THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, November 27, 1862.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 319, 27 November 1862, Page 2

THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “ Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, November 27, 1862.

Thebe is later European news by a vessel from Mauratius to Melbourne. The defeat of Garibaldi is confirmed, at St. Stephano in Calabria by the Royal forces under the Marquis de Pallavicino. He was wounded in the head} taken prisoner, and conveyed in an Italian frigate to an hospital at Spezzia. His son, Menotti, was more severely wounded. 'I he battle lasted five hours. Sicily and Naples were in a state of siege. An emeute was suppressed at Milan, with the loss of one soldier, The French fleet had left Toulon, it was thought for Naples.

Lord Palmerston insists on the necessity of hurrying on the English armaments.

The latest date from America, is New York 21st August; and the news is that General Stonewall Jackson had repulsed General Pope, and was marching on Washington.

There is so little time intervening be' tween this and the day announced for the sale of the reserve on the other side of the river, that we may be pardoned for again adverting to the subject, and endeavouring to show in what position the land in question is. It may not be generally known to the more recent settlers, that the first immigrants into this place came under the auspices of the New Zealand Company. It was at once obvious to these settlers that, unless some arrangement were made respecting the site of a town, any one of them might buy it, and thus gain a great advantage over his fellow settlers. They therefore came under an agreement by which lands were reserved for a town, the settlers having liberty to choose a quarter of an acre of the town land for every lot of 100 acres they held in the country; the New Zealand Company, however, retaining every alternate town section, which, along with a part of the remaining town land not. chosen by the settlers, was Afterwards sold by it for its own behoof. The other part of these remaining sections was set apart as reserves, for the benefit of the district in all time coming. The reserve called the Town Belt, and the reserve on the left bank which is now advertised for sale, were the lauds thus set apart for the public. They are both held, we believe, exactly on the same conditions ; and if the one may be sold, so may the ‘ other. That they may be sold there can be no doubt; but the Superintendent or the Provincial Government has no power whatever, so far as we are a,ware, to sell them. When the New Zealand Company was unable to pay back to the British Government, at the stipulated time, the money which it had borrowed from the Government, it handed over all its landed possessions to the Government in payment of its debt. The titles to the land were then derived immediately from the ? Crown ; and we suspect the alienation ot the land in question can only be effected by an act passed by the General Assembly and sanctioned

by li«fetftjesty. However this may be —whatever steps -may be necessary v ere the district is deprived of this public reserve—rthere is little. - doubt that that now taken by the Superintendent is as illegal as it is impolitic. His Honor the' Superintendent has, no doubt; been led to take this step by representations from Wanganui. First, the Magistrates recommended the sale of the land, then a number of the settlers on the south side petitioned for it, and next our representatives in Council sanctioned it. All these representations, no doubt, moved the Superintendent to proceed as he has done ; but he should not have been tempted by them to Buch an invasion of public right, and transgression of the moral laws which regulate a free government. The great argument for the sale, of this •eserve was the accommodation Of the Bectlers on the left bank. The accommodation wanted was an inn, a store, a smithy, and space for the carrying on of perhaps one or two other occupations, as the convenience of these settlers may require. Now the room wanted for these objects was obviously at the river side, and there would have been no objection urged, to the leasing;of 'pa.rt of the' land for such purposes, as that might have been done without violating 'the idea of.the reservo ; .it being still held as public property. But this. object is by no means such as to require or warrant the sale of any part of the land, much less of such a large slice of it as is advertised for public competition under the name of Campbell-town. Even, indeed, while this land is advertised, the very object ostensibly forming the reason for its sale has been secured. A piece of land on the river j side, nearly opposite Messrs. Taylor ahd Watt’s wharf, has been leased, from the natives, for a period of twenty years at the rate of £2 10s a year, for the purpose of building a store on it. An application has been made to the proprietors for a similar piece adjacent for the erection of a blacksmith’s shop, and thus these very desiderata are obtained at a much lower cost than if these lessees were purchasing quarter-acre sections at the upset prices fixed by the Government.

But the Government has, unfortunately, laid itself open to the suspicion that this ostensible reason—the accommodation of the settlers on the left bank—is not the only motive which urges to the sale ; and that the real cause is the wish to appropriate the proceeds. Now we do not suppose the Provincial chest to be so thoi’oughly cleaned out, as that the sum of £I2OO added to the amount therein would materially alter the appearance of the contents. No doubt every little helps ; but the worst Government possible under our institutions would not be guilty ot such a monstrous act of duplicity as this suspicion implies for the little gain thereby secured. Still, if the sale were gone into, there would only be one way of removing this suspicion from the minds of many; and that would he, the handing over the proceeds of the sale to the Town Board for the special benefit of the place. The truth is, that the inhabitants of this district are not satisfied with the amount of Government money which has been expended in it for some time back. It lias not got its fair proportion. And when the further injustice; is added of taking away the public property of the district for .the general benefit of the province, it is not wonderfuLthat there should be a general feeling that, after all, the friends of the Government only get the kicks, while its opponents get the ha’pence. There should be a public meeting held to protest against the sale taking place, until at least the rights of the case are thoroughly expiscated and made known. The precedent of the sale of a public reserve on the New Zealand Company’s plan is of too great importance to all parts of the island to be allowed, without a declaration from high legal authority that it is lawful and right.