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Voices from Auckland, New Zealand.

Wagarei

Wagarei.

From the Bay of Islands to Wangarei Harbour, a distance of about 10 miles, the coast is rugged and of a broken hilly character, with bold high headlands. As the coast is followed further south than Wangarei there occurs more fine land, and about Waranaki and Ngunguru Rivers there are some valuable localities for the agriculturist. The Ngunguru River has some splendid forests on its bank, and is eminently adapted for the site of sawing and squaring stations. Wangarei is a fast rising and promising settlement in the County of Marsden, about 60 miles north of Auckland. The harbour has a fine entrance under Busby Head, in which vessels of a heavier tonnage can safely anchor, and the river is navigable for 14 miles for vessels of 100 tons. At the head of the navigation lies the settlement of Wangarei, where the principal residents of the district have located themselves in a somewhat straggling manner. Not only the upper settlement, but all those now being formed along the river, bid fair to become some of the most prosperous in the province. The great natural advantages of large tracts of alluvial soil with water carriage available at every point largely contribute to this. The climate is one of the healthiest of the many healthy districts in New Zealand, warmer in summer and more bracing in winter than in Auckland. Out of a population of 650 scattered throughout the district only three deaths were last year recorded. Not more than a dozen Europeans have been buried in the settlement since its first formation. Against three deaths the Registrar's returns show 20 births during 1859. These page 25returns include the respective settlements of Maungapai, Maungataperi and Otaiki, Porirua, the Heads and Wangarei. These different settlements are alike prosperous, and although each has its distinctive characteristics, yet all are equally affording fresh evidence of the telling fact, that a strong arm and a stout heart have been the best capital the majority of colonists in this quarter have started with. The comfortable clean-looking, homesteads, with their patches of wheat, potatoes, and pasture, which stud and enliven the northern shores of the harbour, show their owners to be men of energy and perseverance. They are chiefly immigrants from Nova Scotia who as a class, may, without any undue preference, be said to have proved among the best adapted for this Colony of any who have yet reached our shores. Their chief settlement is at Waipu, about eight miles south of the Heads, where they have literally made the wilderness blossom as the rose; and their location and success there is perhaps the most marked event in the history of the colonization of this province.

At the entrance of the harbour, immediately under the rocky crested hill of Mania, lie the various houses of the settlers. Here also are situated the Custom House and Post Office, and the house of Mr. Aubrey, resident magistrate. A government ferry boat is at all times at the service of the public. Vessels entering or leaving the river anchor here, to get their custom house clearances. A school kept by Mr. A. H. Rowlands, is attended by a large number of children. The Rev. Mr. McLeod of Waipu preaches in the school-room once every month. A mail is made up every Thursday for Waipu; and mails for Auckland and the up-river settlements are forwarded by every vessel.

Limestone island lies about eight miles from the Heads, and opposite its northern end is a point of very fine level land, on which the future township will most probably be built. The river is deep close in shore, where vessels of heavy tonnage could readily discharge and load their cargoes. At this island branches off the Maungapai River, leading to the settlements of the same name, where several families numbering in all about 200 souls have settled within the last two years, and this season some 30 to 40 acres of wheat will be laid under the sickle, and about 20 or 30 acres of potatoes will yield their increase. A Presbyterian church is about to be erected; a few stores are already put up, and a Post Office established. The Otaki river branches off about a mile farther up, in a southerly direction, and capable of bearing vessels of 20 tons into the heart of as fine a country as any in New Zealand, for nearly 15 or 20 miles.

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Wangarei settlement lies at a distance of about two miles farther up, and forms the chief centre of the business of the district. Roads branch off in every direction, to Maungataupiri and Wairoa, a tributary of Kaipara, Mangapai, Otaiku, Wangaruru, and the Bay of Islands. The cutter Petrel, and schooners Maires and Kate, sail regularly to Auckland. The two first were built in the river, and are known as two of the finest vessels on the coast. The Petrel has run regularly for four years, and generally makes the trip once a week; she is the property of the native chief Tirarau, of Kaipara; mails to and from Auckland are forwarded by every vessel.

An episcopal church was built last autumn; as yet no clergyman has been appointed. A Presbyterian clergyman is expected to arrive shortly, for whom a church is to be built, on a commanding and convenient spot in the present township. Throughout the whole district water is abundant, and it contains many first-rate sites for saw mills. Some hot springs and seltzer springs are also to be found, and there are one or two considerable and beautifully situated waterfalls, which with some very romantic and interesting limestone caves well repay a visit. The climate and fine sheltered position of the settlement make it peculiarly adapted for fruit; and for years that from Wangarei has been greatly sought after in the Auckland market, to which large quantities of peaches, plums, apples, figs, melons, &c., are annually sent in their season. The other exports comprise, potatoes, maize, wheat, wool, gum, bacon, pork, fowls, eggs, butter, fat cattle, sheep and pigs. Firewood is abundant, and great quantities are shipped to Auckland. A cattle market is held on the first Wednesday of every month at Mr. Rust's sale yards adjoining, and he has recently erected a very commodious hotel,—excellently conducted.

Mr. Rust is the agent of the New Zealand Insurance Company, and Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths for the District. Sir S. Osborne Gibbs, a member of the Legislative Assembly, and a Justice of the Peace, has a neat residence in the neighbourhood of the township; Dr. Parston has also fixed his abode close to it. There are several stores in the settlement, all well supplied. Wangarei also possesses its baker, its blacksmith, shoemakers, and carpenters. The population of the various settlements may be set down at about 630 to 650 in all, exclusive of Waipu and other outlying districts.

The land at the Otaiha Creek with a limestone subsoil is very fertile, and the western portion of Maungo Tapiri and Maunga Karamea are covered with the chocolate-colored page 27soil that elsewhere, at Epsom and West Auckland, is so productive. The Maunu block between Otaika and the settlement, is yet in the hands of the natives, but by whom-soever it may ultimately be possessed, it must, with its large extent of fertile soil, become very productive; and the country between the head waters of Wangarei and the Kaipara streams is rich and valuable, but still native land. The Wairūa district to the north is a fine one, and likely soon to become Government land. About 200 European settlers are now located on what is termed Mair's Claim and its vicinity, at the head of the N.W. branch of the harbour; the locality is a beautiful one, but from the high rate of labour and other causes, farming has not made much progress; the settlers have gardens and orchards and abundance of cattle, but do not as yet export potatoes or corn. In the Waipu plain, to the south of Wangarei, is settled a community of Highlanders—immigrants from Nova Scotia. This is a select settlement, as is termed—one in which the right of purchase of land is confined to certain individuals who have, previously to their emigration, intimated to the government their desire to settle together for purposes of mutual assistance and support, then the success of the scheme appears to be complete. With means in starting below the average, the settlers at Waipu have, by sterling industry, formed around them productive farms and a thriving settlement. There are 70 families located in the various branches of the Waipu river—distance to Wangarei 12 miles; to Auckland 60. The Mail goes weekly, Thursday, to and from Wangarei; from thence by sailing vessel to Auckland.

Mangawai—a bar harbour, available with smooth water, for vessels under 50 tons—lies about 10 miles south of Wangarei. Here there is much bad land and some good, but the best land is conveniently situated, and from there being easy communication across to Kaipara on the water side, the place is a favorite one, and will become important as an outlet of the produce of the Kaipara country about Otamatea and Kaiwaka. There is also abundance of room for cattle in the back country—a great desideratum in a new settlement. This is the nearest harbour on the east coast to the head of the Otamatea and the Oruawharo, the two most navigable of the Kaipara rivers, where the township of Kaiwaka is situated amongst very fine fertile land.

About Wangarei the geological formation is a tertiary limestone resting on clay slate, interrupted by igneous or volcanic rocks of two distinct periods. The tertiary form presents in some places a white calcareous sandstone, that in some places page 28about the north head of Mangawhai harbour appears to be fit for architectural purposes. To the south of Mangawhai the open country of Pakiri extends as far as Point Rodney, where a wall of mountain stretches in a south-west direction almost across the island. Pakiri is chiefly an open district, available for grazing, but with good fertile wooded lands on its southern portion under the mountain range. As at Mangawhai the open country, with convenient bridle paths, extends across the island to Kaipara where on the Orua-wharo there is much good land. The river at Pakiri has a very shallow bar, and is only navigable for rafts and boats, but in the prevailing western winds, vessels can lie and load outside within a quarter of a mile of the beach, and in smooth water. There are some timber cutting stations and a steam saw mill at Pakiri, but the place is only in the commencement of its settlement. There are about 12,000 acres of land belonging to Government and available for settlers at Pakiri, and the Orūawharo block adjoining it to the west, is in negociation for purchase from the natives.