The Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 783, 15 October 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1878.

We give the Attorney-General credit for being actuated by very proper motives in proposing to insert a new clause in the Special Powers and Contracts Bill to enable the Goveonment to carry out an agreement with Mr. Broomhall for the sale to him of land at Te Aroha. The history of the Broomhall land transaction is pretty well known. Mr. Broomhall followed in the wake of Mr. Vesey Stewart, of Kati Rati celebrity. He travelled over the lands up north, and having set his affections upon a 50,000-acre block situated in the Thames Valley, he returned Home, ostensibly in order to make his arrangements for settling the land with people of his own choice. But a difficulty arose. The land belonged to the Natives and the Government could not give Mr. Broomhall a Crown grant until they had first acquired it. It appears now that this was a rather fortunate circumstance, because had the laud been immediately obtainable Mr. Broomhall would have arranged matters in a manner that would have paid him a handsome return for the loss of time and money he incurred in undertaking the journey to the Antipodes regardless of the consequences to the Colony. It now appears that the Te Aroha settlement was not to have been conducted upon the same principles as those other special settlements m the North Island. Mr. Broomhall was evidently to become possessed of the land and then to sell it to a company. How he could reconcile such a proceeding with the contract of IS/6 under which the then "liberal" Government agreed to sell the land is difficult to comprehend. There is not the least necessity to encourage land sharks from any other part of the world, for we have as good specimens here as could be desired. We want no new-chum schemers, for we have an ample supply of old ones whose skilfulness in land jobbery is perfection. In fact, if land is to be given away, we think that those who stood the brunt of colonisation have the prior claim. It will create some surprise that the AttorneyGeneral did not take this view of the matter during the late debate ; and that not only did he seem not to be the Robert Stout whose keen-edged weapons once did gleam in the House against land swindles, but that he is acting in direct opposition to the Premier and Native Minister. He said that "the credit of the Colony is at stake, and that the bargain could not be repudiated." What about Mr. Broo.mhall's engagement with the ; Government —the conditions under which he was to have obtained the Te Aroha block on such favorable terms? They have been broken. He came here as a philanthrophist to use the term of an lion, member—and not as a speculator. He was treated with the consideration and liberality due to the former, and not to the suspicion with which it is necessary to watch the latter. But he is no philanthropist. He was not impelled to our shores by a desire to benefit a number of his countrymen and the Colony as well as himself : it would now appear that he came to benefit himself only. Once in possession of the Crown grant of the Te Aroha block, we have every reason to believe that he would sell to a company, and would that company be willing to carry out the agreement by which he secured the land ? and if they were not could the Government compel them to do so '! At best, in case of the transference of the land, the Government would be put to inconvenience and expense ; and it is not unlikely that they would find themselves "plucked." We say let the agreement with Mr. Broomhall be broken, even though the Colony should temporarily suffer from a supposition that it had wronged that gentleman. Such considerations should not under the circumstances sway a Government. If it can be proved that Mr. Broomhall was to receive LSOOO from a Company as his share of the spoil, it would not only be legitimate, but the duty of the Government, to take every means in their power to prevent him from becoming possessed of the land. There would not be much difficulty in withholding the land if the contract is illegal, and we have the Native Minister's authority for saying that it is so. This question settled, the surplus population of the Thames would be ; <j.ble to obtain their dues, and men who have waited patiently for years for an opportunity of acquiring a piece of land to settle upon would meet with their reward.