WAIAPU.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 255, 13 March 1875, Page 2

WAIAPU.

(from our own correspondent.) March 6. Several deaths have lately occurred in the district, and the usual tany is have, of course, been held. These gatherings are not only symbols of barbarism and superstition, but are also prolific sources of intemperance, quarrels, and other immoralities, and should, therefore, be preremptorily repressed as being totally incompatible with civilisation and professed Christianity. The scenes that have been lately described in one of the nothern journals as having taken place at a tangi in the Tauranga district, are of such a disgusting and revolting character as to make one shudder in perusing the account given of them. It is to be hoped, however, that such abominable exhibitions do not often occur; but whilst the obnoxious custom is continued, and that, too, with the sanction and countenance of men occupying the position of ministers of the gospel —of whom better things might be expected—it is almost unreasonable to suppose that it should be utterly abandoned. It is well known that some of the Native Missionaries attend tangis, and, perhaps, join in the unseemly jollifications with which they are not un frequently celebrated, and so long as this example is set before a people whose instincts are essentially superstitious, can it be wondered that the evil is persisted in ? “ Like priest like people,” says an unerring writer; or, as the passage might be ffiore explicitly rendered, “ the people are’ like the priest.” Were the chiefs and missionaries to raise their voices, with one accord, against these mischievous gatherings, and never attend any of them themselves, they would, I have no doubt, be soon dispensed with. Dissatisfaction, almost amounting to indignation, prevails amongst the European runliolders and others interested in the eradication of scab throughout the district, that the most liberal offer lately made by Mr. Wilson, has been declined by the natives. Such refusal is reprehensible in the extreme, considering the inferiority of the sheep, and the leniency that has been shewn to the owners thereof, in the immunity they have hitherto enjoyed from the operations of the Scab Act. If, as you have recently stated in a leading article, the Maories are as amenable to this Act as the Europeans are, it is the height of indiscretion on the part of the former to presume to temporise with the authorities in the matter of the disposal of their infected flocks, seeing that they are liable to be proceeded against by the Sheep Inspector at any moment. By acting in this extraordinary manner they manifest both ingratitude and recklessness ; and I am glad to find that some of the more intelligent and reasonable of the natives themselves take this view of the affair. I heard it stated, however, that a gentleman better known to the natives than the one deputed to purchase their sheep, would, in all probability, have succeeded in bringing the negotiations to a more amicable termination than they have been brought to. It is alleged that the Ngatiporous, being a “ peculiar people,” they require to be dealt with by those only who are well acquainted with them. Be this as it may, the country ought not to be made to suffer in its best interests, on account of the peculiar motives or whims of any people. The grass seed harvest has been a bountiful one here —more having been secured this year than in any previous year since attention began to be paid to this kind of industry. The natives say that it is more profitable and far less troublesome to gather grass seed than to grow wheat or maize, and they, consequently, intend to'act accordingly for the future. The philosophy of this is that whatever may be easily orreadily obtained, is to be preferred to what involves much muscular energy, even though the advantage derived from pursuing the former course should be found to be less than that derived from pursuing the latter. Hundreds of bushels of this, seed are being purchased by our local traders for exportation to Auckland. Two surveyors — Messrs. Sheet and Sheppard—are. busy at work in the Wainpu valley, and the result of their labors will, it is to be hoped, soon lead to the utilisation of some of the fine land there, and the increase-of our European inhabitants. New and encouraging indications of petroleum are being occasionally discovered by the surveyors and others, which go far to corroborate the favorable opinion formed by Dr. Hector of the extent of the Waiapu Oil Springs, during his visit to the East Cape peninsula in April last,

New Zealand is represented at home as a perfect paradise for servant girls. No wonder, then, that reformatories and work-houses are sometimes applied to, to keep us well supplied with this description of menials. Hear what the Canterbury correspondent of a leading paper North of the Tweed says on the subject : —“ Immigration goes on at a great rate, but some of the immigrants sent out by the agents at home are far from being of the right stamp. By a recently arrived ship there came a lot of young women from the British reformatories, and their conduct since arrival has been anything but good. Domestic servants are urgently wanted ; they can have a choice of dozen places the very day they land, and get wages which, are really enormous. If your readers will excuse my obtruding my private affairs upon their notice, I may say that my servant receives a wage of £4O a year. Now, I am a bachelor, and am frequently away from home, and my servant’s duties consists in preparing (on an average) a dozen meals per week, and cleaning my boots daily. She has the whole of every Sunday at her disposal, and on week days goes out and in just as she pleases. My next door neighbour pays his servant in charge at the rate of £1 per week. Now, where on the face of the earth can such wages be earned by domestics ? lam safe in stating that the rate of remuneration in New Zealand is three times as” high as in the old country, and yet 1 we cannot get servants. Those that do come get married within a year, and in their turn become mistresses, if you please. The housemaid of to-day is a fine lady to-morrow. And as for dress the colonial servants are really not to be compared with duchesses and countesses. An income of £4O a year raises one altogethertabove the level of common domestics. The quality of jewellery and velveteen tliat can be shown for this income is truly marvellous. The Government of New Zealand offer full passages to domestic servants, who, on their arrival here, are housed at Government expense, attended to by kind creatures of their own sex, and actually waited upon at the Immigration Barracks by those who are in search of servants. If that does’nt tempt them what will 1”