The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOV. 25, 1864.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 77, 25 November 1864, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOV. 25, 1864.

, , a We published, in our iast is.sue, exiwci^ from two letters, written by a person in [uvercargill to a friend in Scotland, 'and whicn found their way into the G-la^gou. Mail. It would not be necessary to puin. out to the inhabitants of the Colony tho gross falsehoods contained in those letters Out the case is different with people at home. Their ideas of New Zealand and colonial life generally are of the vaguest description ; and such statements as those put forward by. ouv unscrupulous townsman, whoever he may be, are calculated to have a most damaging eifect by retarding emigration It is diUieult to understand wh>tfc object the man could have -ia-' sending- 'to hit* friend sentence after sentence of thy most bare-faced lying that has ever J been concocted. -There is, in some j mmds, a natural liking to a good hoax, and from time to ■''-time the usually acute editors of home journals are so far -impb./ed on as -to give publicity to extraordinary epistles which have been foolishly devised in a spirit of fun. These Invercargill letters caiinot be clashed amongst such. Tlie hoax , could in no way conduce to. the .merriment of ; any one. Tney are evideiitly the production of a "splenetic arid' narrow-minded person^ who sees only the gloomy side of the picture, and the natural' ben|; Of whose 'disposition is not kept in ' subjection ;-■ by ! a ?i love'of truth; << ■■' jSOine daz^^iscontehteli) ?iriort&U, who has prouahly|;iSu|Pered in pocket by : the duluess oiftheVtijoaes, ia the,, author of those ealiimM^ ' sujnm^i punishment; eueli aa " tarring and feathering," at fctie hands of' His*

that he!|iias m^de '^Sgjfair pial of |bje, |andv|a3 cqme; to th|f(|?ncluaign j Ithat ,it'iii&l a nundred;^imes.J|v|orse, than; Iffily he «^N, 1 *^~ merate a few "^ofX.tQ'e reasotfa he gives for his opinion, '""Mdr- inquire into their truths -with- a -view- - of-disabuaing 8 ..-the J ; minds of^our-tViends^ in Scotland,. \y ho may-, havegiverf credit J tb - fheui/' -"iiAs^fbrithe^ ;»'-'- laiid-^t would-not»take-a .gift.ofvit, .ifthe, "•)conditions.were.^that^l...was- f jto farm it. "lit can hardly grow'^nytiiing7 Wheat "Icaanot be grpvvn atjall.:«.lt ha^ T all to ":be cut in* a green^state when* ".incomes .<■ "jtd'a- Certaih4ehgth, aiid choppediu]s for: : "jhorse feeding." : This 'is' the ; "first de- 1 ; liberate lie -or cluster .of lies. .. ;: :A : ;l3>rge> pbrtion of the land of , the -Middle Island is 1 admirably adapted for" agriculture, and -in the ; Province 'of ' Southland ; t:He ; 'great draw-back to the prosperity ■" of tne farmer hks beeii the want; of iriills tp: ; grmdliiscpreaf produce, ' ' That defect will' shbrtly b;e remedied, as a" company 'has- beeiv formedtfor; tlie establishment of Pxtehs'iye"" ; grain mills, an undertaking which,. wpuld scarcely have- been . initiated unless there : ; Vv"ere a., prospect of sometliing to turn iiito flour.: Men in the , Colony are not inferior in judgment to their compeers- in - (srreat Britain,' and if it were impossible for corn "to ripen they would, have found some other method of investing their capital., He tells us also that fruit will' not ripen, but, though in'a he\vly-set;tled country orchardd and. gardens cannot.reasonably be expected feo be plentiful, or brought co a very hig.i state of perfection, still, both the laud aud climate of New Zealand are particularly adapted for the growth of all the ordinary sorts of fruit growu in Europe, and in the Northern Island, some of the tropical productions thrive wonderfully. Perhaps the worst falsehood of Which tais man. has been: guilty : ia . in stating there is no grass in the country, and further ou that ''within a circuit of " ten mde3 of Invercargill there is not as " much gr.iss on any 1,000 acred as would " feed one cow." Coming direct from a c mutry where stock are depastured in iieids of artificial grasses, the bright green of which forms so pleasing a feature in Bi-itisli rural scenery, uo doubt the sombre hues of the natural grass .of New Zealand .Would not create a very favorable impression on the melancholy writer of the '" Warning from New Zealand ;" but he appears altogether to have forgotteu the' many thousands of cattle and sheep which dot our hills and plains,., aifd by their produce enable a certain class to grow wealthy in an incredibly short space of time. No Colony in the -world- is better suited for depasturing stock than New Zealand, especially the. Middle'- Is-i; land ; and no part of the Middle Island than Sou th Un d; and as each year the .number of cattle and : sheep increases, so do the quality and quantity of the grass improve.., Witain the actual radius named by this wretched grumbler there is some of the best feeding ground to be found in the island. We mustdiasten on to ; that par* of one of the- letters where he describe the " wholetown" as bankrupt, and describes the working population as in a state of starvation. " The Oustom House and Post OJJice cleric's are in a state of destitution." Muudreds of other letters will by this time have been despatched to friends in . Great Britain, telling of the great depression at present existing in Southland from various causes, and of the temporary embarrassment of the Provincial Government, owing to its having undertaken Urge railway works, but we venture to say, that not oue of them has mis-stated facts in this manner. The best answer to the assertion that the working population is starving is that the great majority of the immigrants who have landed within trie last few months have found work at a remunerative figure. It must have been rather a startling piece of intelligence to our worthy Collector of Customs and to the Chief Postmaster that their suuprdinaies, whose salaries have, without exception, been punctually paid, are in astate of destitution. We have omitted in its order to notice what is said of the passengers by a certain emigrant ship to Dunedin, lie na^ne of which is not -supplied. " There were 300 passengers, all or nearly •' all of whom settled in Dunedin,..and in '■ twelve months after, 100 out of. .300 " were in their graves." The writer Of the letter in which the above appearediloes not certainly state it from his own knowledge. Me says he was told it by some one ; but he sup lies it as information to his friend. The story is altogether .t fabricition. No such mortality, or any ipproaohing it by Tery many degrees, ever occurred to the passengers by any immigrant ship ; and had such a statement been made the hearer would naturally hive enquired the name of the vessel and have supplied it to his correspondent. Moreover, such a lamentable affair would not have escaped notice in journals either of the Colony or of Great Britain.....: Wo have mentioned only a few of the worst of these falsehoods ; but the letter itself furnishes its own refutation. If all these tales are true, how comes it that immigration to New^ Zealand has lasted so long? Tais mm is asking too much of his friend at home, when he requires him to believe that ail the letters '' we," that is, we suppose, the writer and his friends, received from New Zealand, were little else than lies. The ordinary ruu of mortals do riot; mike a practice of writing lies, least of all when supplying information to their friends and relatives; forgetting (liars have proverbially snort memories) that he had previously said; that, the laud " will hardly grow anything," he, .in his second letter, tolls us that "some of the '■ farmers out lV6m ten to twenty miles " from ; this have grown ;conHiderabJe "quantities of potatoes, corn; or- oatOn "hay,", but that if; cannot be brought into town on accouut--of the bad -state of-the roads. Two sentences , further on he says that he has ".not ..heard of any farmer " who grows, ft^rnuch as f |eeds ; hia ; ownsuppose, ' f Vhey,^he| de-* floieiicy ' ia made up? by pro yisionai .drawn. from [jipyv n. ; how is that accompl/ehediiv; P^nigf iU fepliiis-own fthowin^: the

ifion^y to^me^6n#^pa^|^t^^u trill %m£n^ 'for h'aivm^^iri#i^3o n^aW groaa^takehoods, theleait'oTof^e fj-lasgow Mail is doubly guilty in^aUowins? such stuff to find its way into his .oolump.s,\vithoufc pointing out to the more 1 /igQoraW.and inobservant po^tr<|f^^i> . xeadejsit^ ; . uujbruihfaHiess. No educated" man could Tior'one'mo^ report, and^t^is^^UW'-of-'th^Tflu^es of an editor to '~ publicity -to —falserhood, knowing 'iPto ;i b'e^su6nV'l^Het •those who desire information on New JZealan'dJvtkkei; it>iifromf; '^inorev reliabje { , sources than the unacknawl edged ravings of a, r , disappointed misaixthrope. ■ Thgre are books ,enougli, papers e]ioug]i^ag% trustworthy men enough;- in G-ve^df^^ tiiin"' '4* ' the-present T day to: lsupp*ly' :£ full" •pkrt'iculai^fof the:s-bate o.tthe^Q.plpuy^'as!^ its capabilities/as. a yplace-e.of ; settle^en.^ ; They will then hear that New Zealand /i#f not surpassed either,,,^ m. : ,cjipu;te,: .or,, th^ fruitfulneas f of, ''^SQJI/; ,^'; r any a > -Vbt'h"ef country Hii tlie' wb rid.''' ''That it is rich beyond conception in mineral treasurer, and is" makin g; under -liberal -institutions,rapid strides towards . a high state of civilization. ., -■ ..-d-. S'2k} i ■--.