The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4104, 22 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1876.

Yesterday an article advocating the sale of pastoral land in “ big blocks was published in the ‘Daily Times.’ The intention of the writer is evidently to throw dust in the eyes of the public, ana, judging from the style, he must be one closely connected with the Executive who has entered into an unholy truce with his own convictions. In Selfdefence he should have induced the ‘ Daily 1 Times ’ to have introduced it with the heading “ Written by order of the Provincial Government.” The syllogistic arrangement of the first portion facilitates dealing with the arguments and showing up the special pleading by which it is endeavored to prove that the Waste Land Board will “ retard settlement ” should they refuse to sanction the sales in question. Prior to entering upon the argument, the writer endeavors to lessen the importance of the matter by characterising opinions adverse to the action of the Executive as based on “violent prejudice,” and by deploring that “ land sales ” should “ everlastingly be made purely political cries.” As these charges cut both ways, they would be hardly worth notice were they not introductory to the cunninglydevised major premises that “the only way to get the full value for pastoral land is by selling it in large blocks” The barefaced fallacy of such an assertion needs no exposure. As a minor premiss, it is elaborately shown that the land in question is pastoral land, and the conclusion is arrived at that therefore “it must be sold in large blocks.” Now, it is very plain to anyone who thinks for a moment that, as a preliminary inquiry, it should be shown that there is a necessity for selling pastoral land. The writer does attempt to prove this by an assumption equally false and Satuitous as the other. This is the postube:— The Provincial Executive being charged with the duty of providing funds for public works, will, it must be admitted, have done well to negotiate for the sale of purely pastoral land, instea i of sacrificing any of the large area under Hundreds, which they might readily have sold. Their action is in no respect hostile to, but most favorable towards real settlement.

If this means anything, it means the Provincial Executive had no occasion to have gone out of their way—they might have sold laud in Hundreds, the very proclamation of which implies it is wanted for settlement, but instead of that they choose, according to the * Daily Times,’

To avoid the plain letter and spirit of the law by a stratagem which was improper and unseemly, and to their having taken such a step all the feeling that may be manifested will bn mainly .wing. The stratagem to which we refer was that by which the Executive procured for the rnnholder the position of sole applicant in each case for the cancelled block. Nothing can excuse this. The intention of the law in all such casus is obviously to put the Iftud t) be sold before th public in such a way as that the highest bidder should be the purchaser, and that fair opportunity should be given to all those who might want to buy to do so. That this was not done, this opportunity not given, is obvious to all.

In support of the assertion that the land in question is only fit for pasture, it is stated the Executive have the opinion of the Chief Surveyor, and this opinion, it is assumed, should be sufficient guide to the Waste Land Board. A s the Board is or should be a totally disinterested body, in the discharge of its functions knowing neither men nor political party, we are free to think there are many considerations that will weigh with the members not included in the Chief Surveyor’s recommendation—if be ever made it. An excellent article appeared in the ‘Guardian’ of Thursday, evidently written by one well acquainted with the features of the country which it is proposed to close up from settlement, and to doom to be a desert of sheep-runs; and as perhaps few of our readers have had opportunity of seeing the ‘Guardian,’ we extract the following important passage:— 'i be lauds sslected by the Excutive for carrying out this nefarious scheme are briefly as follows On run 170,13,000 acres; on run 48, 3,000 acres; on run 190,15,000 acres; on run 369,10,000 acres; and on run 247,23,000 acres. Eun 170, commonly known as the Beaumont Eun—the present proprietor of which is. we believe, Mr P. C. Neill—is on the east bank of the Cluthn. Ihe land advertised for sale embraces about one-half of its entire area, including the whole of the river frontage, from the Beaumont to the Fmidborn. By this ingenious arrangement the back country, which extends to the summit of the Lammerlaw, will be rendered valueless to anyone save and except the purchaser of the 13,000 acres now offered for sale, so that the balance of the run may be regarded as a dead gift to that favored individual. The 3.000 acres on run 48 are comprised with Mr Feancis Fulton’s pastoral lease at Lee Stream. Next in order we come to runs 199 and 369, whereon 25.000 acres in all are to be disposed of. These runs are both owned by Messrs Caboill and Andesson, and the lands intended for sale lie on both aides of the river Clutha, above the Teviot—a locality which successive Governments have conspired to desolate, by parting with all the land available for settlement therein. This last is a final and crushing blow, and must of necessity depopulate the district if suffered to be perpetrated. There only remains to notice the 23,000 acres on run 247, owned by Mr Watson Shennan, lying between Soughridge and the Taieri Elver, on the Maniototo Plain, much of which is admirably adapted for settlement. The same may, indeed, be said of nearly all the land specified.

Let no one imagine we impute blame to the gentlemen named. They have been applied to by the Executive and have been offered exceptional advantages to induce them to advance money to be spent in public works far from their own runs, and if they consent to become buyers it is only doing what every man in business would do. Nominally buying large areas at twenty shillings per acre, the real price, like Mr Clarke’s, will be under fifteen shillings; and the settlement on the land which the ‘ Daily Times ’ urges as a reason for the Board consenting to the sale, will be of sheep—not of men and women—while the hindrance to the settlement of population will be the more complete, as, in most instances, the back country will be useless to any but the

buyers. Space will not allow us to say more than that the money received for the 64,000 acres of land is to be spent on railroads tending to improve the estates of certain men through whose properties they pass, instead of being devoted to the construction of roads and bridges to fit for and facilitate settlement of population in the districts alienated. Those estates thus enhanced in value will benefit the land-holders only. Their properties will be rendered worth four or five times as much as before the railroads were made; but they themselves contribute nothing towards their cost. The public pay to put money into their pockets. The Government take away the means of improving one district and rendering it fit for settlement, and spend it on another already settled; and this they call promoting settlement. It is nonsense to say it is necessary to sell pastoral land in large blocks, as it cannot be worked in small areas. Nobody ever said it could ; but everybody knows that it haa been very profitable, both to the runholders and the Province, to work pastoral areas on lease, and that there is no necessity to sell grazing country at all. But if the land is sold, the money received should be used in improving the locality in which it lies. Were this done, vast areas will be found fit for agriculture that are not now accessible. We object to the few being enriched at the public cost. But there are many serious considerations that must be remitted to another issue to discuss.

Seven of the seamen belonging to the Theseus who were sentenced to be imprisoned in gaol for insubordination, have been conveyed en board the ship* the captain

Having made application to the Resident Magistrate, Fort Chalmers, for that purpose, (lathes Mann, who has relatives in Dunedin, and who itf A well conducted seaman, remains in gaol during the remainder of his sentence, when he will be finally discharged from the ship.

Lytton’a fine play, “ The Lady of Lyons,” Wifa Mrs Hill as the haughty Pauline and Mr Steele aS Molnotte, was played to an appreciative audience last night. The afterpiece was “Tom Noddy’s Secret.” To-night the farce will be preceded by “ Susan Hopkins.” The insurance companies at Christchurch have offered the Corporation to contribute LSOO towards the erection of a new firebrigade station, on Condition that the Provincial Government give the same amount, and that not less than LI,OOO be spent by tbe Corporation itself.

Tbe .concert given at the Temperance Hall last evening, in aid of tbe Christian Brothers’ school fund, did not attract a very large audience. The entertainment was under the direction of Mr and Mrs Woods, of Lawrence, who were assisted by Mrs Bartlett, the Misses Hesford, Edhouse, and Hill, and Messrs Sykes and Ibbotson. The bazaar at the University Hall in aid of the same fund will close to-night. The legal gentlemen of Greymouth object to the scale of fees decided on at Dunedin. One asserted that already they were only half paid for their valuable services, sometimes having to waste a whole half-hour over a case, and then only being allowed a paltry guinea for tbeir labor. On this, says the ‘ Star,’ one person from Reefton, who has been studying the reduction of wages there, remarked, “ Well, well, only two guineas for an hour’s work! Why that wouldn’t keep a fellow in tobacco. Why under the reduction scale of the reefs miners are paid Is 3d per hour.” It is getting too bad, and really people ought to protest against these poor, | innocent, guileless, wretchedly-paid legal gentlemen being so poorly remunerated for their services.

At the last meeting of the Scotland Waste Lands Board, Mr James Mackintosh, of the Otautau, stated that certain Government Reserves in the Aparima Hundred served only as rabbit warrens, and that it was useless for private persons to try to exterminate conies by killing such as were on their own lands while they had such sanctuaries to fly to for refuge. He suggested that the land in question, not having been reserved for any‘special purpose, should be sold in the interest of the public. The ‘Times’thinks the suggestion a good one, and that it should be adopted. Mr Mackintosh mentioned one curious fact in connection with rabbits in the Aparima Hundred, namely, that the rabbits were in the habit of climbing trees.

On Thursday afternoon a laborer named James Jamieson, working on one of Mr Proudfoot’s railway sections near Blueskin, received some severe injuries from the effects of which be died shortly afterwards. With two mates, named. John Dailey and Peter Ade, he was excavating the side of a cutting, when a portion of the embankment gave way, falling on the men. They were extricated as soon as possible and conveyed to the Dunedin Hospital, but Jamieson died on the way. He was an unmarried man, a native of Shetland, and about twenty-seven years of age. An inquest was held at the hospital at noon to-day, and a verdict of “ accidental death ” returned. Dallesy had his left thigh fractured; Ade escaped with a sprained ankle.

The Guiding Star Lodge, 1.0. G.T., will meet on Monday evening next. Business ; Election of officers.

The London and Provincial Club will hold its third meeting at the Hibernian Hotel, Octagon, on Wednesday next, at 8 o’clock. A special summoned meeting of the Court St. Andrew Lodge. A.0.F., will be held in the Edinburgh Castle Hotel on Monday, at 8 p.m.

The quarterly meeting of the South Dunedin Working Men’s Institute will be held on Tuesday evening, at 7.20, when all members are requested to attend. We are requested to direct the attention of members and intending members of the Bichardson Bides to a general notice which appears in another column.