Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

NOTES OF A VISIT TO TOLOGA BAY.

(by a correspondent) (Continued from our last.) In my last, I spoke of the little progress observable in the settlement of Tologa Bay during the past year. I have little doubt —indeed, I think it a positive fact —that the cause of the lack of enterprise, and sparse population is solely due to the almost criminal dilatpriness, and perfunctory inaction of the General Government with respect to the acquisition of land, which havethe effect of checking the action, thwarting the objects, and damping the ardour of the settlers, presently located in Tologa Bay, and of those who would, under favorable auspices, become settlers there. Tologa Bay presents a capital illustration of one of the many evils (and experience has shown that they are many) that have jresulted from the introduction of free trade in land. There are, in the immediate vicinity of what I hope soon to see a shipping port, some thousands of acres of flat land, fit for agricultural purposes, and the reception of a large number of bona fide settlers, but most of which are locked up, under lease, and will, probably, not be turned to any more profitable account than running sheep over them for years to come. It is somewhat outside my desire to discuss the merits, or demerits, of the Native Land Act; but there can be no doubt, that the-system which has been built up under it, during the last dozen years, has had the effect of retarding bondfide settlement, and, whatever advantages may be gained by the runholders, has proved more disastrous to the interests of the commonweal than beneficial to them as a class. We need not travel beyond our own settlement to find a thorough corroboration of this fact; for we look around with much regret to find that the very cream of the land which it contains, is either held by Europeans under insecure titles (which may someday yield a fruitful crop of litigation) or is possessed by sheepfarmers to the exclusion of an industrious population. And in Tologa Bay we find a second edition of these very obstacles in the acquirement of land which have so long operated, and are still operating, adversely to the interests of the settlers, here, and causedmenof capital to seek other places for the investment of their money. So long as any district remains in a primitive state, and no particular attention is directed towards it from without these drawbacks are not noticeable, and the sun rises and sets on our blindness and our folly, until hard experience exposes the error of our ways. As with this district in the past, so is it with Tologa Bay at the present time. Gradually it is coming into notice, and as surely will it be kept back in the race of progress solely on account of the agrarian difficulties that present themselves at every turn to any other branch of industry than those of sheep breeding and wool growing, and even to them, it uaimot be said thtt matters are as satisfactory as could be wished. With every other requirement for the location of men with small means, fairly in possession ; with a land-locked anchorage capable of affording shelter in bad weather, a good river (with a rather troublesome bar, certainly, but no worse than its neighbors’) within easy distance from Gisborne, and on the main road to the East Cape, it is something more than a thousand pities that Tologa Bay, with its land wealth, should still have to put forward the paradoxical plea of poverty in the possession and enjoyment of that very article with which she has been most beneficently endowed. There is no finer district on the coast than Tologa Bay for the immigration class ; and had we a Government or a member in Parliament that cared a jot for us, both it and Poverty Bay would have fared far differently. If the General Government in its colonizing schemes, — instead of increasing the number of drunkards, and loafers and harlots already in the colony, by shovelling men and women indiscriminately into the big towns and centres of population, and let them shift for themselves—had sought out such places as Tologa and Poverty Bays, secured the lands at any cost, and formed them into special settlements, they would have added materially to the wealth and industry of New Zealand, and crime would have been a less troublesome item of anxiety. laskifitis not apolitical crime

of the first magnitude that these districts which possess every possible attraction and Requisite for occupation, should be passed over in contemptuous neglect, while the thousands that might flourish in them are casting about for a home, and wasting their small means inidle pursuits, while both they and we have to bear our quota of the incfement of taxation consequent on their deportation hither P Such instances as those I have mentioned stand as monuments of the wicked folly of the Government, and as damning evidences of the utter failure of that part of their quasi progressive, colonizing scheme; and I am convinced that did such men as Mr. Holloway, and Mr. Vesey Stewart but look upon these settlements they would give a good report of the land, and, if backed by an earnest, practical, Government, would soon transform them into smiling havens of contentment and prosperity. Another noticeable feature in the seeming disregard of the Government is that of delay in putting the township land of Tologa Bay into the market. Some months have elapsed since they became possessed of the block, but as yet there is no sign of action. Even those who have built there already have not got their titles assured to them, a fact, which, with business men, is productive of great inconvenience, while it tends to check enterprise and trade settlement. From what I was able to learn, there are many persons waiting anxiously for the sale of this township, in order to secure business sites, while the settlers there are now desirous of investing pretty freely in extending their possessions. It is possible that—as with the Patutahi block —the Government are delaying the sale until Local Government has been assured to us, with the laudable desire for securing to these districts the revenue arising from the sales of land situated within them. I accept the plea ; but that does not relieve the Government from a charge of the most flagrant supinenesss, which is unjust, unfair, and impolitic. Of course the fact of the township being sold will not do much lasting good to the settlement, unless, coevally with it, the roads are made and other lands are secured and thrown open for settlement also; but there can be no doubt that if the Government do but act, and afford an opportunity for the investment of money, it will find its way there sure enough; and Tologa Bay would, as it deserves to be, one of the most thriving districts in the colony. To be Continued.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBS18751211.2.14

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 332, 11 December 1875, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,171

NOTES OF A VISIT TO TOLOGA BAY. Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 332, 11 December 1875, Page 2

NOTES OF A VISIT TO TOLOGA BAY. Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 332, 11 December 1875, Page 2

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert