Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1872. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 11 July 1872, Page 7

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1872. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

It seems incredible that a set of men could be found in this wide world so audaciously .wicked as to attempt to repeat a transaction similar in infamy to the • Moa Flat sale. Yet such a set of men exist, and to Otago's shame they are the members of its Provincial Government. Before the storm of just indignation aroused hy the sale to Clarke has subsided, it is announced that Cargill and Anderson have applied to the Waste Lands Board to purchase a tract of land on their run, containing twenty thousand acres. We more than sus- j pect that this application is a mere sham, and that the sale, as in the case of Clarke's, was in reality effected before it came before the" Waste Land Board. As before, it is the Mount Benger district that has to suffer. The- repeated scandalous sacrifices of large areas of valuable land in that district, points to the conclusion arrived at by the correspondent whose telegram appears in another column, viz., "that the Government evidently mean to stamp out the population of this district, so as to give undisturbed possession to the squatter and his sheep." So far as we have been able to ascertain, the land proposed to be sold, or sold, is on the east bank of Molyneux River. It extends from the boundary of Millier's run to half a mile above the Teviot, and contains much good, and some t really excellent agricultural land. I Besides, this sale will preclude any new water races being taken from, the Teviofc River, and seriously interfere with existing water rights. It will also lock up permanently a large area of payable auriferous ground. We "may be certain that the land is the very pick of the run, and that if Messrs. Cargill and Anderson secure it, the remainder of the run will be worthless to anybody but themselves, and consequently the}' will be able to retain possession of a large area of country without' paying for it. We can readily believe what Mr. Bradshaw i telegraphed to Roxburgh " that noneoftKe 'Shingle Block' is included in the application."- The applicants are far too sensible to wish to acquire such a barren, waste. It is too sterile to feed sheep — it is only fit for agricultural settlement ! The terms upon which the sale, is to be, or has been effected, will, we presume, be the same as the Moa Flat Block transaction by which the Government received about 14s 7d per acre, net. The scale on which the valuable agricultural and auriferous land on the goldfields is. being sacrificed, is assuming alarming proportions. It therefore behoves the goldfields' residents to assist the Mount' Benger people in making.a determined stand against this last attempt of the Provincial Government. If they . are permitted, unchallenged, to complete this flagrantly illegal sale, there is no telling where they will stop, Emboldened by impunity, they may inflict on other districts injuries similar to what Mount Benger has suffered. What to-day is the fate of the Mount Benger district, may to-morrow be that of the Tuapeka, Switzers, Dunstan, Mount Ida, or Wakatip districts. The Provincial Government has shown that, so far as the goldfields are concerned, it respects neither law nor justice, and will violate either without the slightest .scruple to accomplish their ends. .It is utterly unfit to be entrusted with power, and its members richly deserve impeachment for the manner they have exercised it. Should the residents of Mount Benger tamely allow the Government to perpetrate this last injustice, they will be acting in a manner deserving of severe censure. There is a point at which submission to the constituted authorities becomes a crime, and resistance a duty. We think this point has about been reached, If the Government of the Province sets the example of breaking the, law, they cannot blame the governed for following that example. If a rising should occur through this affair, the Provincial Government \vill alone be responsible.

Owing to the heavy snow fall which occurred, on Friday night last the coach from the Dunstan, ■which ought to have reached Lawrence on Saturday • night, could not get further than M'Leods, at' the Benger Burn. It arrived at its destination about '.hulf'past two o'clock on Sun-