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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 223, 2 March 1866, Page 2

A LAfiGE meeting ot the pastoral occupants of the Crown has taken place in Invercargill, for the purpose of discussing the new Southland Land Act, and determining the course of action which it was advisable to pursue. Although the press was not admitted to their deliberative meetings, we have sufficient evidence to assert, that they were characterised by great fairness of thought as regarding other interests, and a desire to canvass liberally the action of the Grovernment under discussion — that while desiring to protect themselves from any unnecessary interference, they were not opposed to the settlement of the country. It is due to the pastoral organization to say, that they have initiated a system of united action activity which is indispensable to progress essential to the provoking of that public I We hope the time may never come when" the pastoral interest of Southland shall be held antagonistic to the other interests of the country — when the agricultural and commercial community shall view it as obstructive All three interests are identical and should work together for the positive benefit of all. To assert that pastoral pursuits must, in the due course of events, either amalgamate with or give way to agricultural, would be simply to give utterance to a thread-bare truism. But there is no reason for the pastoral interest to be sacrificed, or injustice done to the occupants of the Crown Lands. "When interference with them becomes necessary, let a fair and equitable compensation be awarded, and all interests fairly dealt with. Agriculture must advance, and pastoral recede — change its position — before the advancing wave of population and colonization. To attempt to stem the progress of the one to foster and pamper the other, would only be to breed discord, bitterness, agitation, antagonism, and disorder. To facilitate settlement and do no injustice to existing interests — to place an adequate supply of land in the market, and at the same time avoid, as far as possible, disturbing the squatter in the occupation of his run, is the end to which| the Grovernment should now direct its attention. If we can count aright the beating of the pastoral pulse, this is all they ask, and this is what every politician — not " stump " celebrity — would desire to give. We subjoin the following document, under which we understand the majority of the representatives of the pastoral interest, have elected to act: — " Invercargill, 28th Feb., 1866. "To the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands for the Province of Southland. " Sib, — We beg to give you notice that we are desirous of holding our run No. 181, subject to the provisions of the Southland Waste Lands Act, 1865. "In taking this course, we wish to record our protest against Clause 27, by which it would appear that compensation to the Crown tenant for the loas of his run is allowed only so long as the price of land remains at 20s. per acre. The spirit of the resolutions of the Provincial Council on which the Land Act in question was based, was intended to give the scale of compensation contained in the Act without reference to price, "We also protest against Clause 75, which must be looked upon as a threat

to coerce the Crown tenants to come under the Act, in order to escape the worse alternative of having their runs declared into Hundreds. " We further protest against the Provincial Debt Act 1865, more particularly Clause 15, which virtually confers an absolute and arbitrary power of altering the price at which land may be sold, and also the terms and conditions upon which the occupants of Crown lands hold their leases, thus deterring the runholders or capitalists by the probabilityjof a reduction in ?price, from investing in the purchase of land as they otherwise would were the price definitely fixed, and retarding the improvement of the province by the Crown tenants, as they cannot be expected to invest largely in fencing, and the introduction of superior live stock, go long as the terms upon which they hold their runs are so uncertain. "In thus protesting, we elect to hold our, run tinder the provisions of the Southland "Waste Lands Act, 1865, without prejudice to our right, by petition and all other lawful and constiutional means, of endeavoring to procure a repeal or modification of the provisions of the Southland Provincial Debts Act, 1865, and of the clauses in the Land Act above referred to. — "We have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servants, "Holmes & Baenhill."