Correspondence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 428, 23 January 1875, Page 2

Correspondence.

. , . , Q m {To tlie Editor.)' '

Sic. — The feeling of fcruo fmon<L>l»Jp, wnlcb I cherish to the most influential squatting party of Otago, true friendship I call it, because it induces me to show them the faults in their character, to which their | human vanity makes them- blind ; this feeling, I say, compels me to make public through the columns of your widely circulated paper, one of those manyfold acts of public injustice characteristic of the above named party. Close to the little township of Ettrick there is a reserve paddock, exclusively for the us© of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who can turn into it their few horses or cattle. This paddock, it must be understood, is public property, and reserved by Government as such. A few days ago, however, the manager of a large station in the neighbourhood puts a flock of shorn sheep into it ; whether it was done for the purpose of cheaply manuring the ground, or to deprive the horses and cattle of the grass destiaed for them, w not correctly known. The question I should like to ask this gentleman publicly .is,, whether among all the thousands" and thousands of acres in his possession there was not one single spot more adapted for pasture for his sheep than the public property of the Bettlers ? He may tell us that there are ways and means of redress by applying to the authorities, : So the settlers did by a public meeting; but there was only a single one among men of character enough to show himself willing to meet their common adversary, not ooly by word but also by action. What, however, could one man do among a mob of sheep largo enough to stock a paddock ? Cowed by the bombastic show of authority displayed by their adversary, the rest of the settlers retreated without acting. In cases like this men personally uninterested must take up the cause of those who, apparently, are weak enough to crouch to their domieering neighbours. Let Government for once listen to reason, and draw a distinct margin for the squatters, showing'them how far their authority , goes. Should this authority be unlimited, it will be as well for one and all of us to roll up our swags and go to the Palmer, leaving New Zealand to them and their sheep. — I am, &c, Jeremiah Snooks. Moa Flat.

A few days after the arrival of the St. O&yth in 47 days from England, we "(Australasian)" learn of a small' steamer calling in at Sydney on her way to Rockham pton, having already been 222 dars out from London. How curiously the two events bring before us the contrast of the new time in navigation and the old. It is not so very long ago when the Norseman, in getting to Sydney in seven and a half months, would have been, looked upon as making a very fair average run. Now the captain of the St. Osyth states his conviction thai under 'favourable or ordinary circumstances he: can; make the voyage in 45 days. Of course .the- Norseman will have some tale to tell to explain what in these days we consider *an uneir ampled length of voyage ; but when we remember that nd' explanation at all would have been needed at a time within the recollection of people now ajive, when the vessel would have been regarded as having done quite passably, the /act brings strongly, before us the immense advance in navigation represented by the" achievement of the latest .addition to the steam fleet plying between England ant| Melbourne."* ?- ' ••,