To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 23rd March, 1848.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 277, 25 March 1848, Page 2

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 23rd March, 1848.

Sir, — I beg you will insert in your next number the enclosed Memorial to his Ex-

cellency the Governor -in- chief praying for the formation of a road to the Wai-nui-o-mata district, together with the Colonial Secretary's answer thereto, as this will save me the trouble of communicating the same to the several parties concerned. I remain, Sir, &c, W. Swainson.

To his Excellency Captain Grey, Governor-in-Chief of the Islands of New Zealand, &c, &c, &c. The Memorial of the undersigned Landowners, Settlers, and others, interested in the prosperity of this settlement, Respectfully Sheweth — 1st. That your Excellency's predecessor, Captain Fitzroy, fully sensible of the baneful effects of absenteeism, (adopted by the New Zealand Company) and desirous of benefitting such' original Land Purchasers (living in the colony) as had not then selected their lands, made the following proposition to them, through Colonel Wakefield, viz. .—That if they would select their land in a block, (to the exclusion of all Absentees) he, Captain Fitzroy, would immediately issue a Crown Grant for the same. 2nd. That in consequence of this arrangement the districts of Wai-nui-o-mata, and of Lowry Bay, were united and extended so as to comprise nearly 4000 acres of level available land, nearly the whole of which was then taken or selected by the resident Land Purchasers, to the exclusion of all Absentees. 3rd. Unfortunately, however, this commencement of a better system in the allotment of waste lands was not prosecuted. The Crown Grant was not issued. The road that had been promised was not made, (beyond a a footpath), and the new, or rather the nominal owners of the soil, were thus left in their original hopelessness and helplessness : your Memorialists have considered it proper to state these facts, that your Excellency may at once perceive not only that the districts in question are unlike all others of the Company's settlements, hut also that the owners of them, and the settlers thereupon, have strong and peculiar claims to your Excellency's consideration. 4th. We therefore earnestly solicit, that the public road contemplated between the Hutt bridge and the Waiwetu river, may be continued over the hills into the Wai-nui-o-mata valley ; an undertaking, which we have Mr. Fitzgerald's authority for stating could be done " very easily" and at a comparatively small expense. sth. Th:s road were it but 4 or 5 miles in length, would lay open a district of near 4000 acres of flat land, of the richest and most enduring soil — being either (according to Mr. Swainson's observations) a " loamy clay" or a " hasel loam, two soils which form the richest arable and pasture lands of England. The same gentleman asserts that the forest land can be cleared for one-third of the expense required on the Hutt district; the trees being so much fewer, and the underwood so much thinner. The river seldom rises above its banks and there are no floods. 6th. The advantages of such a road would not be confined to the district itself ; but would be very sensibly experienced by that of the Hutt and of Port Nicholson. The Hutt bridge would then be the central point for conveying the produce of both these large and fertile valleys into Wellington ; and such are their capabilities, that they are capable of producing grain more than sufficient for our home consumption for many years. 7th. Should your Excellency comply with our wishes, you will be the means also, of testing the soundness of one of the prominent features in modern system of colonisation, viz. : — the presumed advantages of that concentration which unites neighbouring farms or cultivations, over that diffusion by which such farms are isolated by the intervention of waste absentee lands. Now the experiment can only be tried here on the Wai-nui-o-mata district, since that is the only one, in all the Company's settlements, wherein the whole of the lands belong to resident proprietors. We beg to remain, With the greatest respect, Your Excellency's Most obedient servants, Win. Swainson, F.R.S. James Bleach James N. Burcham William Golde Charles F. Hales J. W. Morgan Thomas Wrigley Henry Lepeach Thomas Poad John Daysh Charles Hunt John Sutherland Henry Taylor Peter Hunt Emma Jackson, per pro. Robert Ditchon W. Lyon David Porter Frederick Smith Thomas Williamson John Smith George Cleggett George Greathead Thomas Millgate James Morehouse W. Ebden Robert Lawson William Welch Nathaniel Poole Henry Welch Charles Wilkinson John Cudby Charles Clifford Charles White Arthur Hayward Charles W. Keys Thomas Burt James Watt Frederick O'Donel

Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 26th February, 1848. SIR, — With reference to a Memorial from Mr. Swainson and other Land Proprietors and settlers of the Wai-nui-o-mata district, requesting that Government would undertake the formation of a road of that district, I am directed by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief to request that you will have the goodness to inform the Memorialists that his Excellency regrets that he has at present no funds available for the purpose of constructing the road in question. I have the honor to.be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary. The Resident Magistrate, Wellington.