THE LAND.

Evening Star, Issue 4118, 9 May 1876, Page 4

THE LAND.

To the Editor.

Sib, —I observe your two morning contemporaries are still raving away upon the subject of the recent attempt oju the part of the Provincial Government to- feell several large blocks of land in a quiet way.’ One ofthem even bewails the fact that the chance will never again occur of obtaining Ll an acre for the land. Of course this it all stuff for it stands to reason that t as the waste lands of thecountry are sold and "taken out of the market jt will be the means of raising the valud of shares to come. -

But, eir, I observe your contemporaries carefully suppress the circumstance that the principal objection the Waste Land Board had .to the sanction of the proposed sale was because it was attempted to be - carried out in an underhand way, and was besides a political dodge. • The day on which. the land was open for sale was the very day

the ‘Gazette’ containing the proclamation was published. the ‘ Gazette ’ is never published until' late in the afternoon, and on this, occasion it was not circulated as early as usual, consequently no person but- the runholders themselves . .knew this .land was to be open for sale until the day after the publication -of the ‘Gazette.’ No person, therefore, had an opportunity of making application except the runholders, who of course knew of it because the land could not be thrown open without their consent. I must admit the laud. proposed to be sold is of an entirely, pastoral nature and never will be fit for agriculture, but that is no plea why it should be be sold in au underhand , manner, as it was attempted to do. Oh, what is becoming of political honesty when such men as Mr Donald Reid and others, backed up by the Provincial Solicitor, Mr Stout, have come so low in the

political sphere that they should lend their names to such a questionable. proceeding! These are the men who, not many months ago,'were crying from the hustings, “Land • lor the people r and “No'more sales of land in large blocks.” Yes, here they are acting in an entirely different way, while the very ; tfords they uttered from the hustings are scarcely off their lips. When they act so inconsistently in a matter like this, how can the electors expect them to act consistently in their interests in the Assembly?—l am, &c., C.R.C. Dunedin, 6th May.