ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 91, 13 June 1843, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Colonist ,

Sir, —The Gazette of Saturday last contains a long paragraph in commendation of the operations of the Town Council, the improvement Manners-street has already undergone under their able management, and observes, “ that as the funds increase, they will be enabled to do more good, and that the inhabitants will never grumble at the payment of low rates when they see good roads made in return for their money/’ The writer notices in particular two firstrate bridges that have been constructed in Manners-street under the superintendance of our intelligent councillor, Alderman Jenkins.

Now, without intending any reflections on

our worthy alderman, or to decry the operations of the Town Council, it would puzzle any one, more particularly persons just arrived in the colony, to find these said bridges, and the organ of vision must be very acute in the individual to perceive a “ first-rate bridge” in a few empty barrels, sunk under the street to carry off the water from the drains they have cut. When will the Gazette cease to publish suck trash, surely people have h- misled enough already by their misrepresen. *'<s ? I am, Sir, Jmrs &c., A COLONIST.

We copy the following leader of the Gagette of Saturday lasto int our columns entire, as the subject of it cannot be too widely circulated : “We have had our attention frequently called to the favoritism exhibited' on th'e part of the Company, through their Agent, on the subject of roads formed under their auspices, and in particular, one to the Porirua district. A very insignificant sum would have carried a communicating line from the spot where it at present terminates, to the ’Porirua valley, which would have been the means of opening the entire of the coast-way up to New Plymouth. But this seems "to be none of the policy of the Principal Agent. He has been reckless of expense for a short distance, but as for the majority of intending farmersj they may get on their sections the best'way they can. We are fully aware that the Company never guaranteed the making roads, hilt it places the fact more glaring, when one- can be commenced and carried just to a particular spot, to please certain parties, and they few in number, whilst a very trifling sum more expended in a proper manner, would have laid open an important district; important from the fact that the. land belongs mostly to working who would have instantly commenced clearing, and have eased the labor market of their presence, and in time become the employers of labor themselves. It is not from the great land proprietors that the Colony is to be really benefited ; for in numerous cases they are only here to make what they can, and then leave it; but it is from the small farmers, who belong to what are termed the poorer classes, and who make the most diligent settlers. The present road, at least where it terminates, obliges three or four gentlemen, who are certainly employers of labor, but not to any great extent; and we make bold to say that the •working men, who are possessors of land along the <old line, would have been far ; greater than the present fortunate individuals. “ Again, let any observant person 'take a stroll up the Karori Road, and the most prejudiced in favor of it will be compelled to own that it has been made a great deal too Tong, -and for what purpose we will leave them to judge. We have spoken to several competent people on the subject, and they w'ere all of opinion that it was done and carried so far just to suit a few wealthy ones, whilst the .poorer sectionists beyond are kept as far from their land as ever, and that a much better line, and one that would open finer land than that at the commencement of the present, could have been found, and been made, too, at a much less expense. “What with the Government and their friendly actions on the one part, ’ the apathy displayed by the Company on the other, and the rascally behaviour of certain Missionaries, verily the Wellingtonians are placed in a pretty pickle. Here we are, in the middle of the fourth year, and the second of the Land Question, and it is not yet settled—the energies of the settlers have been cramped, and they have had to struggle against difficulties which cannot be conceived by any one who’ has not lived on the spot. We trust, however, the day of settlement will soon arrive, and the colsnists then be enabled, though at the eleventh hour, to prove the capabilities of their location, and that when the present exorbitant claim of the Maories shall have been set at rest, tliey 'will receive treatment as British subjects, and thfe lives and property of theie white neighbours be protected from aggression, and the natives themselves obtain the salutary benefits of civil law.”