WAIMATE PLAINS

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 134, 5 April 1879, Page 3

WAIMATE PLAINS

The following letter appears in the columns of the 1 New Zealander’:— Sir, —War to the knife ! So say the land speculators !'So say those who wish to cm harass the Government. The uneasy feeling caused by recent newspaper articles and telegrams is notshared in by the settler in the neighborhood of Hawcra or Normnuby. Those persons, who. without thought of consequences, send the alarming telegrams, are either chmkenhearted or else thev are the up-country representatives of the hiudshark ring ; or, perhaps, as the game season opens this month, they want Government to send them up guns and ammunition so as to have sport on the cheap. Of onrse, if the farce is kept up hona Jixlc settlers will not like to buy and run the risk of annoyance.and then the land speculators would say that the deferred system and small blocks was a failure. As regards the other, those m the secret woukf simply buy at their own price. The Maoris*on the Plains know very little about the matter, and seem to care hss, and auv information asked is roaddy given. Any person wishing information can, by going to any of the pahs, find a Maori guide, who instead of, as reported, pulling out pegs will show the pegs, and give information as to relative value of different blocks of land. A general feeling pervades with the Maoris on the Plains, that the Government will provide certain reserves, and that they will be allowed to live. Certainly the fact remains that the surveyors were removed, and the Government should send them hack, but in dealing with the Maoris who are the cause of the removal, and whose overt act of disaffection has caused present disquietude, the Government should first deal with them by reasoning. They are but children of nature. Some children, it is asserted, are best governed by the lash ; in the present instance the lash would be a mistake. If a Government and "those who, without knowing the serious consequences, have violated the law, arc shown the error and told if they persist it simply means extermination and confiscation, I firmly believe they would as quickly bring back the surveyors as they took them away. Having just arrived from off the Plains, I considered it my duty to lay these few facts before the public with a view of allaying the evident feeling in alarm that pervades Wellington, and my parting advice to intending settlers is don’t let it affect you, or in anyway retard your movements. I have no private interest to serve by the publication of these remarks, and merely write as I sojourn for a few hours in Wellington, on my journey to the West Coast of the South Island. — I am, &c., B. J. Sbddon .