THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1868.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 61, 29 February 1868, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1868.

The following- letter addressed to Mr J. Masters has been forwarded to us for our information, and we print it for the benefit of our readers:—

“ Superintendent’s Office, Wellington, February 24,1869. Sir, —In reply to your letter of the 6th instant, I have the honor to inform you that the Government have no power to comply with the proposals made by the Moroa Small Farm Association and that unless the conditions specified in Mr, Holdsworth’s letter of the 21st January last are agreed to and carried out by the Association, the Government will he compelled to proclaim the whole of the Moroa Block open for sale under the existing Land Regulations from and after the Ist day of April next. I have the honor to he, &c., (Signed), I. E. Featherston, Superintendent.”

It will lie seen from this that no option whatever is left to the Association hut to pay the'money, 10s per acre, by the end of March. This is emphatically a breach of agreeement on the part of the Government if Mr Masters was authorised to make the promises he did on the formation of the Association. On the faith of Mr Masters’ assertions that the Government would allow three years to pay for selections, several shareholders advanced 25 per cent of the purchase money as a guarantee they were ‘ bona fide ’ settlers who intended to carry out the agreed terms. It is true certainly that the price was at first to be £1 an acre, but Dr Featherston himself explained that this was caused by a mistake in the Land Office, as the regulation for £1 an acre applied only to the Manawatu land and not to any on the East Coast of the Province. The price for the Moroa Association was to be 10s an acre, and the members to be under the same rules and regulations as the Manawatu Small Farmers, hut to have three years after the completion of the survey to pay their money in. In the resolutions which'the Government object to, the shareholders offer to pay 25 per cent into the Provincial chest at once, or, when the Government have completed the main trunk line of road from Langdon’s to the Moroa they will be prepared to pay in the full amount due on their allotments. The arguments used by the shareholders against the course now taken by the Government

are many of them very fair. Among the rest is that as several of them are working’ men who could not possibly pay down the money at once, they embraced this opportunity of getting- hold of a piece of land of their own by paying for it in instalments. If they are called upon now to pay the full amount for their selections, they will be driven out of the Association. We presume that those that do retire will have their 25 per cent, returned to them.

This decision of the Government must, we fear, have the effect of breaking up the Association, but wo hope not; we hope to see it carried on against all difficulties for such associations do incalculable good by importing and encouraging labor and population. We must condemn strongly the action of a Gouernment that sacrifices the interests of the Province and its settlers to bring some few thousands at once into the Provincial chest, when they would receive as much, if not more, by waiting for the payment on the original terms.

We recommend the Association to call a meeting as soon as possible—for they have no time to lose—and at that meeting let them call upon Mr Masters to show what authority he had for makingthe promises he did to the members. Was it on the verbal promise of the Government professing to be friends- of the Small Farmers, or, was it on the strength of a written agreement ? If on the latter let the agreement be made public. The public will then be able to judge of the difference in Mr Borlase’s promising and performing, or, in other words, the difference between Mr Borlase out of office and Mr Borlase in office. Is Mr Borlase the mere tool of the Superintendent or is he one who for the sake of office throws all his former promises to the wind.