THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 374, 12 May 1876, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1876.

The ' Otigro.-Guardian ' wants to know, a little about block sales: - 1 ' Such disasters, we can assure our contemporary," are not common in Ofcago since 1869. They have, indeed,., only been inflicted uporiTis twice; arid in both'ih'stances by Mr, Donald Reid, the Apostle q* the Pleugh. The assertion, that .Messrs. Strode and Hutterworth voted for the' Maeiwhenua sale is correct. Ac the same time, another assertion which we make is also Strode and Buttervvorth did 1 not sell, or assist to sell, the Maerewhenua block, j

The facts are very simple. On ; the 10th July, 1872, the non-political Board, amned r ,with; powder, .under the Act of 1872, was not created, and the Government had all the powers.which now .can only be legally exercised by the Board. ; Oh that day a : hotable letter was.written, which, fortunately, is on record:— Provincial Secretary's Office, Dunedin,-10th ! July, 1872.7 The Hon. Robert Campbell, Dunedin.

Sir, —The Government, having agreed to your offer to allow; .the sale of 10,000 acres of your runs, 17 and 28, on condition that compensation at the rate of 2s. per acre be j,aid for the. land actually sold, and having elected to open for sale the area on tracing herewith, it will now be necessary to suspend your lease over the area, and 1 have to request that you will, in terms of the 16th section of the Goldfields Act, 1866, be good enough to intimate your concurrence.—l have, &c„

D. Reid, Provincial Secretary.. Mr. Keid, as representing the Government —as he had the power—so did he, under his own hand, sell the block on the 10th of July, 1872. After January 1, 1873, when the Lands Act, came into force, he had not the power, though he wrote a bushel of letters. It is true that, owing to what Mr. Eeid now chooses to call "clamor," the final handing over to Mr. Campbell by amicable process did not take place till after Messrs. Mrode and Butterworth were on the Board. Under legal pressure in July, 1873, the Board confirmed Mr. Keid's sale, although Mr. Eeid, in a manner which did not redound to his credit, repudiated the. transaction, and attempted to regain office by condemning his successors for. carry rag out his own act. We can assure the 'Guardian ' that this statement is true, and will be borne out by the papers on record.