The Tuapeka Times THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1871. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 180, 20 July 1871, Page 4

The Tuapeka Times THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1871. "Measures, not Men."

In our report of the Provincial Council it will be observed that His Honour the Superintendent, in his Message JNo. 11, suggests to the Council the advisability and necessity of disposing of 50,000 acres of land in one block to meet the past deficiency in the revenue. We are not fcurprised to find his Honour making this suggestion, but we are surprised to find Ml. Reid at once moving the reply to the Message, in which he apparently catches at the idea suggested, and loses no time in getting it passed. Mr. Reid tries to word the resolution so carefully that in future he may escape from any odium the carrying of it into execution might be likely to bring upon him. The closing words of the resolution referred to are as follows :

— " That this Council would recommend that before the sale of airy land under the authority of this resolution, full and careful enquiry should be made, witli a view to prevent alienation of any land, the sale of which may be, or may be deemed to be, prejudicial to the public interests." We might ask Mr. Reid where he will find a 50,000 acre block the sale of which would not be prejudicial to the public interest, and who is "to decide the question. If we look upon the resolution with the light thrown upon it by the Hon. Mr. Holmes, we have no hesitation in saying that the land the Executive have fixed upon for placing in the market will be prejudicial in the greatest degree to the public interests. Mr. Holmes said "he would oppose the motion because, if it were passed, the best lands of the country would fall into the hands of large capitalists. He could indicate who this block was intended for. It was intended for Mr. W. J. T. Clarke, and Moa Flat station was indicated. He was the only man who could buy it, and he would get ifc." It will be observed that Sir. Holmes speaka as one having authority. Mr. Reid replies but makes no attempt to contradict the statement. We must therfore take it for granted that Moa Flat station is the block of land intended to be sold to replenish the exhausted Treasury. Will Mr. Reid, or any other gentleman, be bold enough to say that the sale of that block of land to one person will not be prejudicial to the best interests of the public ? Is it not a .fact that the sale of the Island Block, a small portion of Moa Flat station, has been most injurious to settlement in that district; settlers there having now to pay twenty shillings a head, annually for a run for their cattle ? And if 50,000 acres of the same run be purchased by the present occupier, how, in the riame of common sense, can settlement find a habitation ? If something like eighty square miles of country in the very neighbourhood of a thriving mining and agricultural population pass into the

hands r>f:<me4ndividuftl,- it will-pwt the extinguisher on the district, and depopulation, instead of increase, will be the result ; and we may well imagine Clarke the millionaire standing on tho Spylaw height, as, isolated as was Robinson Crusoe, exclaiming, " I'm monarch of all I survey ! " The Government want to increase the revenue, and they will not take proper steps to do so. They say they wish to facilitate the means of settlement, and yet they will not .listen to the petitions of thousands that have been sent to them to throw open land, so that miners and others might get grazing rights for

their cattle. In some cases people are willing to pay to the Government for a time, for depasturing rights, as much as thej' are nowpaying to the runholder. By this means the compensation money would be realised in a very short time, and in addition to that, a handsome sum netted as revenue We thoroughly agree with Mr. Holmes that the Government, in bringing forward such a resolution, could not be sincere in their desire expressed on the hustings, to place people on the lands ; and we shall only be too pleased if they lose their seats " because of the course, they have adopted. The deliberations of those wise men who assemble from the four corners of the province, are. very anomalous. While they are preparing a Land Bill to lay before the General Assembly, in which the bona fide settler is restricted to 320 acres, which he is obliged to cultivate and improve, they at the same time pass a resolution, almost unanimously, to sell to a capitalist, without any restrictions, 50,000 acres of some of finest agricultural and pastoral land to be found in Otago. When Provincial Councillors are unable to devise other and better means of raising sufficient revenue to meet the necessary expenditure than that of handing over a large parcel of valuable land to one individual at the upset price, surely it is time Provincialism was supplanted by some wiser and more equitable system of government. If this system of spiling large Hocks of land is peisisted in, tlio poor settler in Otago may relinquish all hope of oot.ibl ioliin^ a homo in the land of his adoption, and emigrate, a second time to a land where his efforts to rise by las own iudustry will be fostered and not crushed, and where the soil, which he has hitherto considered the people's heritage, will not be ruthlessly torn from his grasp. .

The quarterly meeting of the subscribers to the Tuapeka Hospital was held in the Commercial Assembly Room on Tuesday evening. As it was understood bj r many that the question of allowing the Resident Surgeon private practice was to be brought forward by the Committee, there was a large attendance. W. L. Simpson, Esq., was in the chair.

If we were never before convinced that the affairs of the Hospital were managed by a clique, that conviction was forced upon us by what transpired at that meeting. The conduct of the chairman was anything but dignified, and his leavingj the chair to endeavour, by a vehement speech, to carry out certain ideas, was very unbecoming a gentleman holding, the position of chairman at a public meeting. Admitting him to be a strong partisan, he could not have pitched upon a surer plan of being defeated in attaining the object he had in view. It seemed very strange that no other member of committee had a word to say in support of their report. They must have had very little faith in their own recommendations when one of their number thought it advisable to act the part of a whip and enlist the services of half a dozen Celestials. It is high time the affairs of this popular institution were managed, as was remarked at the meeting, by a more popular committee ; that it should uot be under the control of those whose only ties to the country are, to quote the words of Sir David Munro, a carpet bag and a box of collars.