The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4241, 4 August 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1882.

The speech of Mr Wynne Williams on the second reading of the Land Bill gives a remarkable narrative of the corrupt manner in which the lands in Canterbury have been dealt with. Mr Williams, having been mixed up with the doings of the Canterbury stock-mob as their lawyer, is well qualified to speak on the subject. He said :—" When we look back at the history and at the intentions of the founders of this colony, and when we recollect the writings of people who advocated that colonies of this description i should be started, what do we find? What did the men who wrote most advocate in regard to. these colonies? They certainly did not see far enough ahead, but the foundation of their advocacy was this —that these colonies should be opened up, in order that the lands might be sold at a cheap rate to the poorer classes of people in the old country, who were unable to obtain even one inch ' of land to live upon. That is the foundation of their system, but is it the fact that that system has, been carried out? On the contrary, the whole of the lands in this great colony have been, ever since its foundation, dwindling away to a yery large extent into the hands of exactly the contrary class. Ido not mean to say there is not a number of persons among the class intended who fortunately have obtained land, but if we take the whole colony from one end to the other the most valuable portions have fallen into the hands of the very class whom the founders of this colony did not intend should get possession of it. I take it that that is a statement which cannot possibly be denied. A system was started fur the sale of lands which was carried on unfor* i innately under such rules and regulations I that it became almost an impossibility for j any. one but a man who could give his cheque on the bank for hundreds of pounds to get any land at all. The system was this. A book was' kept at the office where the land was sold, and in that book a person who wished to buy land had to outer his name, and it is a notorious fact that the very moment that the officers of the land board rose to their feet on the days, when they sat, (Mondays and Thursdays) before the book could be shut there were half a dozen men in the province of Canterbury, whose names were first put down by persons—l will not say who were connected with the public officer, but persons who were very well acquainted with what was going on in the offices. And when any one came down in the interval to try to buy.land which they had spotted, a man,. for instance, who wanted to get one hundred or two hundred acres, which be had found after spending days in travelling the country, what happened P -He would go to the Land Office and he would tarn to the book, but to bis dismay he would find

that before he could pat his name down there were the names of half a dozen or a' dozen wealthy persons, who would not only hare their chance with him to select when the Board sat, but who would be able to do this the very moment he went into the Land Office and put in his claim;. Each of them had a right to say, 'I want that land.' This went on for years and years, and it became almost an impossibility, as I said before, for any man with £100 in his pocket to go and buy a 50 acre section. lam stating what is an absolute fact, and I defy anybody to "deny it. I know thousands and tens of thousands of acres that were bought by one or two wealthy persons in the province of Canterbury under that very system because their names were down upon every occasion of the land board rising, and when any poor man or any other man wanted to buy a fifty acre, section and went there on the following board day these men would say, " I want that land." Why at the very entrance to the port of Lyttelton, there are thousands of acre* of freehold land that were bought in that way. It was utterly impossible for a poor man —I will not say a poor man, I will say a man with an ordinary amount of capital; the kind of man who it was intended by the founders of the colony should become a sattler in this country—l say it was impossible for this class of people under such a land administration as that to get on the land; If it is thought for one moment that I am exaggerating, let me ask what is the fact if you travel from one end of the colony to the other. Do you not find that what I say is trueP Every day that you travel through the country you find land that has been purchased in this way in properties extending from a thousand up to twenty thousand and thirty thousands of acres. It may be said,' The land was open to everybody to buy ; I could buy. everybody could buy.' It is perfectly true, and I do not stand here to blame those gentlemen for buying what the law allowed them to buy, but, unfortunately, the law of the land permitted them to buy, and there was the result."

Fab off pastures are greenest, is a saying that one's every day experience frequently verifies. On the Thames we hare the Queen of Beauty, that never looked nearly as well as at present, that is turning out magnificent stone from the winze, which has crushed at the rate of nearly Bozs of gold to the load, and has carried payable quartz for a considerable distance in the 600 feet level, and yet there are sellers, as plentiful as blackberries, in Auckland, at 225. Again, the Prince Imperial has found rich gold at a lower depth than any mine expect the Queen of Beauty, and gives promise of an ample reward for the faith of the shareholders, yet there are sellers at 8s 6d. Further, the Otanui district is generally thought to be a continuation of the Moanatairi district, that has yielded almost fabulous wealth ; it is comprised of the likeliest sandslorie country one could wish, and the specimens from a four-foot reef in the Eureka claim, now on view at Messrs Frater Bros, office, are a sample of what the country can turn out. Yet Auckland men will not invest in the district. But with Te Aroha it is far otherwise. One thing is certain — there has not been a trial crushing of any importance, and .yet numerous claims find purchasers of their scrip at prices ranging from 3s 6d to 10s. No quartz worthy the name of specimens, or even picked stone, has been found, nor is there likely to be an opportunity of crushing regularly for six months hence. But withal Te Aroha stocks are active and firm, being the staple mining business on 'Change. To those who have watched the course of events it is patent that there is a rise and decline of new fields just as clearly as with kingdoms and empires, only there is no Gibbon to relate in graphic language the history thereof. Let us look at the Tiki. Before the erection of the battery was commenced Blackmore's were worth 20s per share, and Blackmore and Fitz gerald, who owned half the mine between them were popularly regarded as good as millionaires, or, at all events, rendered independent for life. Indeed, the former stood as a candidate for the Colonial Parliament. Home Rules were not less in favor, and if our memory trick us not they were in request as high as 15s. And so on in proportion with the surrounding mines, Tiernan's, Hokitika's, Stodart's, &c, having all their ardent admirers,, or, possibly, they might be styled at this late hour of the day, victims. Time wore on, and the battery was started, but the patients who had been suffering from the severe attack of scrip fever were convalescent. High hopes were entertained that the mines would yield rich returns, but the amounts speculated upon had dwindled away con" siderably. Not a few who were confident of 5000ozs were satisfied to state that lOOOozs would be a very handsome return. Shares had receded some shillings, and perhaps 15s was the price for Blackmore's about that time. The battery had not running more than a few days when the scrip had eased off still more, and when the cleaning up took place the yield, although a satisfactory one, was far below the most modest estimate. The story of the Home Rule mine is a repetition of that of the Blackmore Company, and now the Tiki is at znro. The history of tbe Ohinemuri, the first Te Aroha, and Waihi rushes might be related similarly, but "!twere long to tell and sad to trace," and it is unnecessary to enter upon the task, for the instance stated is enough to point a moral. The-Te Aroha field may not yet have reached the zenith of its first blush, but it will be a matter for wonderment if many of the sharea now so much in demand are not procurable considerably cheaper when the batteries are ready to, start crashing. What a grand thing it was for the Aroha that it staried its career under such influential auspices. It is a matter well worth the consideration of the sturdy County Chairman, and the energetic Town Clerk if some powerful Queen street gentleman (net Queen street, Thames) could be persuaded to purchase the country around the Thames township. We have all confidence in the' future of the Waihi and Te Aroha, but

cannot help holding an opinion that much of the scrip of the mines in the Aroha distriofc are now fetching fictitious prices, and these scrip " rackets " invari ably lead to bitter disappointment, with an ultimate loss of confidence lasting for a considerable time, and fraught with disaster. As for the Thames mines, they may be trusted to tell their own tale. The Thames tradesmen are prospecting the Otanui district, and by-andbyethe Auckland people will op^n their eyes to the facl that the district is a rich one, and will rush in, and, in order to obtain shares, pay them sucli prices as will leave a handsome profit on their plucky expenditure.

We would remind our readers of the entertainment to-night, by the Hauraki Troubadours iuaid of the wi low and family of the late Mr Oarral. The programme appears in bur advertising columns, and. should prove of a very entertaining ~ rntn*e. Most of the vocalists are well known nrlistes of no mean ability, and as the object is a'most deserving one we trusfc that in spite of the unpleasant state of the weather there will b; a large attendance and a correspondingly large sum realised to hand over to the persons in whose aid the concert is being given.

Thebb was on view in Mr Frater's office to-day about 151bs weight of specimens from the Eureka mine, Otanui. They were placed in a large show glass, and no matter which way it was turned gold could be freely seen. The majority of the pieces, and also the richest, were brown quartz, but there were also some s good pieces of blue atone. The gold in the brown stone was very coarse and leafy. -The reef from which the stone w:s taken is fully four feet in thickness, and as it shows gold like the specimens on view all through it should yield some good returns when crushing is started.

Thk heavy ram last night and this morning filled the culverts and ditches to their utmost capacity, and when the tide came up about 11 o'clock this morning it backed up this water and flooded the lower portion of Albert street, rendeiing foot traffic very uncomfortable. We were informed that this could easily have been avoided had the floodgate on the reclamation been shut, down, thereby keeping out the sea water, but then it -is questionable if the ra:n water could have got away quickly enough. The buildings on the sr.uth side of the street aeem to have suffered most, the Pacific Hotel, the Thames Advertiser office, and the offices of Messrs Gudgeon, Melhose, and Hennelly being all more or less inundated. Messrs Osborne Bros, store had 8 or 9 inches of water in it, but no damage was done, the waHry element being observed in time to allow the goods on the floor to be moved. The Hape, Karaka, and Waiotahi creeks, were swollen considerably, but did not overflow, though the Kiraka culvert proved to be very little too large. ... , .. •.

The monthly meeting of the Eureka (Otanui) shareholders w; 3 held last evening at the Salutation Inn, Mary street. Mr Sims occupied the chair. Mr Iloas, secretary, read the minutes of the previous meeting, which were confirmed. A verbal statement of the progress ef the mine was given to the meeting, and the projpects being daily developed therein, which gave much satisfaction to the shareholders. It wa? stated a great deal of preliminary work hrd to be done, such as getting timber for props and slab 3, making the quartz paddock larger, &c, as the output of quartz will be large with a 4-foot reef in hand, the whole of wbioh is pronounced good crushing stuff. It was put to the meeting and cariied that golden stone be allowei to exhibited at Frater Broj., for the satisfaction of those interested in such matters, and more especially to set at reet any doubts in regard to the auriferous nature of the district. Mr Sims, .on behalf of Mr MeKenzie, tendered a share of the water rights and machine site applied for by him on behalf of tha. principal claims. After hearing Mr Sims, the meeting unanimously agreed to take a share. After some routine business had been transacted and Mr P arce authorised to receive calls on behalf of the Secretary, the meeting, after the usual formula, dispersed.

We would call the attention of the persone in authority tothe state of the bridge on the main road, just below Mr Kenrick's house, at Parawai. At the great flood last year, the old bridge was swept away, and some time after a new one was erected, and the channel of the creek straightened. The bottom of the supports of the bridge a^-e, we are informed, on a level with the present bed of the creek, but when the channel was straightened, a small fall of about three feet was made a short distance below the bridge. Since then, the water has been cutting ira way. back, and as the ground is soft, this fall will undermine the foundation of the bridge unless something is done in time to stop it.

To-DAY's fresh has had the effect of bringing down a large number of logs to the bjoms at Kauaeranga. The number 13 estimated at a thousand, many of them of large size.