THE " BRUCE HERALD." (To the Editor.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 223, 9 May 1872, Page 8

THE " BRUCE HERALD." (To the Editor.)

Sir,— At last the "Bruce Herald" comes out in its true colours. It has "eeftsed attempting the rather difficult task of " running with the hare and following with the hounds," and now boldly avows that it is much better that all the land in the country should be dealt .with in the same manner as the Moa" Flat blocks, always provided that Reid and his party continue in office. In an article appearing in its issue of the Ist inst., the "Herald" valiantly does battle for its much-calumniated pets, Messrs Reid and Bradshaw, and calls the " Wellington Independent " very hard names because of its trenchant reference to the part played by those gentlemen in connection with the Moa Flat sale. It is hard to say which most to admire, the " Herald's " logic or grammar in the article in question. It proceeds to state that " it has no sympathy with the principle involved in the sale," and asserts that it " always fought most strenuously against it ; " and in the same breath describes the transaction as a most beneficial onefor the proviuce. Pursuing the same style of argument, I suppose the editor of the " Herald," while admitting that to rob a man of a ten-pound note is ".wrong in principle," would yet condone the offence if the robber happened' to be on friendly relations with himself. A more lamentable exhibition of inconsistency, not to say moral obliquity, it would be hard' to equal. Doubtless if thfe CargilL Government had acquitted themselves in the same manner in respect of the sale, it would materially alter the hue of the transaction, but the immaculate Reid Government " can do no wrong,'' in the eyes of the sympathetic " Herald," and are to be looked upon as victims tb circumstances over which they had no control, rather than as the originators and exclusive 'actors throughout, as they really were. Does the editor of the " Bruce Herald " really imagine that the public, who are just as well informed as himself, can continue to be gulled by such flimsy statements? It might be practicable if the aecresy in which the job originated continued to .be maintained y but rather too much daylight has been let in upon the subject to render it possible to continue any farther deception. Of course,- now that the Bruce paper has so openly avowed what was previously more than suspected — namely, its complicity and connivance at the perpetration .of the sale — it only remains for me '■ to congratulate it on its oantlid admission that it " will, not any k>nger hetemporis" I mg for the sake of {obtaining a question'

[ able popularity," and to suggest that, to suit the altered circumstarttees of the case, it should adopt as its motto, " Land for the Capitalists, and' Capitalists for the Land." — I am, &c; Settieb. Roxburgh, May 4th. • -