FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5377, 21 June 1878, Page 4

FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME.

No* 6. Some one on the staff of the Gazette appears to have paid attention to local industries. On the 25th of June it was said that a steam saw and flour mill was in full operation in Wellington, and it was expected that Kebbell’s sawmill, at the Mauawatu, would be at work in a few months. Mr. Watt was having wheat from his farm ground at Mr. Boyton’s mill, and he expected to have nine tons of flour. “ This is the first instance of flour being ground in this part of the island, and it augurs well that the first ground should have been produced in this place.” Some enterprising gentlemen were about to erect a brewery in Wellington, and the local industry man says : —“ There can be no doubt of its success, though it will be necessary for some time to import the ingredients of which the beer is made ; for surely if it will pay to import beer in barrels it must be profitable to import the few pounds of materials which a barrel of beer contains, and saving the expense of carrying water add it on the spot.” Referring to another industry, it is said :—“ We have hitherto neglected to give Mr. Mathison credit for having laid down a slip upon which to haul vessels requiring to be repaired.” The Clydeside, 256 tons, was then on the slip at Kaiwarra, and it was suggested that the residents should give Mr. Mathison a job to build a vessel which might be used in the English or Indian trade, or as a whaler. Whale fishing was probably the mainstay of New Zealand in those days, and it was stated that at one time there were no less than 100 whalers cruising off the South Island. This had the effect of making fish scarce, and the shore stations had a bad season, and were not likely to pay. A good many persons have now had experience of gathering greenstone on the beach at Anita Bay, Milford Sound, but it is not generally known that in 1812 an attempt was made to carry on a large trade with China in greenstone. On the 10th September the Gazette says :—“ Mr. Dean, one of the most intelligent and persevering of our colonists, has returned from an extended trip down the east coast of the Middle Island. We hear he brings highly favorable information of the locality, and some curious account of the Royal Mail being at anchor in Milford Sound engaged in collecting greenstone for the China market, where it is said to be worth £ISOO per ton. The account further states that the Royal Mail has already secured 10 tons of greenstone, to the value of £15,000.” It is to be feared that the speculators were sadly disappointed when they got to China, for the stone found at Milford Sound is ‘not that so highly prized by the Maoris and by Chinamen. The auctioneers of the present day, who offer such very liberal terms to buyers, do net come up to the inducements Mr. J. M. Taylor held out to settlers in 1842. He announces that several sections having been selected in one block in the Manawatu. District, allotments are for sale. “Cash payments, with the exception of a small deposit, will not be required, but approved acceptances, payable at a long date, or other securities, or labor, will be taken in exchange. There will be no law charges for the conveyance of the property. Immediate possession will be given to a purchaser, and money advanced if required.” On the 6th July the following vivid deaoription of a fire is published : “AWFUL CONFLAGRATION. “TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE POLICE OFFICE, COURT HOUSE, POST OFFICE, COURTS OF JUSTICE, AND THE CHURCH. “We stop the press to announce to our readers by far the most serious effects of the devouring element (fire) which have yet been recorded in the annals of Fort Nicholson. Last night about 5 p.m. some carpenters employed in erecting a house on the Beach, near the Court House, discovered flames issuing from the roof and windows of that building. They were the first to reach the scene of the conflagration, and hesitated not to break in the door, in the hope of securing some of the letters and papers generally deposited in the Post Office. They had only time to save a few letters and papers in a box under the table when the whole of the edifices were in one universal blaze. The property—the public property—thus lost must be very considerable. As the event must become the subject of a minute legal investigation we refrain from publishing anything more upon mere report. The burning of the Court House, as seen from the Gazette office, appeared perhaps as grand a scene as could well be imagined. The evening was stormy, with occasional showers of rain, and the intense blaze of the burning pile exhibited the harbor and the shipping in all the variety of dramatic magnificence. At 6 p.m. the fire still resembled a beacon light of the first magnitude, summoning the clans to deeds of valor. The destruction of these edifices will be a serious loss to the inhabitants, as the value of the buildings alone is estimated at the enormous sum oijive pounds.” This must be road as a most satirical attack on the Government of that time, who neglected Wellington and favored the northern capital. Jealousy, intense jealousy, of the headquarters of the Government, is one of the most noticeable characteristics of the editor of the Gazette. There are many instances of this. The crowded state of the Wellington gaol in March, 1842, is strongly brought under notice. Sixty prisoners, most of whom were mutinous or runaway sailors, were crowded together, and the atmosphere of the miserable hole was almost suffocating. The state of things was pronounced disgraceful, but it was said to be a subject of merriment “to him who has spent hundreds and thousands of Port Nicholson money on his kitchens and verandahs.” This was in reference to an expenditure for furnishing Government House and outbuildings at a cost of something over £IOOO ; an outlay that to people in Poneke appeared reckless extravagance. The postal department seems to have been small and very much self-contained. On the 9th March it is stated : —“ A decent building for a post office is also especially required. On Sunday last we saw Mr. Mantell stuffing an old potato sack amongst the reads of the dilapidated hut he occupies as postmaster, to prevent the wind from blowing letters off the table on which he assorted them for delivery.” The head of the Post Office was not free from complaints in those days, and the Gazette has frequent allusions to missing papers and lost letters. At length, in most forcible language, they went for the Postmaster, who claimed the protection of the Law Courts. One day the Gazette referred to the issue of a writ at the suit of William Baldock Durant Mantell, who claimed £SOO damages for the publication of a certain false, scandalous, and defamatory libel. There are many people in Wellington who remember the old Post Office in which Mr. Mautell had to conduct business, and the aocordeon with which he used to lighten the hours of his confinement.

Juat about the time the writ was issued an opposition journal appeared. “ The first number of the N.Z. Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser was issued on the 29th July, in conformity with the advertisement which ap-

peared in this paper last week. The typographical appearance of the paper is highly creditable to the office in which it is published. •The original articles are well written, but they do not surpass the expectation created by the knowledge that the author was admitted to be the beat writer in Port Nicholson, jointly with the knowledge of the fact that he enjoyed the advantage of having been formerly for a long period engaged on the London Press.” This was certainly a polite way of acknowledging the, advent of a rival, and it was in some degree like the shaking hands indulged in by boxers ere they commence the attack. The Gazette seems to have been honest in acknowledging extracts from the columns of the Chronicle, and the following two paragraphs are attributed to the contemporary paper : “We understand that the Ngatihahuna tribe have molested aud driven the laborers employed by the Messrs. Boulcott from their section in the Hutt Valley.” “The Eichmond, about 30 tons measurement, was built on the Okauti, one of the branches of the Hutt, on the site of the proposed village of Eichmond, from which circumstance she has received her name. She has been built under the superintendence of, and we may add, by the manual labor of Mr. Sinclair, the owner, and his sons. She was launched into her native element on Thursday last, amidst the congratulations of a select party of friends, whom the spirited owner entertained on the occasion. We understand from the agent (Mr. Fitzherbert) that her first trip will bo made to Kapiti and Nelson.” In July a road between New Plymouth and Wanganui via Patea had been commenced by the New Zealand Company, so that inland communication between Port Nicholson and New Plymouth would soon be practicable. This was then hoped and expected, but many years went by without the completion of the road being accomplished. A very difficult and dangerous exploring expedition was concluded in June, after the party had been nearly done to death by cold, wet, aud hunger in the Hutt Valley, which they reached by crossing the ranges between it and the Wjlderop or Wairarapa Valley : “ Mr. Kettle, one of the Company’s surveyors, has just returned to Port Nicholson from an extended journey through the interior of the country. Mr. Kettle, after a short residence on the Manewatu, ascended that river to the distance of 90 miles above the station held by the surveying staff. The party then left the Manewatn and crossed the country towards the valley of the Kumahunga or Wyderop. On leaving the Wyderop Valley they crossed a second range of mountains and entered the valley of the Hutt at the foot of the Tararua range of mountains. Thirty-three days were occupied on this interesting and important journey, and the sufferings experienced from the difficulty of obtaining a supply of food appear at one time to have been very great. The greatest difficulty was experienced in crossing from the Wyderop Valley to that of the Hutt. The party consisted of Mr. Kettle, Mr. Wells (a cadet on the survey staff), and seven Maoris. ■ The Maoris suffered rather more severely than the "Europeans, more especially from the want of food. This is rather a curious fact, inasmuch as the food of the native is so extremely simple, but simple as it is, they must have it regularly, and the dread of entire deprivation makes a much more serious and depressing effect on his mind than that of the white man.”

Port Nicholson was not the only town in the colonies that cried aloud and lustily for help, and wanted a Governor with a seat of Government all to itself. The following modest list of wants, published to attract the notice of the Governor, appeared in the Port Phillip Herald ;—

"We want a police force. „ a bridge. „ a road to the bridge; ~ a breakwater above tho basin. „ streets!!!! 0- „ a Town Surveyor. „ a Health Officer. „ a Court House. ~ a Police Office. „ an Hospital. „ a road made navigable (we suppose by some steam dredging machine), as formerly buoyed. „ some sewers. ~ a Sheriff's officer. ~ a military barracks, ~ a code of signals. r tVe don’t want modesty, neither shall we ever be without the good things of this life by being bashful in asking them ? We want money.

The Governmental expenditure of the colony of New Zealand was not large in 1842, the total being £50,922 3s. 4d. Of this sum £I2OO was set down for the Governor, £IOOO for the Chief Justice, £545 for the Executive and Legislative Councils, and £1560 for the Colonial Secretary’s Department. Under the head of “ Miscellaneous” were these amounts : —Stationery, £219 13s. 6d.; for the purchase of lands from the natives, £4OOO ; towards erecting churches and other places of public worship, £IOOO ; for roads and bridges, £2OOO. Fifty-one thousand pounds covered the estimated annual expenditure of the colony thirtysix years ago, and now the colony owes twentythree millions or more, and its assets are—• weD, estimated by land factor aud valuer, they would be set down at hundreds of millions.

The city has progressed like the colony. They had a first Municipal Council in 1842, the members of which had but little funds to deal with, hut now a drainage scheme to cost £150,000 has been adopted by the City Council. They managed some matters better in the early days than at present, and this is evidenced by a part of the report of one of the Council meetings, from which it appears that J. McGregor, who had fired a gun at noon each day, could not get his claim recognised by the Council. Then, they had a timegun fired and did not pay for it; now, they have paid for a time-gun and cannot get it fired. (To be continued.)