ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 259, 22 January 1848, Page 4

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. New Plymouth, 14th January, 1848. Sir, — In looking over a file of your contemporary the Independent, lately received here, I have observed a long letter from New Plymouth, from the talented pen, T imagine, of a gentleman whose advent we have hailed as a great acquisition to our little society. I do not intend to quarrel with the strong coleur de rose varnish displayed in the letter, hut merely to undeceive the public with regard to the actual state of affairs between natives and Europeans. Sir, — When Governor Grey visited this unfortunate, neglected settlement, in the beginning of last March, he seemed to commiserate our state, and as appeared in the pages of your Journal about that time, promised not only a speedy change in the aspect of our affairs, but also stated most positively that he would return in two months, and personally assist at an adjustment of the native claims. In the meantime he deputed an agent here to carry on negociations wilh the natives. The result of those negociations up to the present time I will lay before you, and leave you to judge how much practical good has been effected by them. The first purchase consisted of 12,000 acres immediately to the south of the boundary of Mr, Spain's award: none of this land has been offered for acceptation of those who have land in the old block ; indeed the Resident Company's Agent has said that not above 4,000 acres is available land. The second purchase was a block of land lying between the south bank of the Waiwakaio river and the Sugar Loaf Rock, being an extension of Captain Fitzroy's 3,000 acre block: this new block has been said to contain 9,000 acres. But all the best of it having been reserved for the natives at the re-selection of land on the 15th October last, only six sections were exchanged, so inferior was the quality of the land, or so unavailable from being dense forest. Not one single acre to the north of the Waiwakaio has been ceded ; in one instance a settler has been deprived by the natives of land that he had cleared for cultivation. With regard to the Waitara, where some mysterious negociations have been going on between the Government Agent and natives, I believe that the spirit of the natives may be gathered from the fact of their asking the Captain of the Carlon last week 2s- for the liberty cf drawing a keg of water, and stating that in future they should charge port dues — after a Maori scale, I presHme. In short, Sir, the original landowners and founders of this settlement have neither land to cultivate nor capital left to work with. Had the question been settled according to Captain Grey's promises ten months ago, a considerable breadth of new wheat land might have been sown this coming autumn : we have been thus prevented by the Government from retrieving even the smallest portion of our loss. The Government officers may indeed see everything in a most favourable light, but I have found to my cost, that so long- as their salaries are paid, the losses and sufferings of the settlers affect them but little. Those who have spent all their means in employing labour, and in developing the resources of the settlement, ruin stares in the face. Some, worn out with vexation and disappointment, have already abandoned their enterprise ; more contemplate following their example. The Government and Company may therefore congratulate themselves that those who were most likely to remind them of their broken promises can hold out but a little while longer, and will soon cease to be in any condition above labourers. I am, Sir, Your obedient humble servant, A Ruined Settler.