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Southland Times, Issue 697, 17 July 1867, Page 2

_■ TO THB EDITOE OP THE SOUTHLAND TIMES. Sib,— As long as liberty of speech, and a free press ar^ privileges of the Briton, tfiere.Vill be much babble solemnly uttered and- published without eliciting contradiction,- or even comment. But, when the speaker of the Provincial Council, a. man whose, words are supposed "to be weighed and uttered under all the consciousness and -responsibility of authority, when by way of guiding public opinion he giavely delivers: himself ,of statements which are obviously both erroneous a»d ab.surd, then, I say, it is the "duty of some one to tell the public so, and remind this would-be leader of the public, that if the blind become leaders of the, blind,.. both "shall fall into a ditch. '; : " Mr "Wilson, it appears, both' opposed ■■ arid supported railway extension on equally good grounds. .: " "When he opposed, the Bluff, and Oreti Kailways were not finish- • cd— -two good reasons for not making a third until they were." And when one railway — the Bluff— was finished, and was being worked at a loss to the Province, from returns in: my possessing of £710 sterling, for the three months ended 30fch June last, exclusive of coals and interest on capital, Mr Wilson discovered that there was still left one reason not against, as any one would have supposed, but for c athird railway. Mr "Wilson informs us -thair ucres of - land have been 'sold under the present Act, with a reduc.tion/inthedebt of. .the Pronnce of only £65,000 sterling, and "so long as one jtenth. part was given to runholders, the same result wduld follow." A tenth part -of £200,000, is £20,000, and that deducted therefrom, leaves £180,000. Mr "Wilson might have taken upon himself to explain to his audience what seems to be a serious discrepancy in his calculation. But is there a tenth part of the price of land ".paid to the ruriholder.?. Mr "Wilson says " that for eight years' from that time, on all land sold on runs there was,2s per acre .compensation paid to the .runhplder. The consequence was plainly that if the land was lowered to 10s an acre, they -were compelled to give away brie fifth of the public estate." . ; Now, I think I may safely assert that when Mr Wilson had the -audacity to lecture, at a public meeting, on the Land Laws, on that subject - not one of his hearers cquld have been more -ignorant than himself. For if he had ever looked at the Land Act, he must have seen, in the first place, that the compensation was after a certain seale — that is to say, it varied from 2s to 6d, and, in the. second . place, that compensation of any kind applies only to " the period in which the price of rural land is 20s an acre." Mr "Wilson goes on to say, "many of the squatting licenses had only a few years to run, some only two or three." If such, had been the case, the compensation to be paid in respect of them would have been Is per acre, and 6d per acre respectively. .-., -..- „•. . „ . / ;: • And how much compensation at the rate of 2s per acre has the Province .been " defrauded" of? None. Three licenses in the Province, so far as I am "aware, had a term of years unexpired entitling the licensees to 2s per acre compensation, but as neither of them, elected to come under - the Act, the compensation clause did not apply to them. Mr "Wilson then talks of free selection, spotting, surveying, &c, and it is surely an extraordinary circumstance his being able to handle so many ■subjects, and at such length, without ever once approaching the truth. " The Land Laws had been changed by the squatters. 3?ree selection was but a licentious freedom to the gentlemen in possession (the squatters), to pick the eyes out of the land. Some of these men had actually employed surveyors to mark out sections in the passes between mountains in suck a manner as virtually to lock up the country." Now, every one acquainted with the" system of survey in this Province, knows that all the surveyors are responsible to the Government, and receive their instructions direct from the Chief Surveyor, who is answerable for everything pertaining to v the public interests. And every one acquainted with the Land Act knows that every section has to comply in its position" and shape, with the stringent provisions of the Act. And I think few in the Province will fail to remember how very unpopular the squatters made them* selves by their persistive opposition to the present Land Act. They petitioned the Greneral Government, against it, and it was only on account of the threat held out in that Act that they gave their reluctant adherence thereto. Spotting may be an «vil, but the privilege of spotting is not confined to thfri squatter, it 1b one of the elements of free, selection— and if

cated maps of the landjoffice he wjll find Tthat ~ land "has been taken up by•*rtln-. . holders, not in patches of twenty acres, as he asserts, but in. continuous blocks of thousands of acres. . . ' Mr "Wilson informs his audience that there was a little affair connected with the Eccles arrangement which . it would be well to notice— Two thousand acres of land were said to have been selected, for •or by him on a certain run. The runholder heard of it, came to- iown : p'psk haste, and the selection was changed.That gentleman subsequently voted ; to keep the late Government in. \ .' ? I presume that . X am" the C individual pointed at. 'The selection of land was not .changed to another run,: bat 'was disr allowed entirely. ..And why wasit disallowed ?.- - Because his Honor, -being: at the time feeble in mind and body, had, at : the persuasion of Mr Eccles and Mr Toung, directed the latter gentleman to mark off on the authenticated map 2,000 acres of land adjoining his own property, for Mr Eccles, without having first obtained the advice and consent of his Executive. I voted with the Government during that session, because I exonerated it from all complicity in every dubious transaction. — Your obedient servant, Cuthbeet Cowan. : Okaiterua, 12th July, 1867.