The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 573, 1 May 1858, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, May 1. This is the Pastoral May-Day of the Canterbury Province. We dare not say that it offers as cheerful a prospect to the pastoral mind as the traditional May-Day of Old England. However, it is a solemn and very necessary observance. Whether our legislators were wise in making it necessary that all rents for runs should be paid on one day, is a question; —it is at any rate convenient that the whole income arising froni~pasturagejicenses should be received within as limited a period as possible. After all, the inconvenience is not so very great. The runholder need not appear himself in person • —one agent can do the business of a very large number. The time of the year is not an inconvenient one for sheep-farmers; and when it is once well-known that the Ist of May is the time appointed, it is easy to make arrangements to appear either personally or by agent. This year some persons have been unfortunately led to believe that the Waste Lands Board were empowered to take rents for ten days previous to the Ist of May. This alteration was embodied in the Provincial Waste Lands Regulations Amendment Ordinance, which has not, however, received His Excellency's assent. We observe that the Board are invited by our contemporary the .' Standard' to depart from their usual system for the sake of convenience, and to take applicants alphabetically day by day. . This, though, offering several advantages, would, however, be contrary to the Regulations; and any person whose name began with Z ? might claim of right to transact his business first, if his name were first on the application book. The more strictly the Board adhere to the letter of the law the better. The great mischief of the old system was the large discretion allowed to. the Commissioner. If the Waste Lands Board "once begin to determine for themselves where they may and where they may not depart from the letter of the law even in small things^ we have no security for their not usurping larger discretion on other occasions.