TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 265, 3 April 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

A Mb. Pbttchabd, of local civicisms' and contests a-weary, lately took holi- ; day to Dunedin town, seeking, no 1 doubt, relaxation and change from the' high latitudes of Arrow.. A telegram l was soon after received by the Mayor,! M£. Goldston, signed by the above-j mentioned Mr. Pritchard, stating that;! if Mr. li. Clarke could be got to resign' his seat in the Provincial Council, Mr. Thomas Luther ShepTierd would till, the gap. The ' Observer' states that, in its opinion, the telegram is a hoax. Whether by that our contemporary ! means that the hoax-is by Mr. Pritch-i ard, or that so me one else has signed Mr.; Pritchard's name, without his know-: ledge, we do not know. We can-' not, ourselves, believe in the latter idea. Until it is contradicted, we are! obliged : to" believe that Mr., Pritchard' did - send it, after having, sounded the ponderous-minded ex-membeir.for the D'unstari. "Refreshing as it is to see; with what breadth of view and sinking of all petty considerations—the injured man arid the miners' friend neglected— Mr. Shepherd is • again prepared to' buckle on the harness, we cannot honestly say that we are' sorry he is not likely in the present instance to be called upon to sacrifice the" quiet of private life in. matters Provincial. If we except Mr. Vogel, Mr. Bradshawand the present Goldfields Secretaryno member has been returned to the Provincial Council of-Otago, by mining constituencies, more : respected than Mr. Clarke, or one whose opinions as a man of practical knowledge and shrewd insight are so carefully listened to, as conveying useful information and integrity of purpose. In Monday evening's Dunedin ,' Star,' appears the following -telegram " Queeristown| March 30.—Mr. T. L. Shepherd's proposal, through Mr. Pritchard, the Mayor, of Arrowtowri, ithat' Mi\' Clarke should resign his ; Provincial Council-' lorship and allow "him (Shepherd) to come forward, has been received with much merriment. Mr. Clarke has ino intention of resigning." On Tuesday morning Mr. Shepherd explained to the ■ Guardian.' Our readers must judge the case for themselves " Mr! T. L. Shepherd, M.H.E., has called upon us," says our contemporary, "in reference, to. a telegram which, , api peared in last night's 1 Star,' and mil be found elsewhere in our columns; Mr. Shepherd totally 5 denies the truth of the statements''therein made, and says that Messrs. Pritchard and Malaghan, influential residents of Arrowy town, recently waited ' upon "him tci know " whether-' in 'th'e ::! evesnt of Mr! Clarke's resigning his seat in the Provincial Council,' he 1 (Mr. Shepherd) would let himself be nominated. Mr. Shepherd - replied that if he jcould be of any use he would, but that he did not intend to. make a personal; canvass or to visit the district. Mr. Shepherd says -these-'are the circumstances of the case.".

The men of Teviot—whether they be capitalists, as. ..the Dunedin papers say—whether ; some- of them be perverters of the truth, as the Groldfields Secretary says—or whether they be paragons of injured virtue, as the ' Mercury ' has it—there can be no doubt at all but that they know when to Btrike a blow. Mr. Holloway in their midst—who the authorities think it policy to impress with the peculiar delights of colonisation in New Zeajland, especially Otago, and therefore carefully shepherd and, maybe, smooth his ways-—what chance could 1 be more opportune to bring pressure upon the Government than by showing the investigator the blackest side of temporary Colonial politics ? And it carinolb be too known that that side, as exhibited about Teviot, has been black indeed. Why the Provincial authorities now in power should care for these representations, or why the Dunedin dailies should rail so at poor Teviot, we do not know, for these inequalities of legislation are none of their doing. It was not them that sacrificed the 30,000 acre block to Cargill arid An. derson, nor the other, at Moa Mat, to big Clarke, now dead and gone. They are doing what they can to carry out the hampered restrictions of the Otago "Waste Lands Act" with regard to settling the land on deferred payments. Whatever power they may have to take land under the Groldfields Act, it is abundantly proved that land offered at £IIB jumped at for grazing purposes by the present lessees. Q-rowl on, Teviot, by all means ; it may be that your growlings - will have some effect on the next House of Assembly. You may do that good; you can do no harm, for, in spite of all your growlings, Mr. Holloway knows that 'a country where labor cannot be got for 10s. a day is a paradise to his Dorsetshire -laborers on their 7s. a-week. You can do no harm as regards stopping immigration, and you keep hung out a rod over backsliding members of Executives, which you certainly have shown, so far, by no means a bad haiid at wielding. Why not form, a People's Land Aosociation—Land League—call it what you will ? It would be worth a lot of growling and letter writing. '

It appears to be well understood that the Colonial "Government are nciw prepared to construct the main lines of railroad, and that the duty of feeding these lines by means of branches to the interior must rest with the Provinces. The Dunedin and Oamaru railway, now fairly under way, cannot be a successful undertaking unless produce is being carried down the valleys of the "Waitaki, the Waiareka, and the Shag. That this policy: is thoroughly recognised by the Superintendent of Otago is abundantly shown by what fell from him when opening th? Maeraki tunnel ifc Deborah Bay

last week. He is reported to have said: —" The tunnel which" they had just commenced lie looked upon as a key which would open Hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land which were still in the hands of the Crown for beneficial occupation; The • Provincial Government 'was now making a branch line up the valley of the Waitaki, and. were about making; another up the..valley of the "Waiareka. He hoped that after next session they would have power to : make what mia;ht be called a main branch line, vvhich would go up ..the whole length of the Maniototo Plains, where he was sure:. there were hundreds of thousands of: acres .of land fit" for settlement. If : those plains were brought into connection with the sea-board,' as would be done by means of the railway system, ; farmers would be able to bring in their' golden grain for 2d. or 3d. a bushel, and that from a country hitherto con-' sidered nearly fit for pastoral occupa- 1 tion. That would afford opportunity of exporting corn at a profit. There 1 was also a glorious country about' Naseby which he hoped to see occu-: pied by a settled population. He proposed three cheers for the Queen."