A FAMILY QUESTION

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 160, 2 March 1871, Page 7

A FAMILY QUESTION

(To th<* T']dUor ol Llie ' Canterbury Times.')

Sir, — I was m°.in el id to road th*> letter last w^ek si»ne.l " Now Chum."' He has bit tbe right nail on tbe bead any way. We want a railway down South badly. Thcro n my boy Will, be has served me well, been a real ijood lad for many a lon t year, and bo comes to me the other day, and be says, " Father, you will be able to get j alony; without me now, for Joe is growing info a useful band, and be will take my place, and I've a mind to get married and start for myself." Says I, " Will, my lad, I will help you all I can," and we talked tbe thing over with bis mother. Was ho to rent % farm ? Well we didn't see bow that was goins; to pay, at anything over 10s an acre, «nd nobody was willing to let coorl land for that. We couldn't rake up money enough to buy a place out and out, and the Missus said as bow h?r boy shouldn't begin life with tho weight of a mortgage round bia neck if she could help it. Then comes the question of buying G-overn-ment land. Where was it to be jrot ? Down Timaru vrny. Well, we didn't like that : we didn't s-.^e bow a place that bad no port was likely to do much good to a corn-grower. Up Malvern way ? That we beard waa wet, and cold, and windy and a lona^ drag from market, and. t^e people as was there weren't doing a groat lot of jrood for themselves. Tin North tbe good land is all sons except you £0 totber side of the Waipara, and that is too far :uvay. Down over the Ashbui'ton? Oh, yen, that is the place, but there' ain't no railway. Well, but ifc is ajroinpr to bo made, says the Missu3. "When? say a Will. They bave been a-cjoing to make tho railway up North for many and many a year, and if that has been so lon^ about, where . there are so many people as want it, howlong will it take to fjet one down • South, whero there are : eo many ss don't want it done, --because it will destroy their runs ? But, says *$h<i Missus, the Government will surely " do it if they see it will be for the <;o«vd • of the country. "If all Governments in New Zealand was put into avbaq;. - < and chucked into a'pond, tbe same a?.' you did with tbe kittens, they ■wouldn'c be much raisspd fb" all the good they do," said "Will "I ain't a-goinp^. to bury myself down South,, ti-ll I 'see "the railway well under weigh ; you - can knock me up a bit of a cotta^o, and I will work for you same as ever for a bit." And so it was settled. "Will works for me. Ashburton country carries sheep, one to every acre, and a squatter to every ten miles, perhaps Wouldn't it be a «jooi deal better if i*carried lads like my Will and bis -wife, and their healthy little fanr.ilies? There are plenty of people to settle tbe land if it could only be got at, anj lads like Will would get a better" living off it than tbe sbeop do, I'll lvbound. Thin 53 is.gojn^ mighty wroi:.* somehow. — Your obedient servant,

Wiu's Fatheb.