A CONTRADICTION,

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 223, 16 December 1897, Page 2

A CONTRADICTION,

TO THE KDITOn. Sin, —lam rather astonished to see a local in your paper of Saturday'!) issue commenting very strongly on the way the purchasers of farms recently sold by the Assets Board were being treated ; and to quote the sentence I take most exception to : " At the time of the sale some of the lots were stocked with cattle, afterwards horses were put on, and now in addition sheep have been turned on to the sold portions, apparently with the intention of eating the land as close as possible before handing it over, etc." Now, Sir, these* are gross misstatements, and whoever your informant was, he has certainly not stuck to facts, and by putting this article in your paper, which has a large circulation in the district, you are spreading a report through the country, which is very hurtful to the Assets Company. A report which has not the slightest foundation, and I think your proper cause would have been, to fiud out first, whether there was cause for it or not, and this information you could easily have obtained from me. I will now put before you the true state of affairs. lam dealing only with the Karapiro land, which I may say is the only land in question : The sections sold were Nos. 4, 156 acres, to Mr Hunt; 5, 156 acres, 3 roods, to Mr Morgan ; 10, 48 acres, 1 rood, to Mr Floyd First, Nos. 4, usually prazes 100 steers to fatten every summer. At date of sale there were only 56 steers being grazed on it, and since then, '24 yearling colts were put on it, and 140 wethers, on'y for a few clays, till they would be trucked. Second, No. 5, the purchaser, Mr Morgan, asked us to put a good mob of sheep on his lot to cat down the oxeyed daisies, which arc pretty bad on this farm Third, No. 10 has 20 less steers on it than at time of sale, and feed rather too abundant. On No. 4, Mr Hunt's purchase, the feed is very abundant. Some few days ago Mr Main, the manager of Fencourt, wrote to me saying that the feed was very plentiful on all these sections, and asked me to let him know what lie was to do about stocking same. I told him to stock the paddocks fairly only and verbally told him not to over stock, which instructions I can testify myself have been faithfully carried out, and anyone who cares to inspect these farms will find what I say is correct. Under these circumstances I think it would be only fair and just to the company, as well as myself, to insert a local in your paper giving the true state of affairs as I have shown you, and in contradiction to the one circulated in last Saturday's issue of your paper. —I am, etc., J no. MoCaw, Manager. Ma'.amata, 14th December, J 897[Mr N. I. Hunt furnished a representative of The AiiGUa with the information as published.—Ed. W.A.]