New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 6, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 688, 6 March 1852, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 6, 1852.

The Editor of the Independent seems to be greatly alarmed at the progress of the Me. morial to his Excellency praying for the suspension of the Act of Parliament and the immediate issue of Crown Grants, and find, ing that beyond his own immediate clioue the opinion of the settlers is nearly unani. H mous in its favour, he resorts to his usual B practice of misrepresentations and person- E alities, and hopes by such arts to impose on I those who may not have bestowed sufficient E attention on the subject. We do not often E care to notice these, ebullitions of personal spite which are the ordinary stock in trade of this writer, since they only injure in the estimation of others the unworthy author of them and not those against whom they are directed ; if on some unusual pravacation vie feel it necessary to expose and refute these personal attacks, and “ much enforced show a hasty spark,” we speedily relapse into our former indifference. The Independent accuses some of the members of the Deputation of being contractors, and would have his readers infer they are. therefore under the influence of the Government; now it is notorious that the contracts are decided by the Government without the slightest reference to the opinions of individuals, or any attempt at favouritism, and the best proof of this may be found m the fact that the reputed owners of the Independent have for some years past been holders of Government Contracts, and that several members of the Bowie Knife Association may be pointed out as having been greatly benefited by Government Contracts. The writer io the Independent seems to be horrified at the idea of the absentees getting any equivalent for their land orders and scrip, and still more horrified at the conversion of these into money scrip, which he represents as annihilating the land fund and handingover the colony to the absentees for years to come ; the land we are told will not fetch more than from ss. to 7s. 6d. an acre, butthe money scrip will be disposed of at par, i. e.at 20s. He and his friends, in short, have been well compensated, all their claims are satisfied, nothing is wanting but a Crown Grant to secure them in possession, why should the absentees receive anything ? Having been liberally treated themselves, why should any consideration be shown the absentees ? Having got one district to themselves they would wish to make a snugj°“ of it and allow no squatter to shew his fae® among them, while as to the absentees, W them keep their blanks in the land lotteryr anything is good enough for them, and thus they would Compound for sins they are inclined to , By damning those they have no mind to. It must be obvious to any one that the scrip must always bear a relative value to the market price of land, if the price of the I® ol * is from ss. to 7s. 6d. an acre the price of scrip which is to be taken in payment

land will not greatly exceed it. It is equally obvious that the issue of scrip is likely to prove beneficial to the colony by inducing persons emigrating to become purchasers, thus introducing new buyers of land and transferring the scrip from absentees to settlers, instead of “ handing over the colony to the absentees for years to come.” It is asserted that nine-tenths of the land-owners are indifferent as to whether Grants are issued immediately or no. By his own confession, then, at least one-tenth of the land owners would be injured by further delay. A remedy is suggested to the holders of doubtful titles “ who could at once claim Crown Grants under the Act of Parliament”; but these Crown Grants are described in one of the resolutions of the the Association, as " objectionable, inasmuch as being clogged with conditions all titles derived thereunder will be questionable and uncertain,” and that grants under the Land Claimants Ordinance “are greatly to be preferred.” We cannot see what advantage is to be obtained by substituting one doubtful title for another What the effect of grants under the Act would be is so clearly set forth in a letter from a correspondent, ‘in our present number, that any one who reads it must be fully convinced that the immediate suspension of the Act, and the issue of Crown Grants, would confer the greatest benefit on the colony. The statement that the Governor intimated " that he would be obliged to allow the absentees to choose their lands in the proposed town at Hawke’s Bay,” is, to use this writer’s choice phraseologv, “ notoriously, and on the very face of it untrue,” as a reference to the Spectator of Feb. 25, will easily shew. The allusion to ,the Nelson Trust funds is equally unfortunate, since that is a question totally unconnected with the issue of Crown Grants or the rights of Pasturage, and therefore not affected by any adjustment of them.