The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2479, 26 January 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1871.

It has been- sometimes claimed for the historian that his perception of the characters of public men is more accurate than the estimate formed of them by their own generation. There may be some trfith in this ; but the historian is placed at the disadvantage of very partial knowledge of the thoughts

and feelings of the age. If therefore history and personal experience can be combined, truer tests are supplied, and these are especially applicable when men come forward with vast professions to seek public honors. On the 9th of this month we drew attention to the selfishness of those who, under the attractive term “ settlers,” sought to monopolise Otago, by keeping vast areas of laud unsold in Hundreds, until they could accumulate money to buy it up. No doubt many persons set this statement down to party feeling, being too kindly disposed to think that there is a class who, with professions of desire for settlement" on their lips, could throw impediments in its way for their own ends. As party was not our ob ject, but truth, we will put our readers in the way of testing the matter for themselves* when they will be enabled calmly to judge of the fitness of. Mr Reid for the office to which he aspires. It will be necessary, however, to be borne in mind that Mr Reid professes in time past to have been actuated by a sincere desire to settle people on the land, in order that they may have the happiness of having “ a pig in a stye, “ and cows grazing on natural herbage” round their homesteads —which we suppose, to be in keeping, mud-huts. Mr Reid was in the Provincial Council when the land resolutions were passed on which the Land Act of 18GG was based, and supported clause 35, in virtue of which Lauds within any Hundred already proclaimed, or which shall he hereafter proclaimed under the provisions of this Act, shall have remained open for selection and sale for the full period of seven years from the time of the same having been first open for selection and sale, the portion thereof remaining unsold after such period of seven years may, with the sanction of the Superintendent and Provincial Council, be offered for sale by public auction to all bidders at the upset price of ten shillings an acre Everybody is aware how Mr Reid and his now disjointed “ tail ” condemned the sale of those lands during the debates on the Hundreds Regulations Bill, and how industriously they have endeavored to throw the odium of having done a very good thing upon the Superintendent and the late Provincial Treasurer. One gentleman who figured in the celebrated Clutha petitUion characterised the whole affair as “ nefarious ” ; and the Thomsons, Mosleys, Browns, and Hendersons of the Council, backed by Messrs Gillies and Reid, have endeavored to make the people of the Province believe some outrage upon public justice had been committed at which their righteous souls stood aghast. Unfortunately for Mr Reid, if all who supported that course of action stand condemned, he must take his place in their ranks. On the 4th December, I&GG, as reported in the Daily Times, the resolution— That in accordance with section 33, the unsold land in Hundreds which have been proslaimed for over seven years, shall be at once exposed for sale in the manner provided by such section—

was supported by Mr Reid, who is reported to have said he thought “the “ resolution would, if carried into “ effect, be a great benefit.” It was carried into effect, and we believe Mr Reid was right; that it was a great benefit. But somehow it did not “ benefit ” . the precise men that ho wished to “ benefit.” The sale put j£ore money into the Treasury and less into the “ settlers’ ” pockets than Mr Reid thought good Tor them. We do not put this idea forward as any other than one of the fair deductions of a historian, and appeal to history &r .Q.ur justification. Whether lie was one of the disappointed ones or not, he does not say ; but no one can read the following extract from the, debates, as published in the Daily Times of May 15th, 1868, without arriving at the conclusion that Mr Reid in it expressed the disappointed selfishness of the “ settlers ” —the men who complain of the Hundreds Regulations Act : The land had been sold in strict accordance with the Act, and a handsome sum realised to the country ; but in his opinion—

The results of the ten shilling system had not been so beneficial as he expected they would be, and its application had not been what he desired. He was of opinion that those unsold lauds should only be put up to a\iction when there were two or more applicants for the same piece ; but instead of that, the sales had been systematically advertised and forced, and the consequence bad been that many settlers had been put to great shifts to secure pieces of land adjacent to their ingsThere is not an impartial man in the Colony who would not say from that speech that the class to which Mr Reid belongs, and with which he is identified, considered that although they onlypaid a pound an acre for their land, and had had the use of thousands of acres for seven years, they were badly used by not adding to their estates at 10s. an acre, when tbe teat of public auction shewed it worth much more. No matter who wanted the land, they would have prevented settlement oil it for their own enrichment. And yet they come forwai’tl as models of disinterestedness and political purity ! We repeat that the opposition of these men

to railways and the Hundreds Regulations Act is based on personal and selfish grounds, and that no greater misfortune can happen to Otago than to place legislative or administrative power in their hands.