New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 29, 1848.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 278, 29 March 1848, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 29, 1848.

There are few questions which have a greater practical influence on the progress and the prosperity of this settlement than the formation of new roads. We have always heen so fully impressed with this opinion that from the earliest numbers of this Journal we have taken every fitting opportunity to direct public attention to the subject. During Captain Fitzroy's govern • ment there was but little hope that any discussion of the subject would be i productive of a profitable result, but during Captain Grey's administration a most beneficial change has taken place, and two principal lines of roads have been laid down and carried out which, while they were constructed mainly with the view of opening a military communication with the districts beyond our immediate neighbourhood, so as to increase the safety and means of defence of this settlement, opened up also the country to the settler, and gave what he had hitherto po earnestly desired, but in vain, facilities

for carrying the produce of his farm to market. ' Any one who visits either the Hutt or the Porirua district cannot fail to be struck with the important changes which have taken place in consequence of the formation of these roads, in increasing the extent of land brought under cultivation. True, the increased demand caused by the supplies required for the troops, and other causes which we lately took occasion to point out, have operated strongly in promoting cultivation ; but these incentives to exertion would have existed in vain, and | cultivation would have languished if no faci- [ lities had been created for carrying country j produce to market. For these facilities we are chiefly indebted to the British Govern- | ment acting on the representations of the Governor-in-Chief, who from a careful examination of these districts appears to have become fully sensible of the importance of roads in rendering them available. But while we willingly give every praise to the Local Government for what has been done, there are some points of importance which have either been overlooked or have not received sufficient consideration. No effort should be spared in extinguishing the native title to the districts to which those roads lead, and which add so much to their value and importance. Owing to the emigration of William King and the Ngatiawas to Taranaki, it is probable that the native title to Waikanae will shortly be extinguished ; but all the land between Wanganui and this settlement should be in the hands of the Government to allow ample room for colonizing operations. If we turn to Wairarapa, the reasons for extinguishing the native title to that district are still more pressing, and the chances of success more remote. The natives, who are shrewd observers, see plainly how much these roads enhance the value of these districts, how much more necessary they become to the pakeha, and they raise their price accordingly. Much of the mischief, no doubt, has been caused by the privilege conceded to the Company of the exclusive right of preemption which they have never turned to account, and which has prevented the Government from interfering. But it is time the Government should take the matter in their own hands ; the continuance of the present system will only increase the cupidity of the natives, and lay the foundation for fresh disputes. Another point which we think has not received the attention it deserves, is the assistance which the other districts in the neighbourhood of Wellington should receive in the formation of roads. Nothing has been done for Karori, next to nothing for Makara, and assistance to the Wainui-o-raata has been refused. This, to say the least, is injudicious : of all the expenses incurred by Government, that for roads in the neighbourhood of the town will be most beneficial to the settlement, and soonest yield a return. It ensures a concentration of the population ; it promotes the cultivation of land in those districts where Crown grants have been issued, and it lowers the demands of the absentees for their land by throwing a greater quantity into the market. The money spent in their formation is not given, but only lent for a time, to be repaid with usury, in the increased revenue and greater prosperity of the settlement.

Wk are very sorry to have to state that the Katherine Johnstone went on shore yesterday morning in Worser's Bay. She left the harbour on Monday evening for Taranaki, but the wind blowing fresh from the north-west she anchored off the heads to wait for a change. The wind, however, yesterday still continued from the same quarter with increased violence, her chain parted, and she was driven on the rocks, and from the nature of the injuries she has received there is little hope of her being repaired. The mail was recovered and brought back to the Post Office. The Katherine Johnstone has been one of the oldest and most successful of the vessels employed in the coasting trade, and when in the hands of her former owners was for some years the most regular and principal means of communication between Wanganui and Wellington.

We understand her Majesty has been pleased to order a considerable sum to be paid, from the Royal Bounty fund, for the benefit of the younger children of Mr. Swainson, the well known Naturalist, as a public acknowledgment of his eminent and varied talents, and also in consideration (we may presume) of the ruin brought upon his family by the New Zealand Company in their conduct towards the first and most noble body of settlers that ever landed in these islands.