MOUNT BENGER.

Evening Star, Issue 3498, 9 May 1874, Page 2 (Supplement)

MOUNT BENGER.

(from our own correspondent.) I admire pluck in everything, have an encouraging smile for even the pernicious bug that menaces the destroying thumb and forefinger. In the analogous case of the “ men of Eoxburgh,” I cannot restrain a certain thrill. They are utterly and absurdly in the wrong, and have brought heavy artillery in the form of a Warden and a Goldfields Secretary to play upon them; yet still they froth and declaim with longwinded letters to all journals misguided enough to insert them elsewhere than in the waste paper basket, just as if anybody minded them. The pot-houses do a roaring trade, particularly those having “public halls” attached. The rival factions to their sovereign lords think they must outbid one another and do wonderful deeds of valor with the tongue. They outlie Tom Pepper, and outrave Tom o’ Bedlam; and all this about a purely mythical grievance. In case some of your readers might retain the faintest of belief in the men of Eoxburgh, I shall for once descend to the dull level of history. I shall restrain those billiant corruscations of fancy which generally illumine the mildest of my effusions. I shall be as dull as an opposition leader in the ’ouse and veracisus as a census paper. The Miller’s Flat block, the cause of all this disturbance, was thrown open, owing to the representations of residents in that part of the district. When work was to the fore, the men of Eoxburgh were nowhere. The Government finding that the compensation the runholder was justly entitled to must prove very heavy, agreed, on his waiving his claim, to sell him a certain piece of land entirely useless for any but pastoral purposes. The bargain was a good one, and was ratified by the common sense of all the settlers immediately interested. For my own part I am more intimately acquainted with the disputed country than anyone of the Teviot Committee, and can aver that all the statements made by that respectable body are nothing more or less than a tissue of vile falsehoods. A sale to the bloated squatter was a red rag to these patriots, and two of their number, one being our M.P.C., were deputed to spy out the land. With characteristic accuracy they went and saw the wrong block, returned, reported, and the vials of wrath were uncorked. Everybody knows the blunder now; but having gone so far, the Committee do not like to own up to their stupidity, and hope by their impudence and bluster to pull through. The block set apart by the Government is unquestionably the best available piece of land in the MTfenzie district; but the truth is, nobody here wants' agricultural land. The hardy cockatoo is only a stalking-horse. What they do want is large blocks where unlimited cattle can be depastured, free of charge; and in the language of the poet, “ don’t they wish they may get it.” Such are the latest, truest, and most particular accounts of the most recent of our long series of unmeaning and uncalled for agitations. In venturing to write the truth, I know I am rendering myself the target for unlimited abuse; but strange to say, I don’t feel scared. My maxim always has been “ Claw for claw,” as Conan said to the Devil; and with the name of Mount Benger’s patron saint, I close this epistle.