The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 296, 7 August 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1875.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

Petitions seem to be the order of the day just now; and, although the various matters which have suggested their necessity have each an importance of its own, there is none of more importance to the settlers of this district than that to which the Hon. Major Richardson gave expression" recently in the House of Representatives relative to the construction of bridges across the Waimata and Waipawa rivers. In answer to an inquiry the Minister of Public Works said that, so far, nothing had been done, “ but when the sales of the blocks of land in that district took place something would be done!!!” It is not difficult to see, in these few unsatisfactory words, an allusion to the Patutahi Block, especially as it has been understood all along that the cost of the construction of these bridges is to Be defrayed from the proceeds of its sale—a principle against the operation of which there may be no objection under ordinary circumstances; but, as we have said before—and ask the co-operation of our fellow settlers while we repeat—we are placed in very extraordinary circumstances, and it will be a flagrant injustice to this district if the Government force the sale of those lands into the market before it is first definitively settled where, when, and how (at any rate one of them , the bridge over the Big river) is to. be built. There seems to be now no further necessity for postponing the whole of these undertakings. Justice to the settlers; justice to the policy of the Government; justice to the land itself, demands that no further uncertainty or delay should exist upon this matter. We have refrained from urging this upon the Government before, as we were aware of 'its inability to carry on the work from Want of funds ; but that inability is now' removed. Four millions more money —or at any rate so much as we are likely to get —have been added to the Colonial Treasury; as an important integer in this vast sum we shall have to contribute of our substance to the cost of all this political rioting and drunkenness, and we hold the Government to give us a pledge of their sincerity in ratifying the promises made in the lately-delivered Financial Statement, by securing to such outlying districts as Poverty Bay a fair and equitable share of the benefits—such as they are —of the burdens they will have to bear.. Now is the time; this is the opportunity for the Government to show to the Colony what they will do for districts in future by their present treatment of Poverty Bay. Even allowing that it is to the land revenue that we must look for funds with which to carry on ordinary works, there is something so very exceptional in the position into which the affairs of this district have been allowed to drift between the dog-in-the-manger policy of the Provincial and General Governments, that our very misfortunes lay claim to, at least, the political benevolence of that one which is securing our support by giving us hopes of its legislating for our especial benefit. We say, then, let the settlers be up and doing. Let us send up such a petition to the House of Representatives as will make most unmistakably known that we are sensible of the injustice from which we have suffered so long, and, probably, will continue to suffer from unless our voice is heard. A share of the money which once again enriches the coffers of the country should be secured to this district, quite independently of anything connected with the Patutahi Block ; for it is impossible to overlook the fact that the indefiniteness of Major Richardson’s reply that '‘something would be done” leaves behind it a painful suspicion that nothing may be done if we do not look well to our own interests. To be forewarned is

to be forearmed, and this is one of the last warnings that can possibly be of any use to the settlers of Poverty Bay