TO THE PEOPLE OF OTAGO.

Evening Star, Issue 4109, 28 April 1876, Page 2

TO THE PEOPLE OF OTAGO.

(Per favor of the Evening Star.)

Fellow Colonists, — Late events must have shown you the necessity of establishing some organisation to resist the encroachments of capitalists and the treachery of Governments. The Land is the property of the People, and should only be parted with in such manner, at such periods, and in such areas as will best conduce to the settlement of the people, whether as agriculturists or as sheep and cattle farmers. The sale of the freehold in Large Blocks is a public grievance and a national sin, and must, at all hazards, be resisted. But individual efforts and occasional meetings in remote localities are inadequate for the purpose. I therefore propose the formation of a Land League, with its head-quarters in Dunedin, and Branches in every centre of population throughout the Province. The object primarily of the League should, in one word, be Resistance by every constitutional means to any and every attempt to sell Large Blocks of land, whether the aggressor be the Provincial or the Colonial Government; and sequentially, the throwing open of all lands, pastoral and agricultural, in moderate areas for bond, fide settlement. To this end I invite my fellow-colonists of every grade_ and of all shades of political opinion to unite on a common platform for the purpose of forming an" association, numerous enough and powerful enough to defeat the monopolists and protect the public estate alike from Northern aggression and from wrongful alienation by the local authorities. The lands of Otago are in danger from both, and in Union only is safety to be found. Be assured that, unless we band ourselves together in the way I suggest, we shall be robbed of our lands, and thereby our people will be impoverished and our prosperity will cease.

In every movement some one person must take the initiative. In default of a more able unit I have done so in this matter. The issue remain with yourselves. I am, &c., Vincent Fyke. Dunedin, April 28.