NOTES OF A VISIT TO TOLOGA

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 333, 15 December 1875, Page 2

NOTES OF A VISIT TO TOLOGA

BAY. (by a cobbbspondent) (Concluded from our last.) Thebe cannot be any doubt that if the settlement of Tologa Bay is to go ahead one of the main elements of success will be that of roads. Proceeding from Poverty Bay it is not at all likely—neither is it thought to be desirable —that any other line of road should be constructed than that which nature has laid out for us —the coast road. In a journey of some 35 miles the road lies along a hard, sandy, beach; the only obstructions and portions difficult to journey over, are the rocks at the headlands —of which those at Whangara are the worst —and the cuttings over two or three hills, that over the Tologa Bay hill being the one requiring most attention. The Government have decidedly acted shabbily—not to say unjustly —towards the coast settlers in the way they have done with regard to the repairs they have professed to make in this road, and that north of Tologa Bay towards the East Cape, of which latter I am not in a position to say much at this moment, having never travelled in that direction ; but the best plan, I think, would be for the settlers interested to unite in sending a round robin to the public works department, or, (what a facetious friend of mine observed with some truth) move the Maoris on the coast to petition the Government to do the work, and it would be done at once. All this, however, brings me to the old complaint ; had we a member, or a Government who recognised our existence in the smallest degree, we should fare better. With respect to the state of matters as they exist at Tologa Bay at this moment, I am sorry to say they can be disposed of in a few words. I have already said that the anti-progressive portion of the settlement is a noticeable.feature in its infantile history—such as it is—and this is at once made apparent by the fact that no more lands are under cultivation, (which, by the bye, were never much above nil) very few More individuals are to be found there, and the same number of runholders (three) occupy, the same number of acres as they did last year, but with this difference, that, while the hand of time has been going steadily on, the wool growers of Tologa Bay have been comparatively at a standstill. It is estimated that the gross shipment of wool from the three stations—Messrs Murphy, Robson, and Reeves—will amount to 240 bales, a similar number to that shipped last year, and from the same number of sheep, as no increase is observable in the flocks. Of course this comparative retrogression is not traceable to any fault, or mismanagement of the respective station masters, or to the infertility of the soil, or to the want of a profitable carrying .capacity in the grasses, but to the existence of wild dogg, and the rough, unfarmed, state of the runs themselves. For their sake, as well as the good of the country, it is to be hoped that a little of this non-success will prove to them the advisability of farming sheep, from a scientific point of view, on a limited area of cultivatedland,thantobe contented with what has been sarcastically termed “ trotting ” sheep over a large, unimproved waste.

Side by side with the inland question of settlement is that of the harbor. The great difficulty to contend against in this department is the state of the bar which shifts very considerably, varying as much as many cables’ lengths just now, from where it was last year, which makes the navigation of the lower part of the river a work of some considerable difficulty, as also one wffich requires a large local knowledge and experience. When the Rosina entered the river she was in charge of Captain Trimmer, and went in splendidly; and so she was on coming out when she tailed on to the sand banks ; but this was owing more to the fact of the steamer drawing nearly six foot aft, and the seemingly stolid determination of those on board not to shift the cargo forward, than tn Captain Trimmer’s want of ability to pilot his vessel clear of the sand. If the Government could be moved to appoint a pilot at Tologa .Ray, no better choice could be made than Captain Trimmer, whose services'are al ways, at the disposal of tlajv necessitous. A movement should he made in this direction at once, if the Rosina is to ran in conjunction with the overland mail, as also to appoint

Captain Trimmer Postmaster with a salary, he having acted in that capacity for some considerable time without one, and given general satisfaction. The races, which are to take place on the 24th December, at Tologa Bay, will do much to bring that settlement into notice. When I was there nearly £5O was subscribed, and the local owners were shaping well fer the various events. Several visitors from Gisborne are expected, and I am sure they will be hospitably entertained. I did not pay a visit to the native school, but I learned that the attendance has fallen down to an average of ten scholars, but from no fault of the teacher —Mr. Parker —who is generally said to be zealous, and diligent in the performance of his duties. Like most other native schools, that of Tologa Bay, is rapidly going to decay, simply from the inanition of the natives themselves, who will not enforce a strict attendance of their children even from the other side of the river. Some gentlemen who visited the school expressed themselves as much pleased with the economy and cleanliness of the building, and I am glad to learn that the Government has acknowledged ■ the efficiency of the teacher, by granting him an augmentation of salary. Mr. Waddy is a part of the ferry service of Tologa Bay, who does his best to expedite passengers across the Styx, and to preserve liis equanimity under severe pressure from the fists of refractorw Natives, who usually requite the old man by either knocking him down, or immersing him in the Styx aforesaid; and, worst of all, bolt off without paying the ferryage. A policeman and a lock-up are much wanted at Tologa Bay and then ■ “ Civilization ” will be complete. A good.story anent the Fourth Estale, was told me during my visit which is too good to let pass unrelated. A certain Government official was passing through the settlement on one occasion lately when newspaper influence was a subject of conversation ; the official said he had been advised from head quarters to disregard the local papers altogether, and he had endeavored to do so for a long time, but now he felt it to be his duty to write them down, as the only means of silencing them. Let me see the first lambing you get.