Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1895. CHEVIOT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5026, 15 May 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1895. CHEVIOT.

The New '/icuhml Times, and presumably tho Ministry, still stand by Cheviot, Our Wellington contemporary ridicules the idea of a paltry meeting of twenty-five discontented settlers; but if there had been a gathering of five and twenty contented settlers, we do not think it would have been stigmatised as paltry, but wo should have been proudly told that public opinion had found a venfcnt Cheviot, and that all detractors wero crushed and annihilated. There aro only twenty-fivo settlers who grumble, asserts the Times, but this is assuming too much! Only twenty-h'vo settlers have publicly proclaimed their inability (o pay rent, but in the background, there arcprobably many more discontented settlers, who have not the courage to raise their voices. Then again, our Wellington contemporary urges that there aro Cheviot settlers and "Cheviot settlors." The salt of tho Cheviot earth, are tho villagers, and they have paid their rents, it is the bigger holders who are in arrear, and who are clamouring. Wo can understand that the villagers have had a good time so far, becauso thero has been a large expenditure of Government money on roads, which has "helped them along but this has necessarily been only a temporary aid, and it is perhaps only now that they will have to rely upon their own resources. The system is justified, it is urged, by ; the success of tho great bulk of the i number,-which means, we presume, ' that if the Government loses a thousand pounds on half a dozen ' settlers and gains ft hundred_ on j twenty settlers it scores a point, , However, the position taken up now , by the Ministerial organ of tho Go- ( vernmont i» not that tlio Cheviot i

Settlement is a succesa, bnt that tho Settlement of a small portion of the estate is profitable. Perhaps one per cent, of the land is settled to advantage and ninety-nine per cent, to a disadvantage, On the strength of this ono per cent, the Aliuisterial party cries victory! Still, does it matter for the Colony to be (axed for the losses on Hie bulk of tho estate, if village settlers are made happy ? The plain fact is that the Cheviot Settlement is a rank palpable failure, not so dismally hopeless as Pomahaka, but still so had that if it had been the speculation of a private Company, that Company would undoubtedly have had to go into liquidation.