THE HARDSHIP OF SETTLEMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5001, 16 April 1895, Page 3

THE HARDSHIP OF SETTLEMENT.

[BY A MAKURI SKIUEI!.] Poor Makuri and poor Makuri settlers! One cannot help pitying them ; fate has been bitterly hard, yet surely they deserve the prosperity which is supposed to follow tho footsteps of hard work and selfdenial. Fancy the hardship of taking up bush land in a proverbially wet district, with no roads, having to pack everything over steep, muddy tracks, and sometimes over steep, thickly-wooded, trackless hills, sleeping in a " Punga" wlmre, shivering in two blankets. And all this because you are anxious to save all you can to buy stock with, when you have burnt the hush, and because you and your horse are packed up to the" last straw," Then fancy a wet Summer, you with the "blues," your blankets getting thinner, and all the tracks knee deep in mud,. By-and-by you throw off the inclination to "chuck it up," and fell more bush, whistling for the sake of company, singing snatches of songs right lustily, because tho bush is so deadly still, and you want to feel cheerful, and forget all about the last wet Summer.

You fell moro bush, you live on damper and tea, you become haggard, wrinkled, and drawn, and when you do catch a glimpse of your face in a pool of water, you begin to wonder when you were born, and why you thought you were only twenty-five years of age. You now thiuk it is not much use worrying your life away burning down the bush, as, by the look of things, you cannot live long enough to see the grass grow.

Try to fancy the same thing happening again and again until you have counted four wet summers, and you find yourself praying to the "sun"—heartfelt, sincere prayersthat he will shine for a few hours. You have spont all your own money, and bare borrowed all your relations had to spare, and are sleeping in a very ragged piece of blanket with your feet tucked in a sack, You scarcely know the flavour of tea (you have to bo so sparing), just dropping in two or three grains, as your credit at the store is stopped, and well!—would'nt you like a Bmoko! but no 1 "no smoking allowed," Youmust stop oil theland because every penny of your money is spent on it, and because your friends expect you to pay them back, and bocause some day tho sun may shine. Fata hopes! There are fairly good roads to the township close-by now, and the Government came up to interview tho settlers and to inspect the land. They go to a comfortable hotel, where everything has been prepared for thorn; and to those who drove up in a covered coach, bad a warm room to sleep in and a good meal prepared, things look extremely prosperous, but they know nothing whatever of the misery endured by most of the poor fellows who are shedding not only their own blood over an existence, but whoso nights are made sleepless and days a weariness by thought of having porsuaded their friends to advanco money on so hopeless a case. It is a long lane that has no turning and behold the fifth summer the sun shone, and the bush burnt and the " Government" came again to inspect. When lo! there were rumours of ono or two of these hapless men owning more land than was supposed to be one man's claim. He had induced a sister, a brother, an uncle, oi an aunt to take up the next section to his; he working it and paying them back any money they could advanco. So although tho sun is shining, they dare not be happy, They had been told something about it not being legal for one man to work two sections, but had consulted a lawyer—and in fact had engaged one to do the whole business, and paid him well too, so there Bhould be no mistake. But you will lose your land, unless you were of tho "right color" at tho last election, and you will find yourself turned out of your Punga whare, with the remains of your ragged blankets tied up with flax. You bootless, and penniless, spiritless and broken down in health, with cold, wet, and worry. Men and women of New Zealand, have you felt your heart bursting with indignation at the tales of the oppression of the "serfs" in Russia. Look at liome, and see that the men you put in power, do not misuse that power. This is a true talo, with some of the most bitter experiences kept back!