PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 133, 25 August 1870, Page 7

PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA

Mr. Fraser, M. P. C. called a meeting' of the electors on Saturday night lash the 6fcb August at the Royal Mail Hotel. The Chair was taken by Mr. Theyers, who explained the object of the meeting, and introduced Mr. Fraser. He said his object for calling this meeting was, to give an account of his stewardship, and that the reason he had not met the electors before, was that there was nothing to talk about, with the exception of the Hundreds Regulation Act, which he considered the best Act ever introduced into the Council J for the benefit of the goldfields, but was in favor of increasing the size of Hundreds from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand acres and would not be particular respecting the quantity of good agricultural land in the said Hundreds ; he did not believe in the compensation clause as regards artificial grasses, but at the same time thought the runholder was better under the goldfields Act, than under the Hundreds Regulation Act ; was in favour of Railways, but not at £20,000 per mile, would like to see a railway from Dunedin to the Clutha. Was in favor of the Government letting out the repairing of our impassable bad roads in small contracts, and believed the roads would be kept in better repair at one half the cost. Was a great believer in the road, via Tuapeka, and was quite sure it was the best road, and ultimately would be the main road from Dunedin to the Lakes. Mr. Fraser having taken his seat, the chairman intimated that if anyone had any questions to ask he was prepared to answer them. In answer to a question by Mr. Iversen, he said he con sideved the Hundreds Act preferable to the leasing system, but as regai'ds allowing land sharks to purchase all the land, he said it could not be prevented, and cited Victoria, with their Land Act, as an instance 1 Mr Chappie asked if he was in favor of deferred payments for land. Yes. Was he in favor of allowing the moneys paid as rent by the Agricultural Leaseholders to be placed, to their credit as part of the purchase money. He was in favor of that, as he considered the land was not worth more than 20s per acre, but was afraid we should never get it. Mr. Chappie then asked if Mr. Fraser was aware that a Memorial was forwarded to Wellington, and got referred to the Waste Lands Committee, respecting the last question, and whether he knew that the said Committee had refused the prayer of said memorial ; and also at the same time giving the runholder the rights to select six hundred and forty acres, the cost of which was not to exceed 20s. per acre. Mr. Fraser said it was news to him, but he could see no harm in giving the runholder the privilege, as they would take it up round their homesteads, consequently taking the good and bad together, and that it was worth no more than 20s. per acre. I A vote of thanks to Mr. Fraser was moved and seconded. — "Dunstan Times." A Vast American Immigration Scheme.— The St. Paul "Press" announces that ex-Secretary M'Culloch, Senator Carl Schurx, and ex-Governor Marshall, of Minnesota, have been selected, and will be invited by the Northern Pacific Railway Company to go to Europe on a mission to organise and stimulate emigration to the line of the road and the settlement of its lands, on a plan more comprehensive and extended than and heretofore devised. The company own every alternate section in the belt of forty miles wide, from the head of Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, equivalent to a strip of twenty miles wide, in all between thirty and forty millions of acres of land — a territory greater in extent than all New England, and capable of sustaining five or six millions of people. They have already arranged with German capitalists for all means necessary to the construction of the road with the largest force they can employ. They propose to offer to every immigrant in Europe abundant employment in building the road for the first year or two after his arrival. Whether they assist him in his passage here is not stated. When he has finished his work for the company he is to have a farm of 40, 80, or 160 acres, with a neat frame dwelling-house ready erected thereon, and a lot of reasonable size fenced in, all at the expense of the company. The terms of payment are so long, and on so low interest, that they cannot prove a burden to the poorest. What is a darling? — It is the dear, little, beaming girl who meets one on the door-step ; who flings her fair arms around one's neck, and kisses one with her whole soul of love ; who seizes one's hat, who relieves one of one's coat, and hands the tea and toast so prettily ; who places her elfish form at the piano, and warbles forth unsolicited such delicious songs ■ who casts herself at one's footstool, and clasps one's hand, and asks eager, unheard-of questions with such bright eyes and flushing face, and on whose light, flossy curls one places one's hand and breathes — " God bless her V as the fairy form departs. But there is an angel following in her footsteps who is not visible to us, but who is anxious to bear our darling from us, and in the mind's eye its white shadow flits between us and the darling of our hearth. — « Belton."