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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 912, 26 January 1881, Page 4

The members of the party of special settlers, introduced by Mr; Re£d, have been engaged during the past week in minutely examining the Pouawa block, with the view, of selecting their several locations. We understand that- they are very favorably impressed with the character of the soil, and its suitableness for their purpose ; and as, under their engagement with Mr. Reed, they are allowed a specified time for coming to a decision, those of them whose families are at Auckland, proceeded thither by the Ringarooma on Sunday last, for the purpose of making arrangements for .bringingdown their families to Gisborne •The members of the party have also been afforded opportunity of seeing a good deal of the surrounding country, and formed decided opinions as to the great future in store for Poverty Bay. A night’s camping out on the Pouawa block, has been among the incidents of the trips; and the new arrivals entered with great gusto into the rough-and-tumble life, and al fresco enjoyment which residence in a warm and genial climate affords. We are glad to find the existence of a desire, on the part of the new arrivals, to reduce to practice, the theories of settlement, of which they have heard so much. No opportunity has been lost by them, to visit other parts of the district, to which their attention has been specially invited. Indeed, we are not travelling beyond the record in stating that these gentlemen, one and all, are peculiarly impressed with the climate and salubrious atmosphere, as well as the fertility of the soil, and general adaptability of our circumstances to their wants. There can be no doubt that to persons coming from the Old Country homes of the United Kingdom, our land matters (especially those in this district) appear to be so hopelessly complicated, as to almost warrant them in “giving them best,” and retiring to “ fresh fields and pastures new.” But, it is to be hoped that the present siting of the Native Land Court in Gisborne —through which many of the most eligible blocks are about to pass—will remove any doubts that have previously existed, as to the possibility of acquiring land with a sound title in Poverty Bay. Our newly-arrived friends are intelligent observers of what is going on around them. They have just arrived in a new antipodean country, in which most land matters are carried on, on a perfectly antithetical principle to that which obtains in the Old Country; so much so that their education, on all agrarian averages, has to be renewed, or, we may say, begun again. The necessity for this will be the more apparent, when they learn that in no other portion of the Colony is the land tenure hedged round with the same peculiar difficulty, which the past political exigency has forced it into, as that of Poverty Bay ; and we congratulate our friends on their timeous arrival in the Colony, to perceive such a sufficiency of latent energy on the part of the Government, as will tend to remove those difficulties altogether. When they look around, and behold the beautiful, adolescent home of their second childhood. When they view the splendid luxuries that Nature has provided for their acceptance, if? not indulgence. When their ment finds expression of admiration 1 at the carpeted valleys, and grass-clad mountains of Britain’s most distant Isle ; and when they consider this as the youngest and most shamefully neglected portion of Her Majesty’s dominions, —then that admiration and wonderment will be increased a hundred fold. But when they are told, in addition, that what they see before them, in the region of Poverty Bay, is the result of the, almost unaided, exertions of the settlers—whose indomitable pluck, would not allow their fair land to be blotted from the geography of the Colony—they may be able to understand the enthusiasm with which the early residents stuck to their native soil; and the hope that by persistencv and aggregated exertion, all would come well in the end. Our advice, then, to our visitors, and we hope permanent residents is, do not be ready to believe or disbelieve.

Let that great and mighty Teacher, Experience, guide and direct your undertakings. In the selection of your future home, embark in nothing of which you are not thoroughly satisfied. The scheme which Mr. Reed and Mr. Rees, and the Maori Committee —representing the wealth and intelligence of the great body of Natives in this district —and which we have strenuously supported hitherto—one which must, ultimately, redound to the future greatness of the East Coast. But, although, the present residents may see through difficulties which have compassed their path for years, it may not be so easy for those ’ “ new to the manner born ” to express a confidence until it has been created. That feeling it is now our duty and our hope to inspire. We are on the threshold of an undertaking whose gigantic proportions for good few can, at present, gauge. In fact none but those who, like its promoters, and ourselves, having put our hand to the plough, are determined not to look back ; or— to depart slightly from the scriptural injunction—if we do so, it will be only for the purpose of beckoning, and enticing, and cheering onwards, those who are behind.