THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1891. OUTRAGEOUS MONOPOLY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2235, 1 August 1891, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1891. OUTRAGEOUS MONOPOLY.

The general cry of large land-owners is that land does not pay. They would get rid of it at any moment if they could. A return which, has been submitted to the Waste Lands Committee in Parliament shows how the large land-owners try to get more land whenever they can. The following statement shows the acres of Crown land occupied by squatters,, with the numbers of sheep they graze. This return was laid before the Waste Lands Committee' last Wednesday. It gives an interesting view of the occupation of lands under the existing conditions:—

Messrs R. Campbell and Sons’ lease from the Crown 25 runs, estimated to contain 364,766 acres, on which they depasture 205,000 sheep ;'the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company 17 runs estimated to contain 450,500 acres, on which they , despature 138,000 sheep; the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, 17 runs, of 328,215 acres, depasturing 91,500 sheep; Messrs Dalgety and Co., 38 runs, 555,706 acres, 136,000 sheep; the New Zealand Land and Mortgage Company, 2 runs, 89,870 acres, 43.000 sheep; Messrs Blackwood and Co., 6 runs, 87,754 acres, 37,000 sheep; Mr F. D. Bell, 14 runs, 137,228 acres 48,500 sheep ; Messrs Murry, Roberts and Co., 2 runs, 24,020 acres, 13,000 sheep ; Mr J. H. Preston, 5 runs 112,194 acres, 51,300 sheep; Messrs Ross and Glendining, 9 runs, 131,188 acres, 53,000 sheep, Messrs Cargill and Anderson, 14 runs, 99,390 acres, 33,000 sheep; Messrs Pogson and Co., 11 runs, 70,100 acres, 38.000 sheep; Mr Scobie Mackenzie, M.H.R., 5 runs, 60,560 acres, 29,600 sheep, total summaried, 13 runholders, 165 runs, 2,541,000 acres, 917,000 sheep. The late Honorable Robert Campbell is at the head of the list with 25 runs —yet when one of these was in the market a few years ago Mr Richardson, instead of dividing it into small runs, allowed Mr Campbell to get it. The only excuse Mr Richardson gave was that he made a mistake and sent a wrong telegram. Farmers, these are the people you have been supporting politically for years, and this is the way they have been grabbing up the land. Your sons are growing up, and cannot get an inch of it. Now it is these very people who have been resorting to dumrayism and all kinds of villainy the land. Again, there is Sir F. D. Bell with his 14 runs. The Hon. John McKenzie, the Otago Land Board, and the public of Shag Valley did their best to get one of these runs cut up in 1889, but Mr Richardson gave Sir F. T). Bell a fresh lease of it. The farmers of Shag Valley wanted the land cut up so that their sons might have a chance of getting a slice of it, but Mr Richardson cared nothing at all about them. Now, is it not time that the' swindling which has been going bn in this way came to an end, and does not the present Government deserve all credit for exposing this sort of thing ? Thirteen runholders have over 2-| millions of acres, and nearly one million sheep. It is scandalous, and justice will not be done until their leases are cancelled and the land properly divided.