THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21,1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3689, 21 October 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21,1880.

In a late issue we referred to the sale of the Fatetere block to a party of speculators, and upon further investigation of the subject the conduct of the Government appears in a more discreditable light than ever. At the present juncture a brief history of the events leading up to the Fatetere block scandal will be highly interesting, as they are not generally known. Prior to 1874 a body of men calling themselves the Waikato. Land Company—and probably numbering in their ranks some of the present Fatelere land-sharks—acquired an interest in the block. The Government of the day, seeing the advisability of acquiring such a piece of land for the Crown, purchased the rights of the Company for a sum of, if we remember rightly, between £3000 and £4000. It was understood at the time of the purchase that the Land Company should assist the Government in completing the purchase. From some unexplained reason the matter lay dormant till the accession of the Grey Ministry to power, when the negotiations with the native owners were pushed on vigorously, and the then Native Minister disbursed no less a sum than £8000 in buying up some of the Maori interests. About the middle of 1879, when everything was going on satisfactorily, the Native Minister was interviewed by E. B. Walker and F. A. Whitaker, two of the Fatetere gentry, to see if an arrangement could not be come to whereby the competition going on between themselves and the Government should cease by the adoption of a kind of give and take By stem, they withdrawing from certain negotiations, and in return the Government permitting them to acquire certain interests. Knowing doubtless the calibre of the Ministry in power they made the comparatively modest request to be permitted to complete the purchase of some 40,090 acres on which they had advanced £5000, thus leaving the Government 280,000 acres. Very moderate were the land-sharks in these days, but subsequent events have shown how wide they can open their maws when they have tha opportunity. At the same time it must be remembered that in interfering with the land at all they were committing acts penal in the eyes of the, law, for the proclamation reads somewhat as follows: —"And from the day of, the taking effect of such notification, shall have, and shall be deemed to have had from the day last named, the same powers of expulsion, and the same redress for unlawful occupation, other than the aboriginal owners as Her Majesty has under existing law, in respect of the occupation of lands of the Crown." Mr Sheehan referred the matter to the Cabinet, and in his communication covering the proposal, the following remarks .appear:—.

" If agreed to accept Walker's proposal, no doubt will hare the effect of shortening the time within which our transactions shall be completed, and earing very considerable expense, although policy of entering into such arrangements is open to grave question, and has in other cases been the cause of serious annoyance to the Government. If it be de» cided not to accept them, it must be boine in miDd that the parties are very powerful, and are well supplied with funds, and will make as hard a fight as possible, trusting to the chance perhaps of a change of Government, and to altering the existing land laws. Nevertheless, if my hands are strengthened by the decision of the Cabinet, we can beat them."

The Cabinet telegraphed back at once that they could not possibly entertain the proposal, and so ended the matter as far as the Grey administration was concerned. And who .knows but that the defeat of that Ministry was in a measure due to their honest and upright action regarding the Patetere Block. There are some men who would sell their souls, their honor, to say nothing of their constituents, for money! The acrimonious discussions of last session are dpubtless still fresh in the minds of our readers, and suffice it to lay the Hall Ministry laid themselves put

to decry the value of the block, and then expressed their intention to abandon the negotiations on the part of the Government. In a manner, they first gave the dog a bad name, and then hung it, and so the interests of the colony have been sacrificed for the aggrandisement of half a dozen or so well known capitalists. Before concluding let us see what the country has lost by the transaction. A gentleman well acquainted with the value of land, and residing near the block, writes that the land could be acquired from the natives at 6s per acres, so that at the outside another £50,000 or £60,030 would have been sufficient to complete the purchase, and how many banks would have been only too willing to advance that sum on such a security. He estimated the profit of j thi« block alone at £600,000! Can the country have patience with men who, while virtuously saving a few paltry hundreds at the expenca of some Civil Servants, allow the exchequer to be robbed, literally robbed, of hundreds of thousands.