AN OPPOSITIONIST'S CRY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2166, 13 December 1875, Page 2

AN OPPOSITIONIST'S CRY.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sir,—There ia a great cry about Sir-jj£^ Grey at present. W hat does it all mean P Are the Ministerial pack afraid that he should appear as the champion of eveiy honest man P If so they will hare to use a little stronger stuff than the chaff of a late defunct writer. Why does the 'Tiser not take up the Ministerial standard, and try and plant it. Tell him he should erect it (the flag) on the Booms in the Kauaeranga stream. Old Rewi keeps the present Government from cutting a road through a small hill close by the Kob Roy Hotel, and will not allow a bridge to be thrown across the Kauaeranga. But lo and behold the power behind the present Government can destroy the passage through that stream in spite of old Rewi's determined opposition. That's the power that bends more than old Uewi's will, for it bends the power of • the present Government, also the Native Department, and brings into subjection Her Majesty s subjects to one of the most .. petty, combined, despotic Rings on the face of the earth. Just, sir, take a view of the combined action of the Sing and this corrupt Government. We will begin here at home—aye, afc home. Gold being found at the Thames some nine years ago brought about 12,000 people to the Thames to reside. By the action of Ring and Government they kept roads from being made and rivers from being bridged. There have been some 15 or 16 people drowned in the Kauaerauga stream, and their blood is crying for vengeance against the powers that be, the river unbridged, and also against every man that joins that despotic power. They have kept the country closed against the public, but forsooth the Ring can purchase fully one million acres in this Province for Is and 6d to 3s per. acre; the Government can bring out a poor lot of immigrants and give blocks of land near towns and abutting on fine harbours; even foreigners and. Scandinavians can get choice blocks of land, but the old settlers and their sons will not be allowed to purchase one single acre by the present Government (Ring excepted). Just take into consideration the thousands of settlers that have left the Thames for want of a block of land to settle upon—aye, many of them in going away take thousands of pounds of capital with them—a dead loss to the Province. If one hundred men leave the Thames, with one thousand each, w© lose 100 men and £100,000, and their colonial experience and industry added. We also lose the sum, or sums- paid to introduce 100 immigrants at £20 each, being £2000 more; besides, I maintain that the men we lose, for latent energy and business purposes are worth to . the colony three to one of those introduced by the Government. Brother settlers, if we lose so much by 100 men leaving, what must; the colony lose by thousands going away, and we have to pay a tax for the bad or inferior article introduced ? I must remind you we will have to pay over a million taxation next year, and if the present men are left in power the tax will grow beautifully large. Every follower of the present Government has promised you roads, lands, and besides every other sop; these promises wont go down with the people until such promises become nauseous—false as the bottomless pit. Brother settlers I warn you not to be taken in this time by false promises made by the friends or paid agents of the powers that be, do not be gulled by the statements made by any of tho men of the past, or their tutors; do not mind the severe cry about Abolition, for had the present Government carried that measure they would have ruled us with a rod of iron, or nominees of their own creating, would have done so, and if one of-them disobeyed their masters he would be kicked out and one obedient would take his place. They would give you municipal power, road boards, &c, but all these institutions would have had to. draw their supplies from a central province in Wellington, and woe be to the person or institution that dare utter a.word against the central despots. Just look at the magnitude of the debt; that hangs over, -us (the colonists), twenty millions, an.en%nx6w.3 sum for less than four hundred thousand*" people; and still the present Government will not give a mile of a road, or a bridge over a small .stream, nor act acre of land to cultivate to one of the largest or second largest cities : in the North Island. I say, brother settlers, this Government has been tried and found wanting ; let us have fresh blood that will work with Sir. George Grey, and he will give us roads, bridges, land, &c, he will also relieve the industrious miner and settler from taxation, and place it (the tax) on large land holders. Nail your colors to Sir George's mast and he will give the land to make smiling homes for your family, for Britoas never shall be slaves to despotic powers. Look Ahiad. "