ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 463, 1 October 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[Wn arc at all times ready togive expression 1,0 cvon r shade of opinion, but in no case do we bold ourselves responsible for the sentiments of our correspondents,] IS IT SO? (To the Editor of the Pate a Mail.) Sju,—As newspaper editors are supposed to know everything C?), would you inform an ignoramus if Waste Lands Boards have power, under the Land Act, to exempt from paying, when due, the half-yearly instalment of purchase money, as deferred payment selectors are bound by tiie conditions tinder which they select to pay half-yearly in advance. I ask this question, because a very great injuslico has been done by the Taranaki Waste Lands Board at a recent meeting to some of the deferred payment selectors on the Whakamava Block, by acceeding to a request made by Messrs Gano Bros., to have the payment of the instalment due on their land last July postponed to January next. This instalment, the payment of which Messrs Gane Bros, have been allowed to postpone, is part of the money tho Government gives back out of the price of land sold on deferred payment to make roads to these lands ; and it was appropriated by the Eawera Road Board to open up the Allen Road, on which road (although it leads to nearly half the land sold on deferred payment on the Whakamara Block, and will require a very large sum of money to make it) no money has hitherto been spent, except about £4O, which the deferred payment selectors, whose land abutted on that road, advanced to the Road Board, under a promise that the money would be returned to them when deferred payment money was available for that road, which advance has not yet been refunded to those settlers. Concerning the treatment the selectors of land on the Allen Road have received at the hands of the Hawera Road Board lost year, Mr Robinson (Ranger to the Taranaki Waste Lands Board), who recently (officially) .visited the block, reported to that august body, “ That it was bad. That those selectors, in ordei that they might comply with the law re improvement, have I eon compelled to carry on their backs a distance of two or three miles the tucker and tools required by them, through a track little better than a surveyor’s track.” Now, sir,these selectors, after offering no opposition to the opening of the Ingahape Road, which is the road leading to Messrs Gane Bro.’s property, and thus helping them to a good dray road, and after having suffered the hardships reported by Mr Robinson to the Taranaki Waste Lands Board, find that kindhearted body have presented Messrs Gane Bros, with the use, for six months to come, of part of the public funds of the Whakamara deferred payment selectors, instead of having it handed over to the Road Board, to be expended in road making as proposed by them. Thuswhile one section of selectors are compelled to trudge through a track, truly described as “ little better than a surveyor’s line," and no other selector has been exempt from paying when due their instalraents. These favored

champions of deferred payment, Messrs Gane Bros., are enjoying the use of a good dray road to their land, made by the common funds of the deferred 'payment selectors, and have been presented by the Taranaki Waste Lands Board with the free use of that portion of the public money six months longer than any other selector has been allowed the use of their money to make a good dray road to Messrs Gano Bros, property. Every other road on the Whakamara Block has been left unmade. Selectors owning land on the Alien Road have been compelled to make tracks for themselves (a great part being wholly at their own expense), in order that they might be able to do the improvements to their land, required by the Land Act. And now, when a sum of money has been set apart by the Road Board to open a road for them, they find a large part of it has been presented to Messrs Gane Bros., and will not be available for six months to come. Is not this a gross injustice to these selectors ? Does this action of the Waste Lands Boai'd look like enabling selectors to comply with the law in residing permanently on their lands ? Is this one of the charms of deferred payment one hears so much about ? To buy land at one-third higher price than speculators have to pay ; to be told that all of the first payments will be returned for road-making for our special benefit, until a full third of the price of the land is returned ; and then to find Waste Land Boards can allow favoured ones to postpone their payments, and thereby deprive us of the means of getting roads made. This is what a Yankee would call an “ Eye-opener,” But, in extenuation, Messrs Gane Bros, have stated to the Waste Land Board that they labour under “ special circumstances.” {Vide the report of the meeting of Land Board, as reported in the Taranaki Weekly Budget of the 20th instant.) What the special circumstances are, ia not minutely stated in that paper. What great public calamity has happened in Whakamara, that would cause these * special circumstances,’ no one, I believe, but Messrs Gane Bros. know. I am sure not a hostile plough has been yoked in Whakamara. Te Whiti’s earthquake has not visited it. Not a beast- has been removed for safety by any settler from the block. The Ingahape Road is now a good dray road, thus making a ‘ Hegira ’ a very easy matter for Messrs Gane Bros. Surely these men cannot, plead poverty as a ‘ special circumstance,’ seeing they own, besides deferred payment land, nearly six hundred acres freehold land, a large leasehold, and an extensive freehold run. What then are the ‘ special circumstances’ urged by Messrs Gano Bros., that have justified the Land Board in acceeding to their request, demands some explanation, Why have I and other deferred payment selectors been deprived of the means of getting a road made to our lands ? (The law guaranteeing a road, and compelling us to reside permanently on our selections.) Why are Messrs Gane Bros, allowed the * uninterested ’ use of the money out of winch we have a legal right to have a road made ?

Sir, if these men were poor men, I might pity them, and submit quietly to this fraud, for it is little less than a fraud on us selectors, who are without a road to our selections. If these men were navvies, I might so far forget strict justice as to rejoice in the good fortune of a fellowcraftsman.

But, Sir, f canriot consider men poor (however much sensible land speculators may pity them) who could go into hundreds of acres of Whakamara land at the rate of £l2 or £l4 an acre ; and I scorn to consider as fellow-craftsmen, men whom the Hawera Road Board were compelled to ‘ sack 1 from grading, and forming part of the Ingahape road) although Mr W. Pearcey who has since finished that job, has had the honour of employing as navvies—a member of the Patea County Council, a road commissioner for the 24th road district, and an Auditor of the Hawera Hoard Board. An honour like this is unique in the annals of navrying) and surely Mr Pearce must have felt himself a Boss under ‘special circumstances.’ By favouring me with an answer to the question I have made bold to ask you, Sir, re the powers of Waste Land Boards ; you will perhaps help to light a wrong, and secure strict justice to

A DECEIVED DEFERRED PAYMENT SELECTOR' September 27, 1879.

PATEA S.S. CO. (To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sib, — Shareholder” and !t Unfortunate Shareholder” no doubt considered that two heads were better than one, but as in this instance the two heads have apparently only one brain between them, they can be fairly answoredasone. The charge against the officers of allowing the crew to use improper language, and wilfully knock about and ill-use the sheep or stock shipped by the steamer, if allowed to go unrefuted, would be most prejudicial to the interests of the. Company, and, as a shareholder and Director, I have this week seen two of the shippers (Mr Honeyfield and Mr Derrett), and they both distinctly state that no such conduct took place on the occasions on which thep shipped stock. I have been a passenger when sheep have been carried, and can certify to the extreme care taken of the stock by both officers and crew while on the voyage, and especially by Mr Robinson (the mate), who could not have given them more attention if they bad been stud sheep, and his own property. On that occasion the sheep were landed in such good condition, that the consignee expressed his gratification to the officers. With regard to the sailing of the steamer last week, I may state that on Monday it was blowing a gale in Wellington, with heavy rain ; that on Tuesday evening she could have sailed as did the Manawatu, but owing to the incessant wet, she would have come away nearly empty, while by waiting a day she brought a full cargo, earning about eighty pounds freight—which, had she come away and left, would have been carried by the Wanganui boats, to the loss of “ Shareholders.” I am aware it is the wish of the Directors that the steamer should not delay unnecessarily in port, and that whenever practicable she is to leave on the same day that she arrives ; but for my- part I do not go the length of saying that “ the Captain must obey orders, if he breaks owners.” For instance, if there was a cargo which, owing to wet weather, could not be shipped, I would consider it the height of folly to come away with an empty hold sooner

than wait a day. Such & hard and fasi law may be all very well in theory, hut with a small boat in Cock’s Straits it cannot be strictly enforced, except to the loss of the Company. What passengers are we likely to carry if they know that the Captain is compelled to leave when he knows he will have to run for shelter directly he gets out of the harbour, and that instead of being one day on board * thejF’ inay be two or three cooped up under Jbtapiti, or some other equally lively place. With regard to the sailing of the Wanganui steamers, I state for a fact that the Manawatu only Sailed from Wanganui “ once” last week, and the Clyde did not make a single trip. With regard to towing, “Shareholders” will find upon applying to the Pilot that there is no cause of complaint against the steamer Patea in that respect; but it is well known that Captain Bonner, of the Clyde, is siich a favorite with the captains of the coasters, that they will always give him the preference} and 1 do not see why they should not patronise their old friend. The settlers are told that the reason why Mr Gear is not going to ship any more sheep by the Patea is, “ that proper ties for shipping are not ‘offered, nor taken of sheep when on board, and that charge, is-one shil ling'per head higher than from Wanganui.” There certainly are not proper-facilities for shipping; hUCthe-Har-bour Board have let a contract which will provide accommodation 5 hut for the want of it the Company are not to blame, and the officers have given every assistance, by providing hurdles, and labor also. The want of care on board has never been brought before the Directors, and I consider the charge to have no foundation. With regard to the charge being Is per head in excess of Wauganui, I think it will be found that Is 6d per head was a special rate for a large lot, and is not the usual rate from Wanganui to Wellington, and that they are not being carried at that price. Mr Gear expressed himself to the Manager that he was satisfied with the price of 2s GJ per head, and, as a Director, I may state that this price was to he reconsidered as soon as the Manager was in possession of the present Wanganui rates. Should there be any truth in the icport that Wellington dealers purpose buying stock elsewhere, settlers may bo satisfied that the cause for this is extraneous to the management of the Patea steamer. —I am, &c., JOHN GIBSON. Carlyle, Sept. 30, 1879.