WAIKOUAITI.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 419, 19 April 1877, Page 3

WAIKOUAITI.

(From our own correspondent.) April 10th.' Harvesting operations are entirely over in this neighborhood, threshing being yery generally completed also. I hear from many persons the potatoe crop has been seriously damaged by the ravaging flood of last February, and that not more than half the originally-anticipated yield is forthcoming. The same complaint seems to come from many parts. The few parties who are fortunate enough to have good crops will, no doubt, realise high prices when the glut which always exists at this season thins itself, and. the winter has passed away. Crops naturally lead one to the land question: and, as the acquisition of land and the mode of acquiring it attract a large share of public attention just nowWaste Lands Board, surveyor, squattpr, and their majesties the people being barried and worried, fighting tooth and nail for the common patrimony—it may be allowable for me, too, to have a part in the proceedings. I shall therefore take it for granted, as it is generally understood, that the surveyors and squatters and the Waste Lands Board, with but barely an exception, array themselves against the peopie, when suitable land in reasonably small quantities is required for the raising up and fostering of a class of independent yeomen a band of producers who, as Goldsmith informs us, are their country's pride," and not only its pride, but 'its mainstay as well in the time of dearth or danger. The Waste Lands Board is op. posed to the settlement of the people on the lands ; or, otherwise, some time ago when a petition from the residents at Macraes and sojourners in the valley of the Shag, requesting that 10,000 acres of land be opened on Moonlight Flat for agricultural occupation came before it, it would have thrown the block open to the petitioners and public, instead of sealing it up, because forsooth Mr. M'Kerrow, the surveyor, did not approve of the statements set forth by claimants, and furnished these gentlemen who administer the land laws with a manifestly incorrect report as to the general character of the country sought for. Surely men about W invest their little capital, their all perhaps, in the taking up and reclamation of the soil, are better judges of what will suit them than is n gentleman, however great his professional acquirements, who has not the same substantial cause to enable him to arrive at an unprejudiced decision, viz., whether it will pay to do so. The petitioners and the public think it will; and, as the matter previously at issue between Macraes folk and the Waste Lands Board is again on the tapis, and effectively agitating, let us hope Messieurs the Board will this time see that the real merits of the case are inquired into, and justice rendered to the wants of mining and agricultural centres of population. The owners of Dpep Dell Station can grow oats and rootcrops of the finest quality on Moonlight. A land proprietary, small in number but large in acreage, is not what is wanted for New Zealand, or that portion of it yclept Otago; and, if persons can be found with means to take ever so small an area as fifty seres, in the name of fair play and progression let them have 'it. These persons who take up small lots will by and bye add to their holoings, settlement will extend itself wherever profitable facilities offer, work will become more plentiful, industries of various kinds spring up in these centres of settlement, and the whole country, by means of the increased employment thus created would be saved from the panic and stagnation, now so common, whenever that miserable stop-gap, Public Works, halts or stays. As I have said, the Deep Dell pastoral tenants raise splendid harvests off the Moonlight " fat bottom lands." Why should all the grist go to their mill, when scores of would-be occupiers are begging for leave to toil on, and pay tor this land, the common and inalienable heritage of all ? Hundreds on hundreds of persons have heretofore been driven from the fertile shores of this island in the palmy days, with abundant capital, too, at command, because of illiberal land laws. We allure people to this clime, boasting of the ease with which they may become landowners, if but industry and frugality go hand in hand. Why then should it be that when the capital, the industry and the frugality, all the fruits of patient labor and experience, are forthcoming, that the promises of our Agent-Generals, Featherstone and the great Julius, are made to resemble the apples of Sodom—fair to the eye when represented in print or delivered orally, but bitter, oh ! very bitter and nauseous, when put before us through the obstructive machinery manipulated by Waste Lands Boards, partial or inconsiderate Surveyors, and all-earth grasping graziers, tria juncto in uno : a trinity indeed of the earth earthy, and sheepy also, as is well known to all conversant with the history of New Zealand in the past or present. The Island Block at Horseshoe Bend, on the Molyneux, the Piako Swamp, in the North Island, acd, coming home to your immediate location, Moonlight Flat and Strathtaieri Blocks, _ should teach us how this trinity of legislators, professional men and squatter-capitalists work the little game when great tracts of country are the stakes tabled, filched from the people, and raked into the pockets of the trinitorial croupiers. And of the Strathtaieri Block, now petitioned for, let me discourse slightly. Mr. Main, in

a letter" to the Waste Lands Board, says the signatures annexed to the memorial were obtained by a paid canvasser and seemed to be written by the same hand, that is, most of them. Sueh a gross misstatement should not be foisted upon the Board without being contradicted. From incontrovertible authority I know this statement to be incorrect. There was no paid canvasser, and the signatures are the undoubted signs manual of those they claim to be. Everyone in Hyde and thereabouts, and others whose business brings them to and fro in that place, and who intend to settle theie if the opportunity be but given, know this. The petition, as many are aware, laid for week* publicly exposed at one of the principal stores in Hyde; and of this, and of the bona fides of the signatures, a score of persons could make affidavit if necessary. I mention this matter because it would be monstrous, and terribly wrong, if, such letters as Mr. Main's to the Waste Lands Board—to the prejudice of truth, right, and the best interests of the country — should be allowed- to go uncontradicted, when the refutation is so urgently demanded of conscience on behalf of fair play. "To our muttons," though. An office in connection with the railway works is just finished. It is built on the site of the intended station. There are a few hands engaged on the line —very few, though—and the bustle of the great Public Works Department has'nt set its seal on Waikouaiti and it 3 surroundings A new traffic bridge, a hundred yards or so above the old one, is in course of construction. The contractors are Watson and Co. The new bridge is much needed, as the old one is giving unmistakeable evidence of the wear and tear of time.

The County Council here, as in Maniototo, don't seem to " gee" too harmoniously. What with Road Boards, Municipalities, and County Councils, all cheek by jowl, jostling each other, I fear 'twill be found the new regime, based on the destruction of Provincialism, is cum brous, expensive, inadequate to the functions required of it, and a prostrating incubus imposed by unwise and unpatriotic legislators—Heaven help us !—on the energy and welfare of the inhabitants of one ofthe fairest gems in the diadem of the British Empire— New Zealand. The great event of the week past in Waikouaiti bas been the bazaar, held in the Mechanics Hall, with the view of providing funds for the enlargement of St. Johns Anglican Episcopal Church. The ' Palraerstou Times' (my authority) says it was a great success, over £220 by the fair stall-holders, and that the promote!'?,, the ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, and the donors generally, gave lavishly of (iine and substance, and deserve no end of credit and congratulation for making its fruitage so substantial, profitable and consolatory. It begau on Easter Monday, and continued two days. A grand bail, at which the elite, the "beauty and chivalry" —if there is such a thing in a country whose inhabitants are said to consist of straightlaced, demure Methodists, Quakers, and moneygrubbers, vide 'Timaru Herald'— of the district were present in great numbers gave the final touch of genial enjoyment and sociability to the whole arrangements. One thing is certain, anyhow, from the result, the spirit which animated our fathers before the days of "Bluff King Hall," famed more lor razing than building up—is not yet extiuct, notwithstandingDarwinism,Brightism(Dul]isiii?) or any other iufideiistic or spiritualistic bosh, so rampant now-a-day. Temples to the Most High will continue to be erected in every land, from the rising to the setting sun,

Think of this and weep, phonographers! A lady, Mrs. Berrian, a Yankee newspaper reporter, wrote in four minutes the wonderful number of 1055 words. If that girl could only use-her tongue proportionately to her hands, as is the custom of the sex, I guess she could out-oration all cre-a-shun ; and the thing long-looked for would have been found at last—perpetual motion.