Dhe Southland Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1617, 9 August 1872, Page 2

Dhe Southland Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1872.

"We are so much accustomed to be misrepresented and misunderstood by the Press of the old country, that the absurdities which continually appear in print when colonial matters are discussed excite no surprise, and are only occasionally quoted in our local papers by way of a good joke, when they happen to be of a more than usually ludicrous kind. The following sample, reproduced by an Otago paper from the John o' Groat'a Journal, is certainly absurd enough to excite a smile on first perusal, although it may be questioned, on second thoughts, whether the publication of such statements does not go just a little beyond a joke. Mr Stout, of Dunedin, had, it seems, furnished some particulars regarding Stewart's Island as a field for emigration for the fishing population of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, when forthwith appears the following letter : — SiE 3 — A late number of your journal contains a flattering letter from Eobert Stout, of Otago, New Zealand, setting forth the advantages of Stewart's Island, one of the waste islands of Southland, as a fit place for " a proposed trial settlement" for fishermen, and recommends emigration to that place from Orkney and Shetland. Now, Sir, Stewart's Island may be a very desirable place abstractly, but its early history, according to the extract from the Otago Times referred to by Mr Stout, is rather against it as a " trial settlement." Remains of cannibal feasts are yet to be seen on the Island, and it is not unlikely that, at the present day, settlers would stand a fair chance of being butchered, for I find j in an extract from the Hawke's Bay Herald, an account of the trial of a New Zealand chief, on the 11th of December last, for the murder of two Europeans, whose heads he cut off, brought them into a church— pulled out their eyes and swallowed them ! He next, according to the evidence, threatened destruction to any of the tribe who » would not assist in eating the rest of the flesh of the heads ! I must confess, Mr Editor, I would not voluntarily choose such neighbors. On the contrary, I would say to any who may wish to emigrate from Orkney or Shetland, rather go to the Dominion of Canada, where there ate no cannibals but where there is a competency for all who are industrious — where life and property are as eacred as in Great Britain — where all may enjoy civil and religious liberty, with the advantages of a good secular education — free to the poor — and where every settler over 18 years of age may obtain a free grant of 100 acres of land. — I remain, &c, Alexakdeb Begg. Pulteneytown, 7th May, 1872. It is difficult to deal seriously with a production like this ; and of course nothing is more obvious than that to point out its absurdity to settlers in the colony would be a mere waste of time. It may not, however, be so unprofitable to consider the effect of this ingenious mixture j of truth and falsehood on the people to whom it was addressed. The John o' Groat's Journal is published in Wick, and the letter is dated from Pulteneytown, which may be described as an appendage of that northern city, well known as the chief emporium of the fishing trade of the north of Scotland. Thither, in the summer time, the fishermen from the Shetlaud and Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, and all the northern coasts of Scotland, are wont to resort.. Speaking of these men, Dr Julius Wood, in the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland last May, made the following" remarks : — " When this," the herring fishing, " takes place, the population of Wick and Pulteneytown is nearly doubled. Upwards of 6000 men in the prime and vigor of life take up their residence for a period of six or seven weeks, speaking a different language from the natives of the place. Notwithstanding this, the aspect of the streets at all times, and especially on the Sabbath, is most gratifying. Although vast crowds throng them, there is the greatest order and quietness and sobriety." Not a bad certificate of character for intending emigrants ! And when we add these that people, amongst the hardiest and bravest sailors and fishermen in the world, are accustomed to wring out of a soil and climate of the moat ungenial kind, not only a subsistence for themselves and their families, but a rent for the proprietors of the Boil, no one can doubt that their presence amongst us would be a mutual gain, to us and to them. How many of them are likely to come, after reading or hearing of such a letter ? Eemains of caunibal feasts ! A Maori chief cutting off the heads of Europeans and eating their eyes in a church, tried in December last ! Such neighbors, indeed ! Hawke's Bay and Stewart's Island are in New Zealand, and that is enough. Mr Robest Stout will doubtless take care that something in the way of contradiction and explanation is sent home, but will that undo the mischief? The atrocities of the Commune in Paris last year would be as good a reason for not going to London, no doubt, as those assigned to frighten away intending settlers from Stewart's Island. But while it is very easy to create a false impression, it is another thing altogether to dispel it. We see here one of the results of our political connection with our Northern fellow-colonists, who were lately so obliging as to tell Mr Bbo&den that he would be better to go home at once than to visit the South Island. This, no doubt, we will have to put up with for a time, although we in the South Island outnumber them by two to one. The propositions made lately in the Assembly, to remove the seat of Government to Ohristchurch, or to divide the Colony into two Provinces, are not likely to pass this session, nor the next. But it might not be amiss, in the meantime, that the Agent-Generai in London should be instructed specially to notice such misrepresentations, particularly when, as in this instance, they appear to emanate

from the paid emissaries of rival colonies. Setting aside the nonsense about the cannibals, however, it is instructive to notice that there are two advantages claimed by Mr Bsgg, whoever he may be, for Canada, which we cannot yet offer here — free grants of land, and good secular education, free to the poor. In the special settlement in question, indeed, we have made a beginning with the free grants, and the sooner the system is extended to the whole Colony the better. In the matter of education we can scarcely be said yet to have even made a beginning. It will "be a good day for New Zealand when public opinion is sufficiently advanced to tolerate no Government which is not bold enough, and strong enough, to deal with these important questions. _____________