THE "NEWS" V. SQUATTERS.

Southland Times, Issue 1145, 11 October 1869, Page 2

THE "NEWS" V. SQUATTERS.

.(TO THE EDITOR OP THE SOTTTHLAHD TIMES.) Sic, — " Why are the squatters so evidently anxious to secure a monopoly of influence in the new Provincial Council ?" asks the News. As the News has the same kind of constitutional aversion to facts as t;he devil has to holy water, it may be sufficient to ask in reply, where are the eleven squatters candidates which. would, constitute a. bare majority ? for I have never heard of them; and in what quarter has been manifested such "evident anxiety?" But if the News really cares to know the truth about two

more squatters — for that is the number offering themselves as candidates for the Council — still more, if the News really desires that the truth should be 'made known* — wne tres forte supposition /-^the answer is not far to seek. The late Council, especially a#sheir last session, made such a pitiful exhibition of themselves, shewed such utter ignorance of what they were pleased to call " Constitutional Government," and such a supreme contempt for any other employment — at the cost of the province — than^hearing themselTesprateabout personal squabjbJes, that the squatters may very likely .have arrived at length at the conviction that it might be as well to attempt to introduce a little common sense into an assembly on whose deliberations their own as well as other people's welfare depends. The majority of the runholders are, . however, not over favorable to annexation ; and annexation is the cry which the News believes — and is mistaken in believing — is the echo of the people's voice. So just at the juncture when the position of the province requires the most united and deliberate councils, the editor, with true Mephistophelian policy, sets up again the old — and one would have thought long ago exploded — raven cry of the " natural antagonism " between runholders and " cockatoos." (The last term is bis own, not mine.) Since the ran holders have bought so much land — at the same price, mind, as the farmers — they haAe themselves become farmers and employers of labor, and, leaving the Land Company out of the question, to a greater extent than the settlers. Who but the ruuholders have for the last four years furnished almost the only funds we have had for roads and railroads ? Who are at present the greatest advocates for and promoters of road-making ? Are the so-called " Cockaj toos," and all other settlers combined, prepared to volunteer, as a few runholders have done within the last week, to furnish, by buying the necessary quantity of land for the purpose — not at 10s, but at 20s. an acre — 'the funds required lor making a road or light railway to Long Bush,— some £25,000 say? Ah! yes; but that will enable them to get their own wool and fat stock to market. Just so ; and it will still more serve the interest of the farmers. Will these, for their own exclusive interest even, do likewise. h \ It is useless to follow the editor's \ figures and arguments founded on them : j both are equally fallacious. Still more ' useless, and sickening to boot, would it be to follow him through his jeers and insinuations. lam content to leave him | a monopoly of such tools. I In a second leader on the same day, the editor says : " The almost entire absence of proper facilities for inter communica- j tion is one of the great evils that reunion may be depended upon to overcome." May it indeed ? I would fain have a better guarantee for the statement than the igse dixit of the Editor of the News ; and I think we have a more reliable dependence in such men as have now oftered to put their shoulders to the wheel, than in the assistance of the News . or of Mr M' Andrew's delegates. ■ If the editor of the News, instead of | setting people by the card, that he may have occassion for flippant writing, and the opportunity for entertaining his readers with sorry, smarting, dreamy twaddle about " vulgar tradesmen," " cockatoos," " lions lying down with lambs," and "natural enemies," stupid comparisons about " rebellious Maories," and such stereotyped bunkum as " hardhanded sons of toil," &c , ad captendum oulgus, would quote only facts, and urge only arguments, our prospects might become the brighter for it. But it is but a poor compliment to the inhabitants of the Province, and a sorry return for their I subscriptions, after vaunting itself as their only provider of intellectual, politicaJ, and moral pabulum, to serve them up, as it has done for a good many months past, such garbage as this. Were the whole province unanimous' in asking for annexation — as, thank goodness, it is far enough from being—^-the I wish could not be realized for a year to come. Meantime, what we pressiilgly want m " friends in Council," fitted by education and business training to devise means for meeting the present emergency ; men, moreover, whom, from their intellect and character, the Colonial Government, as well as the Provincial constituencies, can respect and trust. It little matters, for this purpose, what a man's opinion may be on this or that ephemeral party question. The important enquiry should be, Has he a head on his shoulders, and integrity to gnide it ? For such a task, men of the calibre of Webster, Cowan, Bell, and M'Neill are surely better fitted than such as Messrs Dalrymple, Daniels, and their like, even though the former should be besotted enough to object to hand over the Provincial estate to the management of Mr Macandrew. J. E. Invercargill, 7th October, 1869.