THE SKYE CROFTERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 100, 2 May 1885, Page 3

THE SKYE CROFTERS.

By last mail a gentleman in Auckland received a letter from a Free Church minister in the Isle of Skye, from which the following extract is taken :—": — " We are greatly obliged to you and other friends in New Zealand for the deep interest you are taking in the welfare of the poor Skye crofters, who are undergoing a severe oppressive ordeal. The Free Church of Scotland has been aroused to a sense of its duty in this matter, as in the days of Knox, and it is to be hoped that something will shortly be done to mitigate landlord tyranny in the Hebrides. I have perused with much pleasure your correspondence anent the crofters in the Inverness and Oban papers, and feel assured that the generous offer of land by the New Zealand Government to the crofters should, if possible, be accepted by the latter. If the landlords were to aid the emigration of the crofter people, as Lady Gordon, of Uist and Barra, is doing, there would be no difficulty in sending scores of families to your Colony ; as without such assistance they could nob leave their native shores. Some time ago the Government of New Zealand introduced immigrants free of any charge for passage money, and if this system were to be revived the crofters could easily get to your sunny clime, and thus better their circumstances."

Paris pays £170,000 a year to ballet dancors. Quite a big leg-aoy. A Chinaman who lately died at Dunedin from opium smoking was accustomed to smoke 4s worth daily.