THE ROXBURGH COMMITTEE AND THE DUNEDIN PRESS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 341, 25 March 1874, Page 3

THE ROXBURGH COMMITTEE AND THE DUNEDIN PRESS.

(To the Editor.) Sib,—The letter addressed by the Roxburgh Committee to Mr. Holloway, who was sent out here on a very important mission by an association of the working classes to report on the Colony of New Zealand, and especially, it -would seem, on the Province of Otago, as a * field for immigration, has been so warmly, ' and in two instances very diaparaginly, discussed by the hireling press of Dunedin, that I feel at loss for words sufficiently appropriate to combat the hollowness and absurdity of their arguments and unfeeling remarks relative to the honest motives by which the Com- } mittee were actuated. If Mr. Holloway is determined to carry out faithfully the impor- ■ tent functions imposed on him by the working classes of Great Britain in .performing the object of his legation to this Province, he will be able to find in the Mount Benger district and, in fact, in all the outlying districts of ' the Province—the incontrovertible evidence ■taring Urn in the face, amply sufficient, I should thinlt, to convince him that the land '" laws of Otago have been solely administered 1 for the benefit of the large capitalists. - We ' can point out to him in the Mount -Benger 1 district alone upwards of 60,000 acres of the ' finest land in Otago, which has been sacrificed to tne avidity of those squatters upon the ' shrine of broken pledges and maladministration. If Mr. Holloway is really in pursuit of knowledge and true facts relative to the condition of the disappointed many already located in our midst, or, as a practical man. apt to take an impression, he can at once (as - 'the Committee did not misrepresent facts) realise to himself the naked truth, by holdiug the sentiments conveyed to him by the Committee to the mirror, and the distorted policy -. ' nsbn' which Ifee administrative honesty and ' * *' mUtical faith of the Executive Government WbeenViecked. The editor of the "Evenins BtMT," in an article which renders him nmarkable for hi» defenceo* the Government ■ITtli^flnalitTOf being everywhere present, ' VffiinwwSw^^* 1 "* *• P uerile and 'J*sK©«sp«nt & the Committee for daring

to represent to Mr. Holloway the state of affairs in Otago in their perfect nudity. The editor of • the "Evening Star" is full of sympathy. He has evidently perused some abstruse fragmentary articles on political economy, but with all his logical conclusions, how can he possibly defend the action of the Government of Otago in holding the people of this district in exactly the same position as tho Irish tenant in the bog ? If the editor of the "Evening Star" could favor us with a true picture of Mount Benger, and descant on the valid reasons or otherwise of the Government for disposing of several blocks of land in the district, after being sur- J yeyed at the public expense, with the avowed intention of planting the people in comfortable and happy homes, I am inclined to think he would stand a shade higher in public estimation. The block referred to and sundry other blocks have been handed over to the capitalists at one-third their value, contrary to the intention and provisions of the acts, in the face of applications and every reasonable interposition on the part of the people ; and behold the people left to their fate. Again, perhaps the editor of the "Evening Star," who possesses the very rare faculty of making black white, will be able to tell us, in the interests of honesty and truth, the reasons assigned by the Government in withdrawing or repudiating the pledges made by Messrs. Bastings and Turnbull relative to a block of land on Cargill and Anderson's run, as also to mark out the covert action of the Government in handing over 2000 acres on the Ovens Hill station to the runholder, leaving the resident population, whose inheritance it should have been, rocks and barren hills, unfit for cultivation ; or would the editor of the " Star," again, in his usual condescension, as he is so very anxious about the settlement of the people on the land, and so thoroughly understands the benefits thereby that would necessarily accrue to the material interests and welfare of all classes of the community, inform the people of Mount Benger the probable extent to which the present Government intend carrying their suicidal policy ? As the time for the meeting of the Provincial Council is fast approaching, I trust that our worthy and respected representative will gird up his loins with renewed vigor, and give them "particular fits" for their many sins. — I am, &c, John Walker. Dumbarton Rock, 21st March, 1874.