AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. By Anthony Trollope. THE WAIKATO.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 340, 18 July 1874, Page 2

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. By Anthony Trollope. THE WAIKATO.

J^J«S^irf?W^*Jr.ftr in the Waikato was over} though no „final r victojy hacTbeen'wbn', and no peace proclaimed, we as■unfed the power of conqueror*, .and confiscated in the North Island^ the Jands from which wo Gad driven" the fighting Maoris. .. In this way we took possession of nearly^ four • million acres, and, at regards this territory, we hare so far settled the land difficulty that we hare held the ground ever since. More than half of these acres are in the province of Auckland, and nearly a million and a quarter lie in the valley of the Wnikato. Now, the Waikato tribe were among our enemies. Most of them wo have killed, and the rest hare receded among a tribe who were still more bitterly inimical lo us, the Ngatimaniapoto, who are still enemies, though at present quiet enemies, who have the King among them, and lire according to their own laws^and will not allow qur telegraph posts to be put up, and are altogether a great nuisance 1 to^the young colony. But the Waikato tribe, as a tribe, is exterminated. The" acquisition of the valley of the Waikato. which con* tains excellent land, was a great thing done. The natives, by the treaty of Waitangi, had been declared to be the owners of the land, and the difficulty in buying laud from them was great. There was trouble in getting it from them unfairly — more trouble in getting it fairly. But acquisition by war settled all this. A great portion of the acquired land was divided out among military settlers, and the remainder kept for sale 'to selectors. The military settlors have not generally succeeded as farmers in New Zealand ; but the general process has been successful. After a short period p{ occupation, the o)d soldiers were enabled to sell their lands, and have very generally done so. The purchasers have goc« upon it with true colonising intentions, and now the upper part of the Lower Waikato, and the vnlloy of the Wuipa which' rune into it, tht districts round the new towns -of Cambridge^ Alexandra, Hamilton, and Newcastle, are smiling with English grasses- I was there in*lB72 ; the first occupation of it by Europeans had been in 1865 ; and the wilder-., ness liad; become a garden. Ido not know that I hare ever *een tho effects of a quicker agricultural transformation. This has been effected on the land of natives who hnd been hostile and bad fought with us> and who had therefore lost their possession?. Among the Arawos, ' the Friendlies,* I" did not see one cultivated patch of ground Coming down tho Waikato during our last day's ride, the King's country had been on our left, just over the river* I had been told, and I believe truly, that a European might uov\ traiel through U nfely if he noire ao uniform, or were ,

not ostensibly armed. And amongst the Kinjjites, m they are now called, a certain amount of agrioulture i» carried on. They want potatoes and oorn, and cannot get thorn by other means. The question now ii whether thej shall boallowed to die out on their own territory — whicli ii claimed by us as British territorj, but in which the British law, or law of the colony, does not run, in which we cannot put up a telegraph-wire or make a road — or whether we shall make good our claims to political dominion. In the meantimethe natives in theeo parts still bold the escaped criminal TeKooti, in endeavouring to retake whom we hare spent somethirig like half a minion of money, and may on any day make a raid on out advanced settlers on the Waikato and Waipa. All politicians in New Zealand find consolation, at any rate; in the reflection, that while th» matter is being considered the Maoris are melting. The flour-and-sugar policy, t joined with the melting policy, will probably carry the day to the end. A party of gentlemen from Auckland met me at Cambridge, which is, as it were, the frontier settlement of civilisation in that direction. From' thence we wert driven by Mr Quick, that gallant American coach proprietor and true descendant of the great Cobb, through Ohaupo to Alexandra, thence to Hamilton, Newcastle, Rangiriri, fatally known to British arms daring the war, and then on through Mercer and Drury back to Auckland. During the earlier part of this journey, and' down to the* junction of the Waipa and Waikato at Newcastle, we were for the most part among fields green with English grasses. The fern, which throughout tho district had occupied the land, is first burned ofi, the land is then ploughed, and grass seeds are sown. Then in two years' time it will carry five, six, and on some ground seven sheep tb L the aero. I saw very little wheat farming, , and was told' here— as I was in all parts of the Northern Island — that it did not pay to grow cereal crops. A man might produco What oats he could use — and what wheat hewanted if he had a mill near him. But the high rato of wagQi.-^averagirig over '43 a day — and the cost -of transit combined,' m'kke 1 the farmers afraid of wheat. Though the I»nd.U excellent for the purpose*/ and the climate- not unpropitimis, I saw on Itie road flour, imported fr*m Auckland, on its' way' up to these agricultural settlements. As in most of tho 'Australian 'colonies, so in most of the "New Zealand provinces, farmers w-ho-no doubt, know what they are about, are afraid of growing wheat. • They cannot get, in their seed arid get tb'eir-ctops in without hired labour — and for hired labour,' wheat- arts 5s a bushel will not enable them to pay, 4 The labourer' 1 with his 4s a day will get more out of the cropthan the further who employs him. Meat it at present thegreat, produce 'Of' the Waikato valley — for sheep and oxen will feed themselves if there be grass, and will then carry them wives kindly to- the market. All English fruits grow there, and' all vegetables. It is a country of great abundance, arid the' day will come when the valley will be yellow with corn, At Alexandra^ -which is the European, outpost in the direction of theNgatimaniapoto tribe and the Kingiter : and which is so near the * King' country that a moderate walk of three or four miles would? place you in His Majesty's dominions — we found a large fort or-redoubt in the course of construction. It was being made, we were told, as a place of refugafor tho inhabitants, should the King's people ever attempt _ to make a raid upon the town. 'It would be saving of the^ lives of all the Women and' children,' said on* of my companions. I could 'not help thinking that I would not like tolive in a place where such refuge might, be neoessary — and : that is 1 was a pity Chat it-should stift be necessary in any part of Her Majesty's- dominions. .'The inhabitants, however, seemed to fear nothing, and were of opimon that the Kingiteswould not come down upon them. I found tbs feeling to be general throughout'the islands that if the property now left to the natives were respected — not only in regard to hose rights of propery which 'belong to individual ownersin all civilized viands, but alse a*\to political rights — if theEuropeans' should not insutcn extending their dominion, as they would do, for instance, if they were to continue their attempts to retake. Te Kooti — then "there would be peace j. but that the Kingites would surely fight should we practically assume dominion -over the small portion of the Northern Island still left to them. Some time since the Governor thought that it would be expedient that he should meettlie King on friendly terms. But the King thought otherwise — What have I to do with the Governor, or the Governor with me ?' So there was no meeting. Rangiriri, whej-e. the fighting took place in 1863 — whereflj' the natives held two redoubts when General Cameron attacked them, and escaped' from the one in the night, surrendering the other on the following morning.. after a terrible slaughter inflicted on our men — is on the Waikato ,. below Newcastle. Hero again I saw the crowded graves of British soldiers, and the wooden memorial*, bearing the name* of each, already mouldering into dust. . The redoubts are now but heaps of earth, one of which is already hardly discernible by the remnants, of the rifle-pits which remain. From this down to Mercer, and -nearly as far as Drury— no called from mj old friend and schoolfellow, Capt. Drury,. Lord Byron's godson, who surveyed the coasts in these parts,, the land in again poor. There is now a railway in course of construction from. Auckland to Mercer, and from thencethere is water-carrioge by the two rivers to Cambridge andi Alexandra. That the colony can afford to make these railgte ways I vill not take up«n myself to say. The making of^ them is a part 'of that great go-ahead policy of which Mr~ Vogel is the eminent professor. That the Waikato district--will bo benefited by the railvt ayjwhtn it is made there can beno doubt wliatever. * I returned to Auckland under "Mr Quick's able guidance,, and then my wanderings in tbe*e colonies ,»»re o ver. Threedays afterward* I shipped myrelf on board tW famous American steamer Nebraska, Captain Harding, and was carriedi safely by him as far as Honolulu, among the Sandwich. Islands, on my way home.