COAL GREEK FLAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 308, 29 November 1873, Page 3

COAL GREEK FLAT.

(From our own Correspadent.) Notmber 25th. It is a long time since I haveseen any news from Coal Creek Flat in the T/apeka Times. Our district -seems to be in aiethargy so far as Bcribbling iB concerned j hd no wonder our local scribes are disgustedjsonsidering the amount of time and energy -wstod in trying to get ourselves recognised aspart of Otago. Year after year passes by, am: not one inch of land is thrown open for settjment, except a squatter wants 20,000 or s^ooo acres, and then the land is .settled with heep. Promises have been made by the vai^us governments that land should be thrown (pen in the Teviot district for settlement.. A ffw weeks ago M*. M'Kerrow, deputed by tie Government, accompanied by Messrs. Gorge Ireland and John Beighton, visited the land above Coal Creek and Shingle Creek, fhis, with a notice of the Government's intenfon to open a block on the deferred payment s'stem in the above locality, caused some littl stir amongst the miners residing here; butthey have been disappointed so often that tley will only believe it when they see it. It isa great blessing that Otago is not the only pla« in the world where a man who is inclined ti emigrate with his family can settle. There is a great cry just now about the scarcity of labor. The Agent-G-eneral, Dr. Feakherston, is blamed to* not sending out more emigrants. Thereis an under-current, which is far more powerful in giving the real truth to the people of Great Britain than the reports of agents sent home by a squatter's Government. This is seldom noticed — I mean the correspondence people living here send to their friends.

In your leading article of last Saturday week, you advocate the use of tracts such as thist "To England's Agrluulimoi n^^ty — You can get acres of agricultural land in New Zealand for little expense ; there, you have a fine climate, good schools and churches, creeks and rivers, political equality, and no oppressive aristocracy." The tract should also explain where the available land is situated, and the price per acre, with the squatting competition. A list of M.H.R.'s and M.P.C.'s should be given, showing their various callings; this would explain our political equality. The huge blocks of land allowed to be held, and held by one man, will show that there is an aristocracy. If the stttlers here saw there was a chance for their friends to better themselves by emigrating toOtago, they would tell them, so, and we should soon have a tax-paying population without the aid of so many paid agents and such a flouriai of trumpets. Some of my neighbors have spent hundreds of pounds in their gardeis, by planting them with choice fruit trees. They wanted to purchase them, and the Gcpernmeut have allowed them to do so at £3 jor acre, and pay the survey fees, amounting to £7 19s. on each sejtion. This is poor eicouragement for improving waste lands. In local matters thugs are quiet. The crops and gardens are looking splendid. The strawberries are ripenin; *, look out for a cart load in a week or two. Some of the miners are away over the hills ai the Alpine gullies, which pay very well in nost cases. This district would support a large population if the land was thrown open by settlement on the deferred payment system, for during the winter months the settler could break up and till his land, and go ove* the hills in summer and dig, if so disposed. The river has been high this season, and most Jof the river bank claimholders are washing away top stuff, which pays wages in a g)od many casea.

[Evidently, our Coal Creek c can convey local facts in a very agreeable style. We will be glad to get more frequent communications from km. — Ed. K T,T."J