THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Issue 625, 20 January 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1870.

The Nelson Government has once more got itself into disrepute in the' Grey district by the manner in which it has neglected the best interests of the residents. In this instance the cause. of complaint is that the best of that magnificent plain, the Totara Flat, has been sold in Nelson at £1 per acre, without the residents in the district — and in some ca.ses the actual squatters on the land— being made aware either of tho intGnderl sale, or of the reduction of the price from £2 to £1 per acre^_.T-hG- facts of thejcase, as far ~as"Eso"wn" in the diatriot, are somewhat fully stated in the letter from our up-river correspondent, and should they prove to be correct, a feeling of intense indignation jrill be aroused in the district. One Nelson speculator is. said to have bought at least 600 acres of land, for the purchase of portions of which Mr Warden Lowe had actually received deposits, and on another portion a orop is now standing. The probabilities arc that these statements are correct, and our reason for saying so is, that about two months ago the sections on Totara Flat were advertised in the Nelson and Westport papers to be sold by auction in Nelson. No notice was inserted in the only paper circulating in the district — the only available means by which the residents conld become aware of the fact. We venture to say that not more than one man in every five hundred up the Grey River ever sros a Nelson or Westport paper, and not more than one in every thousand ever is privileged to look inside a Government Gazette. At the time the announcement of the intended sale was made, we charitably supposed that the Commissioner of Crown Lands in Nelson waa rather deficient in his geography of the West Coast, and might have been under the impression that the "Totara Flal was somewhere in the vicinity of Westport, and in the course of business, as we did not feel inclined to do Government advertising for nothing, the proper medium for making known the sale was pointed out to him, but to that communication no answer whatever was received, and the matter died out of recollection, until the result is made known in this very unwelcome manner to those who are interested in it. But it has a wider rang© than this, and, following so closely upon the Wangapeka aftair, is sufficient to cause the residents on the Nelson side to enquire whether they arc really living under so very paternal a Government, as so many sire still foolish enough to suppose. A public expression of opinion ought to be given on this matter without delay. ___