BLOCK 27.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5018, 11 February 1885, Page 3

BLOCK 27.

(To the Editor of the Evening Stab) Sik,—The oppressed hare always found an advocate and a powerful defender in the Stab. Us colnmns have never been ■hut against the cries of the wretched, or i the just complaints of the wronged. In- ■ justice and oppression, either in high or ! low places, meet with prompt exposure and merited condemnation. If the reasonable and moderate requests of the settlers on Block 27, should now, as formerly, ob-tain'-your advocacy, their case will probably succeed, and inasmuch as its circumstances involre principles of public interest, it is hoped that you will allow space for its further consideration and discussion. Had the New Zealand Goverriment deliberately determined to injure the colony, it could not have devised or invented for that purpose a more satanic scheme than that which has been adopted' on the Thames goldfield. "When a rush here of some thousands of people occurred about fifteen years since, no arrangement to secure possession of the land for the public had been made by the Government Agents. Not a location could be obtained, and many men and their families were driven for shelter np the creeks, and perished there by ; floods and other disasters. The land- , jobbers, sharks, and speculators, includ-' ing commissioners and officials in the employment and pay of the Government, induced - the natives to grant leases; ShortNbd was divided into roads and streets, and the choice allotments —sometimes including whole streets—were im* mediately secured by the friends of the Government Agents, and run up to immense * premiums. Block 27 was then called, and for some.time was believed to be, the Digger's Camp—specially reserved for them, but scarcely had it been occupied than a rent charge, representing many hundreds per cent, premium on the consideration alleged to have been] given, or' promised, was demanded, in the name and on behalf of a paid Commis•ioner of the Government, who had surreptitiously acquired a lease or some bind of title to Block 27 for himself. TJpon the insolvency of this Government officer, his title passed into other honorable hands, and from similar or other cir cum - stances has continued to pass, and,is at present in a state of transition. That there is no natural or equitable title to this land, other than that which naturally vests in the present occupiers, has been shownin a.former, and shall be proved in ■ further, letter; the legal title has never been established, but the evil consequences of this conduct are patent. Hundreds of miners, industrious tradesman, mechanics, and laborers, constitute ing the very best class of wealth-produc-ing settlers, some with small and several with considerable capital, have been driven from the locality, and left the colony in disgust. Who can estimate the amount of material and moral loss that the colony of New Zealand has sustained by this wickedness. But even now the tettlers are threatened to be turned out of their homes, for which they have already paid three times the value in an iniquitously exacted rent charge, unless they are prepared to submit to a further extortion at the rate of £1000 per acre, for which a few pounds per acre has been outlaid by the possessors of it.—-I am, &c., SUMMTJM BONTJM.