WAIPU.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 294, 31 July 1875, Page 2

WAIPU.

(FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) July 24. Thu mortality of the district has been unusually great of late, although it cannot be said that, up to the present time, this winter has been so severe as that of last year. Within the past five weeks about fourteen deaths have occurred, and more are likely to take place ere long—sickness being very prevalent. Tangis are held with scarcely any intermission; and as these gatherings are not at all calculated to promote the health of those who attend them ; but, on the contrary, are eminently calculated to jmpair it, there is reason to believe that this year will terminate the existence of a larger number of the natives than any of the past few years had doue. Consumption is the disease which most of the adults fall victims to, whilst croup and severe colds carry off a considerable percentage of the children. To want of medical attendance, scant clothing, indifferent food, and general inattention to sanitary laws, must chiefly be attributed the disappearance of so many of this interesting race. A petition to the Post-master-General, praying for an increase of salary to our mail-man, James Waterhouse, is being numerously signed by Europeans aud Natives, and it is to be hoped it will be successful. Waterhouse has now been employed in conveying the mail between here and Gisborne, for nearly five years, at a salary of £9l per annum, which is not only totally inadequate for his maintenance, but exceedingly disproportionate to the service performed by him. Owing to the great length of this mail line, (96 miles) and to its being one of the worst and most dangerous in New Zealand, he has to employ no less than twelve horses to enable him to complete the journey to and fro within the time allowed for it, and to be absent from home for six days every fortnight. How the man has hitherto managed to support himself and horses, with so small an allowance, is, I believe, a mystery which none but himself can solve. Were Waterhouse to relinquish the post he has so long and so efficiently occupied—which, it is not unlikely he will do, if his salary is not augmented —it would be most difficult, if not, impossible to procure a mailman who could discharge his duties with such promptitude as he has done. Mr. Lambert inspected the coast road, as far as Awanui, about a fortnight ago, with the view of making arrangements for the repair of some of the most dilapidated portions of it, with as little delay as possible. He found, however, that nothing could be done to it until the weather becomes more propitious, and the track must, therefore, remain in the wretched state it is in for several months hdnee, to the utter discomfort, and ’even danger of the lives of travellers. Considering the large amount of public money expended in the construction of this thoroughfare, and the necessity that arises for keeping it in constant repair, as an important branch of internal communication, the Government, in neglecting to make the requisite provision for its maintenance, at the proper time of the year, has laid itself open to a charge of culpable indifference to the interests of this part of the country, as far as access to it by land is concerned. We were led to suppose that the ferry grievance would have been redressed by Mr. Lambert ere he returned to Gisborne, but as far as I know he has not done anything in the matter—probably from want of instructions from head quarters —and redress seems still to be as far from us as ever. We have a boat and a ferry-man, and all that is required is formal authority to establish the ferry—a very trifling piece of business to transact, indeed. Doubtless, when the Secretary for Public Works submits his annual report to Parliament, everything under the supervision of that department, whether in town or country, will be made to appear as having been so punctually and industriously attended to during the past year, as to leave no cause for complaint or dissatisfaction; but the public are getting too well acquainted with this kind of ministerial jugglery to place implicit reliance in such manifestos.

Ploughing has commenced here in earnest —the soil being in a most suitable condition for 1 hat operation. Wheat has been already sown in some plantations which are less exposed to Southerly and Easterly winds than others; and the probability is that from the apparent determination on the part of the natives to sow tins cereal earlier this year than usual, the whole of it will be in the ground by the middle of next month.

On Monday the 12th instant the pa at Aku Aku, narrowly escaped being destroyed by fire, through the carelessness ’of the inmates, consisting of of two women, and a child about two years old’. It would appear that the women went to sleep about mid-day, leaving a fire burning in the hut, and the child sitting on the floor close to it. Between one and two o’clock the master of the Native School there, Mr. Browne, noticed‘Barnes issuing from the pa, and at once rushed, with all the school children, to extinguish the fire, which had already, made considerable progress. Alt the available buckets were speedily called into requisition, and by dint of extraordinary exertion, in which Mr. Browne and a number of his pupils signally distinguished themselves, the devouring element was got under; but not,

however, before five huts were almost wholly burnt. Unfortunately nearly all the adult natives of the village were absent at the time, and had not the fire been discovered at the time it was the whole pa would have, undoubtedly, fallen a sacrifice to the flames. Mr. Browne sustained some severe injury in his praiseworthy effort to put out the fire—his face and hands being much scorched. The child was also much burnt and cut — the little thing having been violently thrown out of the burning pa to save its life, and had it not been specially taken care of by Mrs. Browne, who promply administered the usual remedies, it would have died. The women escaped unhurt.