Oun contemporary, th d'Marllorough Express, takes exception to some remarks we made in a recent article on the agricultural statistics of New Zealand ; and affecting to be content with the past development of Marlborough, he speaks in pitying terms of the ignorance of writers in the Colonial Press generally of the affairs of that little province. Now, we have recently had occasion to trace the history of Marlborough from the earliest period, that is from the Wairau massacre to the present time, and we are bound to say that the complaisance of our contemporary is hardly justified by the results of settlement. It is a fact that but for the nursing care at one time of the General Government—a Government of “ squat- “ ting proclivities,” no doubt—and the expenditure under the Public Works and Immigration Act, this highly favored district must have collapsed, so far as provincial independence and bona fide occupation are concerned. The land has been permanently locked up against settlement and occupation by pastoral tenants who, monopolising all offices and power in the province, succeeded in making laws to suit themselves, and in parcelling out the public estate amongst themselves and their friends. Thisfact is so notoriousas to need no proof. Our contemporary may have cogent reasons for being satisfied with things as they are in Marlborough ; but the colony, which has largely aided Marlborough, has very great cause for dissatisfaction. Let us hope, however, that a new era is about to dawn for that community, and that the beneficence of Parliament, in constructing the railway from Blenheim to Picton, may not be unproductive. To that end, however, settlement and production must go hand in hand ; and thriving homesteads, and well cultivated farms, must take the place of the solitary wastes now sacred to sheep and cattle.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750510.2.27
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4411, 10 May 1875, Page 4
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299Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4411, 10 May 1875, Page 4
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