The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4110, 29 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1876.

It ia really monstrous that the two morning journals in Dunedin, whose duty it should' be to guard the interests of the people of Otago, have, apparently, combined to advocate block sales of land on purely imaginary grounds. Foiled in their efforts to dispose of one hundred square miles of pastoral country to three or four men, a new agitation is commenced by them for selling agricultural land in blocks. The immediate effect of this would be to shut out from profitable settlement alarge area of country capable of producing heavy crops of grain and supporting a numerous well-to-do farming class. Why, wc would ask, are some favored three or four selected from our wealthy fellowcolonists for enrichment at the expense of the Province? It can scarcely be by a process of natural selection that they find their way into the cozy carpeted official bureau of the dispenser of benefits, who holds a brief sway over the domains of the Province. Identity of politics may have something to do with it; very possibly a common wish lo do something that shall raise the drooping flag of Provincialism by clumsy endeavors to bring the General Government into bad odor. But really the

trick is too transparent. It is as old as the Jiiuß, and has been practised by slippery politicians in. nil time. The process is very simple: Contrive to get the country into monetary difficulties, throw the blame on to other shoulders, and then do something desperate in order to raise ie , win ? and P rove kow* disinterested, self denying, and ill-requited your efforts to serve the public have been. We are not in the secret of the matter, so cannot say how far the Provincial Executive have contrived to involve the Province by their unwise procedure. If, as Mr Reid insinuated, the land need not be sold to relieve the Province from debt, it follows that the proceeds of -the sales were to be devoted to contemplated expenditure. But neither the one nor the other can justify shutting out the land from competition of buyers. If it is merely money that is wanted, and land must be sold to raise it, why not give everyone who is willing to buy, a chance of investing his capital, instead of saying to A. B. and C., ‘My dear fellows, now’s your chance; the Province wants sixty or seventy thousand pounds, and you have it to spare: just put in your applications, make up your minds, pay your deposits, and we 11 see that the Waste Land Board sanctions the sale.” Very flattering it must be to be picked out from so many men, each capable of buying as much as the wealthiest of the favored ones. But there are always two sides to a question. If the three or four men are flattered and three or four hundred equally worthy of consideration passed by and neglected, there is in the minds of the majority inevitably a conviction that injustice has been attempted; and, not only do they feel it, but it is patent to every inhabitant of the Province. There is a strong conviction that although the letter of the law may have been complied with, the spirit has been attempted to be evaded; and naturally confidence is shaken in those who have so flagrantly abused the power with which they have been entrusted. It is all very well to say that the Provincial Council decreed the formation of certain lines of railway and other public works requiring the outlay of threequarters of a million of money, and that the Executive were only fulfilling a duty in striving to carry out their votes. We suppose if the Provincial Council decreed that a railroad should be made to the moon by a parity of reasoning, the attempt would have to be made to carry out their insanity. Yet just as chimerical were many of their appropriations, and equally justified would the Executive have been in refusing to attempt the one as the other. The sale of blocks of agricultural land, apart from other reasons, is as reprehensible as that of pastoral, on the ground that the money obtained is to be withdrawn from improvement of the district where the lands are situated and spent on works conferring value on land, the conditions of sale of which have been fulfilled. Take one as an instance—the Mosgiel railway. That opens up no new country for settlement;; it only improves the method of communication with estates alreadv alienated. Row this land was sold on certain conditions so far as roads are concerned, fcjo much of the purchase money was to be appropriated to education; so much to immigration, and so much to roads—not railroads, but at the very best, metalled roads. It is very doubtful if any but the last purpose was fulfilled. At any rate the roads were made, the Crown grants issued, and the buyers became landlords or occupiers. Had they been merchants, or manufacturers, or artisans any improvement in their plant would have been paid for by themselves; but not so with these t aieri farmers. They are of a class always claiming greater consideration than any other, and having influence in the Provincial Council they decreed that in ad1, dition to the road a railroad should be added * —that is their plant for carrying on their business should be improved—by which means their estates would he rendered worth four or more times as much, but for which the public shou’d pay. And so, to pay for this and kindred contrivances, the money raised in one part of the Province is to be spent in another. Is not this exactly what our Provincial patriots profess to be a’raid the General Government will do, notwithstanding the Ministry expressly say that land revenue will be localised ?

Most mischievous and foul sin In chiding sin, When thou thyself hast been a libertine,