SALE OF THE TOWNSHIP OF ROXBURGH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 5, 14 March 1868, Page 3

SALE OF THE TOWNSHIP OF ROXBURGH.

(To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times.)

Sir, — The unique determination of the Executive Government to 'sell the township of Roxburgh, West Clutha, and that without any tangible impelling motive, save one, throws a stigma on their political morality, that nothing less than reasonable conformity to the wishes of the residents can practically efface the &tain. There are many reasons for thinking that their unpalatable determination has beeu influenced to its present position m the scale and low standard of political digression by the sweeping influence of an indirect under current, and the consequent abnormous energy of one solitary individual ; hence the executive have virtually belied one of their oft-repeated theoretical principles, that that justice is best which promotes the greatest good to the greatest; number, inasmuch as they seem bent on pursuing an opposite line, in promoting the interests of an individual, to the painful detriment of the many. - It is high time that this • seKconvenient class- justice should be done away, with in Otago, especially in matters such as the present ore, where important intertvfcs are so ingeniously involved. The residents of Roxburgh never dreamt of this special aggression on their just l-ighis and privileges, or that the township would be sold as surveyed, after the»r strenuous and incessant solicitations to the contrary. But they must bear in mind that this is simply one of those practical blunders for which the Otago Government are sometimes culpable, that of putting tVe cart before the 1 «> u^*- regardless of the pain which the poo; laumal is subjected to in conseqriehee "f rlie mm* ~-"iable change ; but & ; political I, -ivs i\{?f-c, . i-" 1 Provincial Executive may ho p tJ > ■<-. ; n<.i w- -L- kt- t^eii own line ; only, let them be assv.ie>l s-h*t it is then* line, and only theirß,Jas tins action with reference to the township of Roxburgh has sufficiently shown. As I intend, in a future letter, to explain (with your kind permission) tlie manner in which the township referred to has been surveyed, I must in the meantime be content with what I have stated on the subject, leaving the rest to Providence, Government, and their reasons. I am,

&c, Ergo. Roxburgh, 12th March, 1868.