The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 712, 3 September 1859, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

[ Saturday, September 3. "Great-land sales have been -going on at Nelson; largo tracts of the Amuri district have been passing into the hands of a few' capitalists for a few shillings per acre. Cheap land regulations have done their work for' that district with a vengeance. Now that most of; the good land in Amuri has been frittered away, there is little use in lamenting' the past. The treatment of the waste land's in? that district is certainly a warning for the future and a ..proof of the short sightedness of those who fancy that cheap land is a boon to the small farmerand the labouring man. . . We don't want torecui' now to the -absurd-.-arrangement whereby the Amuri district was severed from the province it naturally belonged to, and handed over to Nelson. But as. Amuri has but few means of asserting its rights in the division of provincial wealthy we beg to urge upon the Nelson Government and Council the justice of spending a fair proportion of the revenue derived from that district in opening it up and in improving the .communication between it and .Nelson. When we consider the amount of money that has been raised at Nelson within the", last year.from the sale of Amuri lands, it is with 1 some .surprise that we notice the -silence prevailing as to any-great works for opening up the Amuri district. No paltry vote of' £1000 or £2000 can shelter Nelson from the accusation of a most unjustifiable centralism, if no real-attempt be made to open up the" communication between Nelson proper and. the Amuri district. We hope, however, to see that our neighbours will take a just view of the case, and will give a fair share of the" the Amuri land fund'to the opening mp of Amuri.

When we ask them to do tins, we are-con-vinced that such a work as a road between Nelson and the Southern frontier would be of as much advantage to the whole province ■as any other they could undertake. Canterbury has opened up a cart road to her Northern boundary; surely, out of all the funds that have $owed in from the Amuri district, Nelson can afford to vote a handsome sum to make Amuri less of a foreign possession, and to improve postal communication with the South. If Nelson looks forward to the advantages to be derived from her central position _in New Zealand, she will not be unmindful of the wisdom of connecting herself more closely with the rapidly growing Southern provinces of the Middle Island.

If £10,000 were spent on the road through the gorges, post-houses and stables built along the line of ;road, and facilities afforded for overland travelling all the year round, the interests of the Middle Island would be far more firmly iknit together than they are at present.-Our kelson friends will see the necessity of such union as forcibly as we do in Canterbury