The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 894, 16 March 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ***** Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

We were somewhat amused the other day on reading- a recent issue of the ' Northern Advocate,' which might be thought to be an authority on Waikato matters, to see the importance of the North illustrated by contrast with that of Waikato. The picture drawn was not a flattering one to ourselves as a community. A couple of years ago, it says, Auckland people supposed that the opening of the Waikato railway would fa ihe making of A-uckland, tliat ifc

would open up a magnificent back country which would flood the Auckland markets with produce, while the result has been that " Waikato does not t giow wheat or potatoes enough for its own consumption," and really is the market ' for the eggs aud butter produced m the North. " The Waikato," it says, " takes all our surplus butter, eggs, potatoes, and store cattle. The importance of the Waikato as a back country to Aucklaud is, when reduced to its proper focus, really small." So cruel a picture must be the result of an editorial iiidigestion. Over indulgence m pdtt de foiegras. or the impossibility of procuring such a thing ns a blue pill m Wangarei has much to answer for. ' The truth is, the railway into Waikato is not yet opened, ihough we have some months had a railway to Waikato. There is a vast difference between a railway coming up to the Waikato boundary, and at the least progressive agaicuibural portion of it and one striking into and through the district from end to end, opening up agricultural country right and left of it. To all intents and purposes, the producer m Waikato lies under as great dissadvantages m the matter of communication with the Auckland market as he has done for years past, Thousands of acres m the upper part of the district are only waiting the continuation of the line, to be pat under the plough, and, this communication onoe secured, Waikato potatoes and Waikato grain and dairy produce will become more known m the Auckland market than may be altogether agreable to the settlers pf the North, for whose delectation this highly colored picture of a "frightful example" m agricultural slothfulness has been drawn by our northern contemorary. But the picture is not only too highly colored; its proportions are distorted, and it is not true to nature. In plain words, the facts are not as they have been stated. The Waikato has proved itself, and especially d»ring the last two or three years, to be, not merely a back country of importance to, but the baok country which is the mainstay of Auckland. He knows little of country settlement who will gauge its progress altogether by its exports. When a country district is rapidly filling up, a3 that of Waikato and Piako are doing, it becomes its own market. New settlers consume to a large extent as food and seed the produce which would otherwise find its way out of the district. How much this is the case may be seen by our contemporary if he will only study our advertising columns from week to week. He will see what is the fact that tenders for the erection of houses not only m the townships, but m the country districts are being called for so last that carpenters cannot be procured m sufficient supply to furnish the necessary labour ; he will see tenders called for clearing and ploughing land, not by the ten or twenty but by hundreds and often by thousands of acres at a time. This means production if it means anything. We cannot expect the country to blossom m a moment like another Aaron's rod, but the work that is going on every day will tell and that speedily. Tlie agricultural returns of last year showed a great advance on that of the preceding one, but we make bold to say that the advance, great as it was, will be as nothing when compared with the year's returns next issued. A short time hence and we shall have the railway opened to Ohaupo and then will soon come the first installment of Waikatd production, for not till then will the railway touch the really agricultural portion of the district. Between Newcastle and Hamilton there is little farm settlement ; from Hamilton to Ohaupo the line passes through the partly reclaimed swamp of Messrs Cox and Williamson. Not till it reaches Ohaupo does it touch the closely settled and cultivated lands of the district. And this is all the more reason why the Government should j hurry on the extension of the line to Te Awamutu. From Ohaupo to. that place the line will run through a highly cultivated country of rich grass land, much of which, immediately the line is constructed will be broken up and cropped. What is the cause of the present delay we cannot tell, but the Government are certainly not keeping faith with the district m so long delaying the preliminary work of so important an undertaking. To ask " what does Waikato produce ? " and because she does not flood the Auckland marke. with grain, potatoes, and dairy produce, to asume that the railway has failed m the expectation formed of it is taking a one-sided view of the case. Rather ask, '* what does Waikato take from Auckland?" and pay for with no inconsiderable return of produce, and thousands of pounds worth of beef and mutton annually. When we tell our readers that m a single day last week the freight on goods to Newcastle alone reached £100, and that on Monday the sale of passengers' tickets at the Hamilton station was little short of a quarter as much, some idea may be formed of the sort of customer Waikato is to Auckland, and the railway traffic which is opening up. And this is daily increasing, for we have an open country, and good lands waiting settlement on all sides ; and _. settler need not fear, as

m the uorth, that if his children go *i dozen yatds from the front door oi' tiie house they will fall into the ur.vk, or if they go as far from the b.ick of tbe house that they will be loso m a jungle ot supplejacks Op tho interminable forest.