The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1888. THE LAND QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1820, 24 November 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1888. THE LAND QUESTION.

It will be remembered that recently the people of Oamaru forced the prepout Government to cut up theKurow ran. This run had previously been leased by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and Mr Ballance gave the Company the usual twelve months’ notice that the land was required for settlement. Before the twelve months expired Mr Ballance was ousted from power, and his place was taken by Mr Richardson. No sooner had this occurred than the Land Company despatched a gentleman of influence to Wellington to buttonhole members so as to get the notice cancelled, with the result that he was successful. When the people of Oamaru became aware that the notice had been cancelled, and that the land would not be cut up, they at once became very indignant, and when Mr Richardson passed through the district on his way from inspecting rabbits in the Mackenzie Country he was met by a large number of settlers in the Kurow district, who indignantly protested against this action. It was all to no purpose. Mr Richardson told the® plainly he would not cut up the land. This led to an indignation meeting in Oamaru, and Mr Hislop, becoming no doubt afraid of losing his seat, used his influence in the Cabinet to get the land cut up. It was thus the present Government were forced, after a most stubborn resistance, to yield to the pressure which the Oamaru people brought to bear on them, but it is doubtful whether they would have been so compliant only for the fact that Mr Hislop, the Colonial Secretary, is member for the district. This view of the case is borne out by the way in which they are at present treating the Mount Ida people. Prom there, according to the Mount Ida Chronicle, the people have forwarded a petition asking the Government to cut up runs 222 and 222 b, and the reply Hr Richardson has forwarded to them is brief, but very much to the point. He says — “ I have the honor to inform yon that the Government do not think it would be desirable to interfere with the existing tenure of the runs referred to.” There are 12,000 acres of land in these runs, and the Chronicle says that “ hundreds of people there are ready to apply for the land, and for each allotment there will be the keenest competition. These blocks are the garden of the Maniototo Plain, and all the petitioners are bona fide. By the opening of these blocks in small holdings, too, the revenue of the colony will be greatly augmented.” The Chronicle then becomes very indignant at the people having been “ treated with supercilious indifference,” and it “ spurns such insolent pretension.” It continues to say it is evidently the policy of the Government to is compel people to do one of three things, viz.—(1) Leave the colony; (2) submit to the degradation of receiving alms from the Charitable Aid Board; or (3) die of starvation. And then it appeals “to the Press of New Zealand, in which alone would seem to lie our last hope of obtaining fair play.” By all means we tender our contemporary any little assistance we can render in exposing the disgraceful conduct of the present Government, but while sympathising with it in its present attitude towards a squatter Government, we should like to remind it of its actions in relation to the Stout-Vogel Ministry. First, is Mr Scobie Mackenzie, M.H.R. for Mount Ida, the proprietor of the Mount Ida Chronicle? Did Mr Mackenzie resort to most awfully unblushing misrepresentations in order to oust from office the late Government; and did not the Chronicle endorse everything Mr Mackenzie said ? Did it not misrepresent the late Government in every possible way? Did the Chronicle do its best to return to Parliament that conceited, pedantic, priggish squatter Mr Scobie Mackenzie, in order to turn out of power the only Government that ever made a honest effort to settle the people on the land? And if it did all this, as we know it did, we ask it now, does it not appear to be a just judgment on it, and on those who voted against the late Government, that the very men who were not long ago their idols should turn round on them now ? While regretting that any impediment should be placed in the way of land settlement, we unhesitatingly admit that we feel glad at finding the question forced upon the attention of people who are so blind to their own and the colony’s interests as to return a Scobie Mackenzie to Parliament for the special purpose of turning such statesmen as Sir Robert Stout and Mr Ballance out of office. All the consolation we have to offer such people is "Serve them right,” and we ‘ only hepe that their idols will trample on their fpeling* and on their interests until such time as they can see that if they want the runs cut up and settled upqn, Jprgp }apd-owners and their toadies ar.a pot the men to dp it. The Moupt Ida Chronicle appeals for asafetappe tp the Press of the colony. «Gad helps those who help them- , • " Let the Chronicle remember . veß, i *mxt election, and this motto at let it tell its readers plains

I'hey want runs cut up a runholder l s not the man to return to Parliament. Let it remember that the Parliament will be exactly as the people make it, and, if our contemporary wants a good Parliament then let it do its share of the work of securing a good one. At present it does whatever suits Mr Mackenzie, and if we except the Minister of Lands, Mr Mackenzie is not only amongst the worst, but amongst the most mischievous politicians in New Zealand. Coming back to the main question, “ A straw shows how the wind blows,” and this straw at Mount Ida shows that the present Govern ment still continue to disregard the desire which the people are showing to settle on the land, and that they are doing all in their power to throw obstacles in their way. Serve the people right. It is just what they deserve. When they had a good Government they turned them out of office, and it is only right that they should suffer for it.