Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1875. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 426, 16 January 1875, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1875. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Taß'owners'bf-the Beaumont 'punt seem determined to die game. They are running their punt in opposition to the new bridge at present, and, we understand, they are getting the lion's share of the traffic. A road was formed from tho township lately, and only wanted gravelling to make it suitable for waggon traffic to and from the bridge during the summer months, but the Government have commenced to form another road, skirting the foot of the hills. This road, at a low .estimate, if ever it is finished, will cost the country at least. £2000 before it is made capable of carrying sfche traffic by the bridge, or before it is made equal to the road that already exists. A more foolish piece of work we have not witnessed for many a day. This new road besides will divert the traffic altogether from the township — a Government township, be it observed, where people have been induced to give large sums of money for sections, and to improve those sections by erecting upon them expensive buildings. This is the way Provincial Governments squander money. Why don't the Government compensate the men whose means of bread winning they have cut off by permitting a bridge to be erected. It is the Government, and the Government alone that have created the competition between the punt owners and the bridge proprietor and it is from them that .a settlement of the question should come. On the score of economy .alone the Government should compensate the present owners. By doing so the road they have now commenced to make will not be required, and one-fourth of the sum required to make it given as compensation would, we have no doubt, terminate the unjust competition. The road could then be carried, asat present, through the township, andtluiß agross injustice to the inhabitants would be prevented.

The result of all the bungling in cTmnection with the Waikoikoi Hundred land sale is that the land is to be again put up to auction and duly advertised. A full report of the two meetings of the Waste Land Board, where the question was discussed, will be found in another column. It is astonishing the amount of " pointing," " stealing a march," or whatever else it may be called, the Waste Lands Act, 1872, gives rise to. A good many attempts to drive a coach-and-fourthrough it have been made, and not altogether without success. On this occasion, -the father of the Act— Mr. Donald Reidstuck manfully to his progeny, and, we think, gamed an undoubted victory. Mr. Connell who, as land agent, appears to act for a good many runholders, managed successfully to get a special meeting of the Waste Land Board convened to consider an applica-

tion of Mr. J. Logan's for a large quantity of land in the Waikoikoi Hundred at the upset price, of £1 per acre. The application, Mr. Connell contended, was in conformity with the Act. But the Superintendent with the advice and consent of the Executive Council had on the 15th December withdrawn the land from sale at £1 an acre under the 85th section of the Act, on account of its being land of special value. At the meeting of the Board, Mr. Reid remarked that "it was about time the public saw what sort of people the Board had to deal with, when they found men of means, who had held the country for years for a mere bagatelle, coming forward and trying to steal a march on the public in an underhand way ;" and moved that as the land had been act apart as of special value, it was not open for application when Mr. Logan's application was lodged, and the Board, therefore, declines to entertain it. The motion was carried unanimously, and Mr. Connell's clever tactics were foiled on this occasion, thanks to Mr. Reid. At the usual meeting of the Board on Wednesday last, it was decided to advertise the unsold lands on the Waikoikoi Hundred for sale by auction at Lawrence, on the 23rd proximo. By that time, the balloting will have taken place for the deferred payment land, and opportunity will be offered successful applicants to purchase adjoining sections.