WHY IT IS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 224, 16 May 1872, Page 7

WHY IT IS.

(To the Editor.) Troglodyte Creek, Rockhopper House.

Sir, — As it is now some time since I promised you I would communicate any little matters that might come in my way suitable for yoiy columns, I tako advantage of the kindness qi Chimpanzee Gorilla, Esq., who wishes to make your acquaintance through this my introductory letter. As he is one of the long-tailed persuasion (I don't mean Celestials) that you will, in the course of your editorial career, be frequently brought in contact with, I trust you will deal gently with his peculiarities ; and, above all things, do not let him see you observe the hole in his coat, nor the secret inclinations you may have to squeeze his foiil between the door jambs of your editorial sanctum. I am indebted to him for the remarks I now forward you with respect to the upcountry districts. As his singular style of conversation, and your not being acquainted with the peculiar idiom of his tongue which in tone sounds like the howl of the woodhen, crossed with the sneeze of a bluebottle — would naturally render communication by other means than signs a matter of difficulty, I hereby transcribe his ideas and opinions of what he has seen, and the impressions he has received during his sojourn in this colony in as concise a manner as I can.

I have observed, he began, that you have all the elements within your reach that should make a people prosperous and contented. You have a magnificent climate ; a large area of agricultural and pastoral country, backed by resources which, if properly developed, would place you in the foremost position in this hemisphere ; but, before I proceed further, I must tell you that I do not indulge in spread eagleism — 1 am telling you just what 1 know, and no more. Your exports are in excess of your imports ; you have cattle and sheep in abundance ; you are wool growers and meat preservers, besides the thousand and ono other industries which should advance a country. Your goldfields are very productive for the population that is settled on them ; and notwithstanding all these evidences that ought to be a a well-to-do community, you are further behind your contemporaries elsewhere than any other people it has been my lot to visit.

On enquiring into the causes of this seeming by paradoxical state of affairs — as well as I could understand — the reasons given were that tho Government of the country was in the hands of men who ignored the fact that they were placed in their several positions to benefit the general community ; but completely reversed the political economy of the best and greatest statesmen the world ever knew, namely, by benefiting the fewer at the expense of the greater number. Tin's then accounts for the very few farm steadings I have observed in my travels. Sheep were more thought of than men ; and wherever the tiller of the soil wished to locate, the sheepbreeders immediately put in his veto, and he had to travel further, or perhaps leave the country altogether.

You are heavily taxed — I may say taxed to a superlative degree — as witness your public revenue, £760,000 per annum, is required to pay the interest on your debt of £12,000,000, which money was recklessly borrowed and lavishely disposed of. Yon are paying a heavy per centage to the Crown for the gold you dig — a tax that, even in the present financial condition of the conntry, it would be a wise policy to repeal, in order to keep the miners in the country. In fact, you have an Old Man of the Sea on your shoulders, and the sooner you shake him off the better it will be for you .

T have heard some of your members giving what they call an account of their stewardship ; one in particular, at Alexandra, showed by the earnest manner in which he drew the atteution of the meeting to other men's evil deeds that he was trying to build a future for himself out of other people's reputations.

Another one, at Outram (whom I was told played a leading part in the Moa Flat sale), did not utter one sentence in his speech to the electors that sounded like an attempt at-exonerating himself in the eyes of the country districts. The simple fact is, ycur public ministers, or whatever you may call them, are retarding the r country's progress for mere grovelling considerations.

Another matter also came under my observation. The various rumours that are afloat with respect to the new Goldfields Act ,and Wasce Land Regulations have completely unsettled men's minds. They have been cajoled into expecting so much, and have received so little, that overy attempt at legislation by the unscrupulous crew who have charge of the country is looked upon with suspicion and distrust. Curses both loud and deep are hurled at them by the men who are made to suffer by their maladministration. They have stretched the cord until it has nearly broken, and the almost universal feeling is that tho people should take matters in their own hands, and at once and for ever end this state of things. 1 am no alarmist, but "the gathering clouds portend the coming storm," and when it does burst forth, I for one would not care to be in the shoes of some that stand in high places.

Every day sees men and money leaving the colony, and the conclusion people generally arrive at is a just one. They say they are willing to remain, but cannot get what will induce them to stay, viz. , land to make homes upon for themselves and children, and commonages for -their cattle. Your goldfields towns are being gradually deserted, and their population perceptibly decreasing, and in the event of your new land laws not being liberal both in spirit and act, the country districts will be depopulated, and the £750,000 interest that has to be paid per annum will have to be collected from not twothirds of the present population jof New Zealand. One naturally enquires, Why is this ?

Is it policy to replace old and tried colonists — men who have experienced the difficulties that have to be encountered in a young country, and which ifc takes years +o overcome, by men alien in blood, language, and nationality I—men1 — men paupers in their own country, and who will remain paupers for a, long time in this ; and

it is for thesp people that the older and more experienced are driven away. I can give no other reason for the course the Government are pursuing in this matter beyond the fact that it is for their very helplessness they are chosen, so that they may be more pliant in the hands of the present Ministry, who may require them some day at the ballot-box. — I am, &c, Theodosius Gltjxdekbtjtz.