LAND—BROOMHALL V. THAMES RESIDENTS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2501, 11 January 1877, Page 2

LAND—BROOMHALL V. THAMES RESIDENTS.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib, —The very evident desire on the' part of the Editor of the Advertiser to discourage or prevent the Thames people from acquiring land on very easy terms is «o apparent in his leader of this morning that I cannot allow it to pass unchallenged :—" We hope the applicants who employ Mr Stephenson to look after their interests in this respect are all bona fide settlers, although we are afraid that some of those whose names are appended to the list of intending settlers are not such as would make the most successful tillers of the soil." In the first place Mr Stephenson is not employed by the applicants, but foresaw a want or necessity of placing the inhabitants of this district on the same footing as Mr Broomhall or any other capitalist who may come here on the same errand, viz., of monopolising a large extent of country to the exclusion of old residents and men who have perhaps fought and bled to establish their right to provide a home for their families. The editor also questions the capabilities of some of the applicants to become tillers of the soil, a piece of im? pertinence hardly .accorded to that ■ of the Press, and which he has no right to assume, because .they hare fathers, brothers, and other relations well adapted for the occupation, in whom they \ are pecuniarily interested, and wish to establish in life. I may say that the subject was so brought before the Board that they could not but in justice accede to the wish of the applicant, and all that now remains to be done is to get Mr « Mackay to point out a suitable block, and it is to be immediately set apart by the Waste Land Board for either Auckland or Thames residents, for bona fide settlement on deferred payment, extending over five years, and if possible the Go* vernment will make it ten.—l am, Ac.,

Samuel Stephenson.