CORRESPONDENCE. [We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] (To the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 344, 28 July 1874, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE. [We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] (To the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Sir,—Would it be thought impertinent iv me to ask, through your columns, who ii responsible for the accuracy, (I had well nigh written " inaccuracy") of the telegrams, Parliamentary, and others that appear in the daily news papers so conspicuously ? I have a small grievance, the public a big one, will you suffer me to ventilate it ? In the Legislative Couro 1, on Saturday, the 9lh June, Mr Waterhouse, in moving "Thatin the opinion of this Council, the mode of selling and disposing of lands under the New Zealand So' foment Act" be regulated by an Act of the General Assembly, and not as at present, by the regulations made at the wiil of the Government of the day, remarked *' that too much discretionary power was left in the hands of the Government, as instanced in the case of 15,000 acres of land in 'he Waikato district being sold to Mr Cox, &c" The only land in Wnikato purchased by me from the General Government is a block of 200 acres, bought in the ordinary way by public auction at the upset price ef 10s an acre. This land was advertised for sale in the daily newspapers three months before tho day of sale. Iv the same telegram reference is made to the sale to a company of 70,000 acres of land at the Fiako. I never had an interest direct or in* direct in such purchase. Again, last week, in the House of Representatives, Mr Lnckio gave notice of motion for papers relating to the sale by the Government to Mr Cox of " large blocks of land in the Hawkes Say Province " ; bnt I observe by the telegrams reporting proceedings on Tuesday last, that that part of his motion bad been allowed to lapse, without comment or explanation. In the face of this, the public will have some difficulty in believing that I have never purchased for myself or on behalf of another, an acre of land in Hawkes Bay, from either the General or Provincial Government. lam a leaseholder of 25,0000 acres of confiscated land in Hawkes Bay; upon applying to the General Government for an extension of lease over this, I was aiked whether it would not suit me to purchase the block. My answer "a\ that it might suit me to buy a portion of it, about 8000 acres, and an application to buy so much was lodged by me with the Government, but whether I shall succeed in getting the land at 3s 61 or 5s an acre, or al all, is at present uncertain. In the days gone by, when O'Connell was once reminded that his opinions on some public qnestion differed from those expressed by the newspapers, he told his audience that lie went to the newspapers for his facti, but that his opinions were his own. Are we in the present day so far advanced, or thus far retrograded, that we must not believe in the facts? Parliamentary and talegraphic that stand out so prominently in tho daily newspapers. What say you?—l am, &c,

Alfkid Cox.