Correspondence.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2785, 17 January 1878, Page 3

Correspondence.

A LETTEK FEOM MR ALLEY.

(To the Editor of the Erening Star.) Sib,—l hare induced a few Southern capitalists to come here and inspect this tie finest portion of the North Island, both for its land, timber, and minerals. Its resources are many, and it only requires capital and labour to develop© its many resources. It is also very well watered hy many large streams, which take their rise in the hills on the eastern side of the Thames Valley, and many of those streams afford good accommodation for the building of mills, for there is no doubt that in a very few years there will be thousands of acres of land brought into grain and other crops. I showed a gentleman from Otago over a good portion of the Thames Valley, and he was highly pleased with the appearance of the country, he being a man of a practical turn of mind. He wondered very much, indeed, the reason why the late Government kept this country closed, especially iince the Thames was opened for goldproducing, and giving the country such a fine market at Grahamstown. The opinion he and the Otago people had of this was a very poor one. They thought if our land was any good we would not have to import so much flour, meal, grain, and potatoes, but seeing has convinced them otherwise. He said that the Thames Valley was the largest and best looking he had seen in New Zealand, and he was co pleased with all he had seen of our fine landed property, mines, and such mighty forests of kauri and white pine, and with a good market at the spot, that he intends to sell out and come up here, and with his practical knowledge of milling and farming he would make a good acquisition to the place, and I have no doubt he will induce many others to do likewise. If the present Government opens the country, and begins to make the Thames Valley Railway this summer, there is in store one Of the brightest futures for Grahamstown and this portion of the North Island than any I have seen —in my< estimation. The late Government left the place in a state of immoral pollution; it directed the agents and interpreters, and everything connected with it, to do wrong, and keep the country closed, with the one exception of trading in land for themselves and their friends, and their clerks—the whole force directed for evil by the late Native Minister. Just * look already at the action taken by Sir G. Grey and the present Native Minister. They come amongst us at once, and let us know what >is doing. They show the people how' they can assist them by carrying out a gopd policy. They do not j come silently with bribes to pay the | native chiefs to keep the country closed : they come publicly and stale aloud in our midst that the public officer that goes jobbing in land will be dismissed, and our present Native Minister goes right into ■ the business at once to negotiate with the native owners of the soil for so many thousand acres as he can purchase, for and on behalf of the people, and the only obstacle he will meet will be the' purchases made by the late Government and its members and their friends, all of which I think the present Native Minister will be able to set aside for the of the people. fT I and my friend just come down from the interior, arrived at Shortland just in time to meet that large procession doing honor to Sir G. Grey and (he Native Minister j but I heard we had two mem- j bers—-i only saw one in "all that large procession ; but the other political traitor was not to be seen. Ah, Billy! had you . done your duty what a proud day it would have been for you to be in company with the most noble-minded man in New Zealand. You have* betrayed your political word as a member j you sold ponstituents for the benefit of a ring—a ring that was monopolising our land ; our money has been used .on the Stock Exchange in England ; they have by agency and tricks indirectly made merchandise of the colonial resources in many ways, to the injury of the public taxpayer; they have* assisted one another in every way for their own aggrandisement to the injury of the inhabitants of these islands ; they made false statements showing a coloring of truth, trying to overthrow the noble-minded and truthful man, and in many cases the Maoris were made a cloak to cover all their rascality and immorality; but Sir George has cleared th,o atmosphere of their evil influence, and he will make New Zealand thrive like a flower henceforth, and divide its land among the people.—Yours, &0., H. AlilißT. Jan. Ist, '78.