Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 188, 19 August 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1864.

The document called for by Mr. Colenso, being a statement of the lands unsold in this Province, has been produced in the Government Gazette, and a very unsatisfactory revelation is contained therein. According to it, there is little or no more 10s. laud left, and as for ss. land, that choice article is becoming scarcer and scarcer and beautifully less every day. Nor does the return reveal any latent chance of bettering this state of things by the suggestion of some kind of remedy. However, that is not to be expected* our Crown Lands Commissioner being by no means of a suggestive turn of mind. From what source, then, does the Provincial Government propose to derive its Revenue ? In the statement of Revenue which has been already published, the receipts from sales of land are set down at .£9,000, and the receipts from assessments at £SOO odd. That does not reveal much of a treasure out of which to pay our little bills. The member for Porangahau has at different times made some tremendous lunges at the Land Regulations, but, somehow or other, beyond doing a vast amount of mischief one day, and making it worse the next by trying to undo it, that distinguished statesman has not brought forth any alterations in these regulations, and we are just now where we have always been, and where we are, to all appearance, likely to continue, suffering under the effects .of an administration of the lands of this Province that is precipitating us into a state of no land at all. Another year, and w r hat will that most ingenious financier the Provincial Treasurer have to say under that head. Does that disciple of Cocker intend to place on his revenue or credit side, under the head of land sales, £O,OOO, and thus square the yards of his balance sheet in the most approved fashion? We suspect that whether that acute individual likes it or not, there is nothing else for him to do in the matter. Land we have not, and land we are not likely to have, under the present state of things, and, as far as we can see, it is just us well that it should be so, unless the regulations affecting the sales of land undergo a very material alteration, or the administration of these regulations is modified materially. The squatters are ready, supposing any land to be purchased from the Maories, immediately to swallow it up at ss. and 10s. an acre, as they have done ever since this part of the world began, and then retail it in small slices at an enormous premium to any poor devil who wants a bit of ground, or else keep it, and neither use it themselves nor sell it, nor do anything with it but grumble over it. Our Provincial Government certainly do business in a very remarkable manner; sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. No, not one of their calculations appears to be founded upon any fact whatever. It would seem as though they did not think the future of this Province, worth a thought, the present is the point, and when Mr. Colenso points out that the Government is deficient in business tact, and negligent of great and material interests, and shows how that is the case, and why, the "way those wise shepherds answer is by blackguarding him, and abusing the Times, and in fact, conducting themselves in a very disreputable manner, but never, by any chance, does that Government endeavor to upset Colenso’s statements. If, by the wisdom of its acts, our Government proved Mr. C. to be wrong, we would instantly sing “ Hallelujah,” but it would seem that they cannot refute Mr. C’s statements, and are fain to have recourse to the science of numbers,(in a negative sense) and relying upon the numerical strength cf their party, crowd him out, and set all the blackguards they can get for a glass of grog to write letters to the Herald, full of personal insult and abuse against Colenso, and calling down the judgments of Heaven upon

our devoted heads for being ‘ ‘ personat’ in our impious remarks; but we always season ourpersonalitieswith sound argument, a line o conduct not adopted by the Government "and its hangers-on.