The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1872.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2784, 19 January 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1872.

We cannot but feel that the course pursued by the Waste Land Board, in reference to the sale of the block of land to Mr J. Clarke, is derogatory to the Province. In giving our reasons for expressing this opinion, we shall endeavor to divest the subject altogether of its political bearing, although unfortunately the transaction is so mixed with the politics of the past, that it is almost impossible to avoid reference to them. It may fairly be conceded that the sale was contrary to the most advanced theories on political economy, and contrary to the spirit of the Land Bill then before the Legislature, and yet that the Province is bound to fulfil a bargain deliberately entered upon, and specially considered and ratified on both sides, so as to render it valid. It is not now a question of Mr PiEld’s or anybody else’s policy. If we will see the matter in its true light, we must endeavor to con-

sider it abstracted from personal and political bias. We must put out of the question altogether memorials presented to endeavor to coerce the Waste Land Board into a certain course of action, public meetings and the speeches at them, and the ingenious address of counsel employed to advocate the repudiation of a bargain, spiced with legal acumen to shew how it may be got rid of. We must endeavor to view the transaction as it really stands as a question of purchase and sale ; just as it would present itself to us if the whole affair had taken place at Tiinbuctoo, Hawaii, or anywhere outside our own boundaries. Stripped thus of its surroundings, it becomes a clear matter to be judged of by the law of right and wrong. The Province, when disposing of its land, stands precisely to a purchaser in the light of a private dealer. The one states the conditions on which he will sell, the other those on which he will buy. If they cannot agree upon terms, as a matter of course the negotiations are off; the would-be seller has his land, the intending purchaser retains his money. This is the simple state of the case at all times, in the market where A says “ I want to sell,” and B says “lam a buyer.” The arrangement once concluded, it is not competent for A to say “ I will not com- “ plete my contract, because C has been “here, and tells me that the sale is dis- “ pleasing to D.” B would have a perfect right to reply, I do not know D in the matter. My dealings have been with you. If H should have been consulted it was your business to take that into consideration before concluding the bargain. I can only speak for one side of the question—for myself as buyer. The bargain is made, I am ready to fulfil my contract: all I require of you to do is to fulfil yours. If then this is the position in which the Board and Mr Clarke stand in relation to each other in regard to the 45,000 acre block, and we believe we are right in saying, on a fair examination of the matter that it is, the honor of the Province, apart from justice, is deeply involved in fulfilling to the letter the arrangement that has been entered into. It must not be forgotten that Mr Stout’s opposition, though professedly legal, is virtually political ; that when he shewed the way in which the Board could stultify its own acts, he pointed out a course repugnant to fair dealing. It was in effect saying, “ Now if you think on reflection you “ have made a foolish contract, I will “ shew you how you may get rid of it. “ It is perfectly true that before you “ found out it was a bad bargain, you “ took such steps as you considered “ necessary to give effect to it. Luckily “ you made a series of blunders. You “ intended to cancel the lease, but you “ did not do it : you intended to “ deal with the land as if it had been “ declared into hundreds, but you did “ not do it. You intended, in fact, to “ be honest, but, luckily for you, you “ have left a loop-hole by which you “ may act the rogue without damage “to yourself—l will show you the way.” Of course this was Mr Stout’s duty to his client; we are not blaming him. If Festus listens to Mephistophiles, and allows himself to be wiled into a false course, he must bear the sin: the tempter has only fulfilled his mission. But what about the credit oi the Province ? This strange freak of the Waste Land Board involves much more than the whole value of the acres in question, It involves the reputation of the Government, and the reputation for honor of our public men. They may flatter themselves that in what they do they arc actuated by good motives; but let them take a stand point outside Otago, and, in view of the vacillation and yielding to pressure that have been shown, they would say with all impartial spectators, “it is no use attempting to deal with the Government of Otago, for it will neither be bound by honor nor morality.” Of this subject more anon.