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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5020, 26 April 1877, Page 2

The practice of conveying news by telegraph has necessarily produced condensation of style on the part of writers, who use the line of “our own correspondent ” in catering for the gratification of the growing public taste for sensation, or in working a personal or local oracle in order to influence public opinion for private ends. Thus the use of superlatives has apparently become the rule. We never hear of dissatisfaction now, it is always the “greatest indignation’’ that prevails here or there. If the occasion calls for the gathering together of a few persons it is always “ the largest and most importantpublicmeetingthat has everbeen held in this city or district” that has condemned something or denounced somebody with portentous unanimity, according to the telegrams. If there be truth in the theory that the temperaments of men bear relation to their physical surroundings, the volcanic district of the Bay of Plenty might be expected to be found rich in explosive materials, and, whether it be from an accidental coincidence or the sequel of natural causes, the fact is, that district appears to be more remarkable for vicarious and violent eruptions of what is there called public opinion than any other portion of this colony with which wo are acquainted. The local political Geyser, our contemporary, the Bay of Plenty Times, is constantly throwing up, with or or without provocation, whole columns of bubbling indignation, and thus invoking the aid of all creation for the redress of the wrongs and oppressions which afflict Tauranga and the inhabitants thereof, all of which wrongs and oppressions our contemporary is able to trace to the Native Department. Now we are not very great admirers of the Native Department, and do not feel called upon to take up its defence for wrongs alleged to have been done to Tauranga ; but we venture to think that given a good harbor, an industrious population, good land, a large Government expenditure, and great natural, advantages, all of which conditions for progress are claimed as existing in Tauranga, it would not be possible for the Native Office, even if it were to devote itself sedulously and exclusively to the task, to prevent the operation of these forces from making Tauranga prosperous. As we must believe our contemporary, the Bay of Plenty Times, that Tauranga is not prosperous, we are.forced to inquire whether or not the before-mentioned conditions of progress exist there in their entirety! About the harbor there can be no question; it is the best, if indeed it might not truly be said to be the only harbor to be found on the East Coast from Cape Palliser to the Great Barrier Island, and is the natural outlet of a very large district, including the Lake Country. The land in the district as well as in the neighborhood of Tauranga is asserted by our contemporary the Times, whose view is sustained by resolutions adopted unanimously at successive public meetings, to be of first-class quality.' For natural, advantages it has a climate exceptionally equable and fine, excellent water privileges, and it is the natural port and entrepot for an immense extent of country, in which there is a large and peaceful native population. A considerable force of • Armed Constabulary has been maintained up to this time at Tauranga, and from the year 1864 downwards there has necessarily been a large Government expenditure in one shape or other going,on there and thereabouts.

Here are certainly existing four out of five of the. elements of progress which we have enumerated ; and yet we are told that Tauranga has not progressed. Can it be that the fifth element—the industrious European population—is wanting ? or has the industry, if it exist, taken a wrong direction ? At the close of the war Tauranga was one of the places in which the scheme of military settlement was tried, and where its failure was more conspicuous, if possible, than in Waikato. All the available land in the vicinity of Te Papa, and for miles around, was surveyed at great expense, and allocated chiefly for occupation by the Ist Waikato Regiment. These “ settlers,” with a few honorable exceptions, did not settle. The great majority of the rank and file as soon as the daily pay ceased sold their land to speculators, and left the district; others remained, on principle, during tho-year in which free rations were given, but declined work of any kind, and as soon as the last pound of beef and the last pound of bread were eaten, they also loft. Since then the large tract of land surrounding Tauranga has been practically locked up, the prices demanded by the present holders heretofore having been prohibitory of settlement. Numbers of industrious men have sought to establish themselves in Tauranga, but have been foiled in this way. The malady of Tauranga then, and the cause of its standing still, is probably the non-existence of an industrious population in the best sense of that term. Industry there is, but not wholly of the right sort, and no amount of leading articles, however scathing, or of indignation however

eloquently expressed, can effectually be substituted for that simple ingredient of prosperity, whether for communities or individuals. The Native Office cannot supply it, and can hardly, as we think, in fairness, be held to hejaccountahle for its absence in Tauranga.