COUNTRY NOTES.

Patea Mail, 5 July 1882, Page 3

COUNTRY NOTES.

LIQUORING UP. f Two new hotels at Hawera were opened >n Saturday, and both large buildings. Chese make six; but if you had heard the acket and Maori gabble at some of these, md had tried to stop your ears while writing a letter, ns I did, you would ancy there must be sixty drinkinglouses in Hawera. WHICH RAILWAY ROUTE ? The railway survey to Manntahi is mpposed to be finished, and there is an mpression that the line will go seaward >f the main road. Don’t accept this for yospel. No less than four trial surveys lave been made over this short length >f ten miles. One route skirting the tush and connecting at Normanby is lupposed to be most desirable for openng the country, but it would go too far nland to touch Hawera, which would be forked with a branch line from Norlanby. It is doubtful whether the ested interests will permit this to be one. Another line not so far inland, is lore broken with gullies, and would be ostly to construct. A third route would in pretty near the main road, crossing . two or three times, and having one xpensive tunnel. A fourth route is lore seaward, involving heavy cuttings nd fillings, but avoiding the tunnel. This fourth line, so far as I can learn •om skilled authority, would be cheapest nd shortest, and would connect at lawera. Yon will also be justified in aspecling that there are influences mding towards a route near the bush, f cheapness wine, the line will run about lidway between the road and the sea. f “ country interests ” are kept in view; ie line will run inland. Sooner it runs tie better for you Patea folk. The ante over this short link fnatters little 0 yon. It is the finished line yon want. LAND SALE POSTPONED. The promised sale of 40,000 acres 1 hangs fire.” Hawera and Manaia re both dull—languishing for want of be coming large sale. It is supposed hat Mr'Bryce will have to get Parliamentary sanction to the so-called conscations up the Coast, before the forsited blocks (I believe three blocks of ,000 acres each) can be included in the ext sale. The date had been fixed for he end of June. We must now wait ix to eight weeks more. 1 suppose the ifficulty is this. The West Coast Commission had recommended, and Parliament had sanctioned, the allotting f certain reserves to be Crown-granted o Natives, in fulfilment of the old old ►roraises. That parliamentary sanction an be overridden only by a formal Act f Parliament; and hence the delay in dvertising the sale.

OPUNAKI “ CONFISCATION.” I learn that the 5,000, acres which fere to be forfeited out of the Opunaki dock will not now be taken. The natives sonnected with that block will escape ;he land-penalty which natives on both (ides of them have had to endure. T|uj 3-overnment intended at first to forfeit 50,000 acres, as a punishment for the ?arihnka sedition. It was soon found, lowever, that the Opunaki block having >een granted prior to the Royal Comnmissioners’ recommendations, the intended 5,000 acres could not ,be forfeited in the same easy manner as in >ther blocks which had been promised >nt not yet Crown-granted. Govcrnnent seem to take this view; that forfeiture in the Opnnaki block would be a fresh act of confiscation, whereas the Government are debarred from further confiscation, the Home Parliament haying forbidden confiscation of native land in this colony.

LEASING RESERVES. Opnnaki would, suffer severely by this withdrawal of land in the Opunaki block, bnt for this consolation, that the speedy leasing of native reserves will be likely to induce settlement almost as effectively as selling the land for cash. No larger area than 620 acres (I think that is the limit) can be leased by one person, under the Act of last year. A

That Act, with some amendment in the present session, is expected to be put into operation as soon as the session closes. The Government are waiting, to give completeness to their native policy, by bills now before the Legislature ; and then will come a period of activity in leasing and activity in selling land along this West Coast. HOPS AND MONEY. A South Islander asks me why the farmers around Patea don’t try hops. “ Just look ” (he says) “at what you are doing. You grow beef and mutton, but send none of it out of the district ; and depend upon it, your port and district will be of small account until Patea farmers grow crops which they can send out of ihe district, and bring in ready money. What’s the use of changing cattle from hand to hand, unless yon grow something that will bring in fresh money ? You only keep the same few greasy pound notes passing from one farmer to another, instead of sending produce outside and getting money in exchange. You have a port, and should grow produce to ship away. That is what makes the South Island wealthy. Its stock of money is always increasing, because the grain is sent ontside and the money comes back to increase the local stock in circulation.” This kind of argument knocked me over. My difficulty was to make a good defence. I said some Patea farmers bad not been successful in their cropping experiments, and preferred to stick to plain grazing. They found labor expensive, and the cost of exporting grain was considerable at present, as sailing vessels suitable for trading to Australian ports could not enter the Patea river. So we came back to the old question, how is the Patea river to be improved ? Uncommercial Traveller.