WAIAPU.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 208, 26 September 1874, Page 2

WAIAPU.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) September 19. The contemplated abolition of the Northern Provinces is ths principal topic of conversation here at present; as I suppose, it is everywhere else in the province. Both Europeans and Natives agree that the embarrassed state of the [financial affairs of Auckland and I Taranaki, in particular warrants so Igigantic a constitutional change; whilst, I some go the length of saying that this I should have been done years ago. A few I are, however, averse to the proposed conI solidation being made without consulting the people on the subject, and as there is nothing unreasonable or unconstitutional in this, there can be no objection to such a course being pursued. Poverty Bay I has already given an unmistakable expression of opinion on the subject, and I fancy that many other districts will soon do the same; so that it may be predicted the abolitionists will considerably out number the anti-abolitionists ere the battle comes to be fought in the General Assembly. I hear that a similar meeting to that recently held at Gisborne is likely Lto take place at Opotoki shortly; and in all probability Tauranga will follow suit. The prospect of something being speedily done, through Captain Porter’s efforts to eradicate scab from this coast is gratifying newk to us. Tlie presence of so many thousands of injected sheep is a stigma on the colony, ■ especially so at a time when most stringent measures are being taken in all the Colonies of the Australasian group to suppress, as far as possible, every species of disease amongst sheep and cattle. Although the natives, who own the scabby sheep, are not amenable to the statutes which impose penalties upon possessors of contaminated flocks, who neglect to take the requisite steps for curing them, Europeans should not be made to suffer from such an anomalous exemption, as some of those of the latter do who own clean sheep between Poverty Bay and the Bay of Plenty, and who, consequently, have a right to expect that protection to their property from scab which, in all'feirness, the Government is bound to jdcord to them in the circumstances. So difficult it is to extirpate this disease that, if all the infected sheep were at this moment destroyed, a period of 18 months, at least, would, Fave to elapse ere the ground in which they have grazed so long, could safely be stocked with clean sheep. There is, therefore, the most pressing necessity for immediate action being taken to free the coast from the ruinous distemper to which it has been subject for years. Papers received from Scotland by last mail, contain correspondence of a novel character, in which the propriety of making an application to the Government of New Zealand, for the removal to this country of the whole of the inhabitants of the Island of Skye, and leave the lands in that part of the Hebrides to the lairds and factors, is suggested. Skye contains

a population of about 21,000, and were this project to receive the sanction of the Premier and Agent-General—who certainly entertain expansive views on the subject of increasing our population—it would form a nice little item in our immigration expenditure. The proposal has been ridiculed by the English and Scottish press, as well it might. It would appear that the glowing accounts which are given at home, of New Zealand, from time to time, have persuaded some of the simpleminded people of Skye, that their expatriation to the Britain of the South, would be somewhat analogous to the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. Although those who dwell in Skye are not absolutely compelled to “ make bricks without straw,” yet they are so vigorously rack-rented, by extortionate and merciless landlords, as to make life a misery to them.