THE BENGER BURN BLOCK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 153, 12 January 1871, Page 5

THE BENGER BURN BLOCK.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, — The appearance in your issue of this week of a would-be sarcastic letter, signed "Cosmopolite jun.," reflecting severely upon a well known gentlemen in this neighborhood, compels me to say a word or two respecting such an irrational, ungrammatical. illogical, and unconstitutional production. The writer appears to rave at and ridicule the idea of Mr. Kitchiug ipplying on behalf of his employ'- c ' '-is juv-c'Mpiitve right of t>4o acres Ujrowiny -wh mysterious -2*iius about JLiics, manner in which application was made at the AVarden's office, osc. , &c. He appears to be one of those narrowminded chameleons who has a holy dread of capital, and its accompanying civilizing and refining influence ; he does not, and cannot understand ; Ms ideas and mental vision are too cramped, (being evidently taught and trained from his infancy in the school of clodocracy) to comprehend the vast benefits which must necessarily accrue to any district fortunate enough to have a large influx of foreign capital. If these purblind cockatoos could only have their own way, they would drive all capital out of the country, which would be again turned into a haunt of the G-igantes dinomis, the kiwi, and the owl, varied here and there by small settlements of a burgoo-eating population. I think it must be evident that the greater portion of the province of Otago is only adapted for sheep runs, and what on earth, those blatant clamorous clodhoppers can want with useless, uncultivatable gravel blocks, and rocky and steep hillocks, is exceedingly difficult to guess.

It is very certain that they could not give the Government so good a return in the shape of rents as the pastoral tenants are now doing. What the cockatoos, and id genus omni, really want is to have unlimited permission to graze their cattle on runs, the tenants of wMch are already paying the utmost value for them. Conscious of the weight their numbers give them (particularly in view of the elections) they have of late allowed no opportunity to escape of screecMng out against the " Squatter ! the Squatter !" and there is only too much reason to fear that needy political demagogues will be too ready to give unfair pledges in order to command their votes. Fairplay is to them a meaningless expression — their cry is rather Divide et impera, i.e., Durante bene placito. As an instance of the vacuity apparent in the letter referred to above, I would point out the expression "sorrowful mirth " — a condition of mind or body it would take a whole college of Maworms to explain or determine. One of the great evils of our close approximation to universal suffrage, pregnant with much danger to our future as a community, is the admission to the exercise of the franchise of such irrational bigoted and selfish agitators as "Cosmopolite, jnn.," whose norn de plume is but a poor disguise, and easily seen through. —I am, &c, Hannibal. Mount Benger, December 31, 1870.

[In justice to our correspondent, "Cosmopolite, jun.," we must apologise for a palpably -absurd mistake made by us in his letter. The expressions " sorrowful mirth" and " awe-struck justices" should have read " scornful mirth," and "awestruck rustics."— [Ed. " T.T."]