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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5274, 18 February 1878, Page 2

“ Give a lie twenty-four hours start, and the truth will never catch it.” Mr. Hutchison stated on Saturday that a single individual had obtained from the late Government a grant of 98,000 acres of land at 2s. Cd. an acre. Sir George Grey made the same assertion at the Arcade on Thursday evening, but no one knew better than Mr. Hutchison that the assertion was only one of those halftruths which are more dangerous than direct falsehoods. It is the sale of the Piako Swamp which was referred to. That sale has been the subject of inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee, and although a majority of the committee were supporters of Sir Georoe Grey, after the fullest and freest investigation, it was recommended that the sale be carried out, as it would be advantageous to the district and to the country. The land had been open for sale for ton yaars at ss. per acre, but not a soul applied' for an acre of it. Most of it was under water, and the surveys had to bo undertaken in canoes ; in fact, Sir George Grey’s colleague in the representation for the Thames stated that he travelled fifteen miles over it in a boat. No portion of the swamp was fit for occupation without avory large expenditure. The work of drainage had to be undertakenjas a whole, audit was obvious that no poor man could settle upon it. After lying open for years for selection by anyone who chose to take it up, a proposal was made to the Government to buy it at 6s. per acre, on condition that a rebate of 2s. GJ. an acre should be allowed to the purchasers for the construction of roads. The Government closed with the offer, and a company was formed to drain the swamp. There was not a single settlor in the neighborhood of the swamp who objected to thesale. When Sir George Grey made an attempt to stop the purchase, meetings were held all over the Waikato, and petitions were forwarded to Wellington, urging upon the Legislature the advisability of having the sale completed. No settler, no working man, no democrat in the wide district protected against the sale. Everyone was agreed that it would confer vast benefit upon the district. The drainage of the swamp would employ a largo amount of labor, and would also render available for settlement a great extent of country. Surely the settlers of the district should bo the best judges in the matter. Had any such sale as Mr. Hutchison’s words implied taken place in the Waikato, depend upon it, tho settlers would have protested against it, and made the country ring with their complaints. However, with the exception ofSirGEORGEGREYandMr. Rees, no one saw aught but good in tho sale. In the Waikato it was looked upon as a policy of public works, and it has, in fact, given

employment to largo numbers of mea at good wages. Every investigation which has taken place in reference to the sale has resulted in exonerating the Atkinson Ministry from all blame. No poor man could have taken up an inch of the Piako Swamp, and it would have remained unoccupied for a century had capital not stepped in to carry out the work of reclamation. That surely was a legitimate use of capital, for it benefited all round : gave employment to the laborer, enhanced the value of the property of the surrounding settlers, and called into existence smiling homesteads where once was a desert waste. Mr. Hutchison knew all this full well, and yet he had the temerity to stand up before a thousand people, and state that the Ministry, to which he had given an apparently enthusiastic support up to the moment they left office, had been guilty of conduct which would brand them forever as infamous in the eyes of the country. Mr. Hutchison by his late proceeding has flung to the winds every shred of his political character. A few months ago he had no hesitation in stating that Major Atkinson’s Ministry were composed of “ men of high character,” that they would search long before “they were likely to find a more capable or a more honest administration,” that they had the interest of the country at heart; but now he turns round and says they have perpetrated a job the most iniquitous in the annals of New Zealand. It would be bard to characterize Mr. Hutchison’s conduct in terms befitting a public journal. And the electors of Wellington are asked to return him, in preference to a gentleman who has had the courage and honesty to stand by his opinions, and who would not turn his back on his friends for fifty seats in Parliament. Mr. Hutchison on a previous occasion said ho repudiated the axiom of ‘ ‘ Measures not men ” as extremely silly. Good measures could not be expected from worthless men. How then, can he, in the face of Ills disgraceful abandonment of his opinions and his part}', expect to be returned to represent the capital in the Legislature, especially when he has opposed to him a gentleman who has ever been noted for his political consistency, and who in every path of life has proved himself eminently worthy to be trusted by his fellow-men.