to £2,800, and the shares to 5(3, which are now held by about 20 shareholders.

Lecteue at the Bkunswick Hale.—As we had confidently predicted, the lecture which was delivered yesterday evening on essays and reviews by Mr. Cornford, was the best attended of the series. The large Music Hall was three parts filled, and the audience appeared highly delighted with the earnest and eloquent manner in which the subject was handled. Our worthy townsman, Capt. Rattray, presided on the occasion. A Pkoa .nciae Government Gazette was published last evening. It contains the announcement of the sale of the Albertland special settlement lots, at the public store, Oruawharo, on the "21st October next. The lands are in the Parishes of Wharehine, Matakohe, and Oruawharo. An official notification of the discovery of an extensive quartz reef on the llakaroa stream ty Coromaudel is also given, on the authority of the surveyor engaged in defining the boundaries of Paul's land. A rate under the Local Improvement Act for a road runniug from the Cathedral Library towards Hobson's Ray is declared; and the abstract of the Revenue and Expenditure of the Provincial Government for the Quarter ending June 30th ulto., is published. The receipts for the June quarter are £15,224 7s. 6d., the expenditure £22,0'0 15s. Od. The balance on 20th June was £5,589 19s. 3d.

Arts and Artisans.—Auckland is steadily advancing in the arts and appliances of civilised life; we are continually receiving accessions of able and accomplished handicraftsmen. Not Ion? since a practical optician, Mr. Peacock, notified his having commenced business; and Mr. Cooke has for some time been pursuing his trade as an electro plater with, wo are told, much ability and skill. Mr. Leech, of Queen-street, who has long been favourably known as a carver ami gilder, has added that of a silvercr of mirrors to the other branches of his business, having imported the necessary table, and all requisite materials. The process is an interesting one, and of recent introduction, and by its means Mr. Leech is enabled to restore defaced mirrors, of very large dimensions, to pristine beauty and brilliancy. lie is likewise able to furnish articles of the utmost elegance of finish, in every respect cqoal to those imported. He has at present on view a magnificent pier glass of large dimensions eon strueted to order; the materials of course tire imported, but the design and execution arc Mr. Leech's own, and in every respect equal to any of his previous exhibitions in his own particular line. The plate is of the finest quality, and the silvering is faultless; but it is in the frame, at once massive and chaste, that the taste of the artist is displayed, as well in the elegance of the design as in the admirable manner of its finish. It is gratifying to find such men as Mr. Leech progressing and prospering, and promoting a taste for encouragement of colonial art. A visit to his atelier will not be thrown away. And we are glad to learn that such was the satisfaction afforded by a view of the mirror of which we speak, that an order for a second and similar one was immediately given. The Albertland Settlers.—The passengers by the " Matilda Wattenbach," have been encamped some two miles out of their line of road, alongside Lamb and Molvin's flour mills, where they have remained with their baggage, in the hope of being able to make some more satisfactory terms for the carriage of their goods than those offered by the proprietors of bullock teams in that locality. Wc arc happy to be able to state, that on application to General Cameron, he has generously placed half-a-dozen of the Land Transport bullock teams at their service. Lecteke.—A lecture "On the state of the Colony" has been announced for the evening of" Tuesday next, the 23rd. The lecturer, Mr. Busby having stated that any balance which may remain from the entrance money, after payment of expenses, will be applied in aid of the Ladies' Benevolent Society, we trust that the lecture may be numerously attended.

Careless Driving.—On Wednesday afternoon, as a four-wheeled vehicle, containing four ladies besides the person driving, was passing down the embanked portion of the Kybcr Pass Road, opposite the Stockade, the driver negligently allowed the horses to pass too near the road-side, when the vehicle, with all it contained, were precipitated over the embankment. Fortunately none of the ladies were seriously hurt, but the fright so affected one of them as to bring on a violent hysterical fit. Some men from Seccombe's brewery promptly ran up to render what assistance they could. At the time the accident occurred the road was perfectly clear, and consequently the driver (who is also owner of the vehicle) had nobody to blame for what had occurred but himself.

Military Theatkk,—A performance is, we perceive, advertised for the evening of Monday, the T2nd instant, at the Royal Surrey Theatre, Camp, Otahuhu, when the play of the "Iron Chest," will be produced; and variations on the "Blue Bells of Scotland," will be executed by Sergeant Cleary.

Band or rata 40Tn Reot.—Should the weather prove at all favourable this band will, we perceive perform this afternoon, between the hours of three and five, on the enclosure in front of the Provincial Counci' Chamber. The following are the pieces selected:—

Caution. —For some time past it has been the practice of some youths of this town to take the horses from the stables tor the purpose of watering them at the Wynyard pier, and " tearing" along as they do at so furious a rate it has really been a miracle that no accident has occurred. On reference to our police report it will be found that one of these lads had at length been stopped in this practice, he having nearly killed a woman by riding over her, and has received his due reward of one months' hard labour. We hope this will he a caution to his other companions.

Sudden Death.—We regret to have to record the death of Mr. Alexander Allan of Mohaka, who lost his life on Thursday last under the following painful circumstances, lie was passenger on board the Gipsy, which sailed for Mohaka on that day at 4 o'clock. At 11, when off Waikari, Mr. Allan, who was sitting upon deck, was seen to go over the lee side, holding on; tho vessel gave a lurch; he overbalanced himself and fell into the water. lie was immediately rescued—not having been more than four or live minutes in the water—hut he was brought upon deck in so exhausted a state that he expired 2 J hours afterwards. Every effort was made to revive him, but he gradually got colder until death supervened. The Gipsy, under these circumstances, immediately bore up for Napier. An inquest was yesterday held upon the body, when a verdict was returned of accidental death.— Hawhe's Bay Herald, Sept. 0.

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