AN EXTRAORDINARY RUMOR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 938, 15 April 1882, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY RUMOR.

Concerning an extraordinary rumor, or shadow of a rumor, the_ Lyttelton Time ; editorially says:—“ A friend in the South \ lies asking if we have heard that a Y :k'. i syndic Ae, through a gentleman well-’ iown’in Dunedin mercanfe circles, has offered to pay off the whole Colonial debt, in relu. i for •• ‘1 the ra”ways, and 5,000,000 acres of pastoral land, to be sel ted by the Government. Our correspondent also asks usifwehave heard that the Government have refused the offe’-. We may add that we should be much astonish-:l at such an extreme inst uce of generosity. We should therefore, if such an offer were made, be very much more astor'shed at its refusal; for the Government is, we should imagine, pretty well aware that pastora’ land is not worth £4 pm acre. The sum is simple. If a debt of say thirty n ’llions is cleared off by ten millions worth of r Mways, aud five nr 1 lion acres of land, the land must be worth £4 at least. Of cm se we are aware that it would not be consider 1, in some quarters, strictly right to accept such an offer, but we a.*a a 1 so aware that the Colonial Treasurer is in need of a b. 'liant fr. icial scheme. It would be ve.y easy to become possessed of the id that the enterprising Yankeer- have arrang 1 a scheme for making the purely past oral laud yield them aneno mous profit aud that idea would quiet any scruples about ta’dug the bard-earned money of ou" too simple aud too speculative cousins However; as wo have said, we have heard nothmg. But wo rre quite rer ly to aev.-pt any vvell-authentical 1 information on the subject.’'