THE LAND QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 4105, 24 April 1876, Page 4

THE LAND QUESTION.

To the Editor.

. SlB, —The past has risen up in judgment to condemn us. At a meeting of the Provincial Council in 1874 Mr J. L. Gillies pointed out distinctly the effect which the construction of branch lines of railway would have upon the financial state of the Province, showing that there was no way to avoid the sacrifice of our lands if these lines were to be constructed. Mr Robert Stout spoke forcibly on the same question, reprobating in strong terms the sale of goldfields’ lands as a greater mistake than the sale of agricultural or pastoral land, observing ’that the Province must reserve mineral country for the sake of the revenue which must eventually, be obtained from;it. Mr J. L. Gillies spoke again on the question, showing how unfair it was to make one part, of the country pay for the other, when that part did not receive any benefit in return. We now find in April, 1876, the

clear-sightedness of these views. The Provincial indebtedness is L 200,000 in liability contracts, coming from the construction of the Awamoko, the tVaiareka, the Mosgiel, the Greytown, and the Orepuki lines, in which- Messrs Webster, Turnbull, Shand, Daniels and Reid are the proprietors. Being fully alive to the question, these public men have' deliberately and selfishly run the country into a debt which has caused the of 64,000 acres of pastoral, agricul>t&l, and mineral lands.. But worse than aE’tnis, what shall the public think of the action. of Robert 8 tout—-the man who so heartily repudiated the sale of mineral lands two years ago ? What shall the public/think of the way in which this land sale was to be [effected ? That the Gazette ’ was purposely withheld to prevent the public from knowing of it until the transaction had passed the Waste Land Board, when the favored few might take up their estates. Mr Larnach’s decided, action has brought the transaction to daylight, but his deposit on application for the same land has been refused. Is this: fair play to the public and the country ?—I am, Ac., Otago. Dunedin, April 24.