THE PIAKO DEBATE.

Waikato Times, Issue 641, 29 June 1876, Page 2

THE PIAKO DEBATE.

Ths following; is Mr Whittkar's speed) on tlic recent, deb.ite :—: — ,« Mr Wln'fik-r nxj^.u'in.! Mat 'though fc';e ,rnljs of t'>e llouSQperniitfc.jd him tosp^ak |cm t!',e S!il>jyof, he would not role. The hon gentleman then proceeded to st.ite that though Mr Rnssell'a na.ne was used .very froely throughout the negotiation, he (Mr Whita'ier) w-.s personally responsible. He it was who wrote the letter, thon^-ii Mr Jt-i soil s\vrn4 if-. He it w»s who dictated all die telegrams to Ministers upon the matter. The land was taken up solely ou the judgment of Captain Steele, and the hurry there was, was due to Mr iRu sell's desire to proceed to To this day no man knew what the centre of the Swamp was like. He had been many years in the colony, and he never ( asked a favour from Ministers, and did' not want to accept one. Daring the whole negotiations he never hud had a single personal interview with Ministers. He could up to 1871 have bought tho whole of the swamp at from Is 6d to 2s per acre. After that, regulations were passud providing that the land should be sold by auction. But wh.it was the practice 1 Why, any gentleman could goto the Lands Offioo, mal; e application, and the laud would be sold to hua. As to the cost of drainage*, ho vTas Cashier, and he could inform them that there had been already expanded £35,000, exclusive of what whs paii to the Government, and only recently he had s°nt home to some shareholders there asking for £1000 a.-piece. It -was impossible even no.v to 'say how, the speculation would turn out. He knew that an immense amount of mouey would still require to be spent. \v~hat t'hoy proposed to do was to sell such portions as they could recUitn, and then go on draining more. It wasa Riistake to say the, roads wore no good. There wore three -roads — Some of "them saving from I's to 20 miles travelling to settlers. Everything had -been done that wag required by the Government. He must inform the member for Bruce that he knew little or nothing about the land as a whole. At a time when a great many immigrants wore arriving in Auckland, the Agents of the company employed all these, and as they left, moie were obtained from Auckland. Another advantage was that the Pi.iko was notoriously a disaffected district, and the construction of these roads had a bpneh'cial effoc*?. The original plans for tho ro.,ds were altered on the recommendation of MrM^kav-, and the Company gave way to tha Government in everyfhing. There was scarce any one in the diitricfc who did not wish a Crown grant to be issued aud the works to be continued — in fact, his election was largely duo to his coauection with the Piako Swamp Company. So far from their getting more land than was originally bought, they had yielded up to the Native Minister about 2000 acres of the best land in the Swamp to satisfy native claims. He said it was not an illegal transaction, bub was perfectly regular. Nj «»le waa mtide until the Order in Council had been made. Negotiations extending ovor som9 three years had been going on. He quotvd from the evidence before the committee of last year to shew, that merely negotiations were going on, and there was nothing illogal in that. The purchasers possessrd no claim until the .negotiations were Validated by the Order in Council. He instanced several oases where matters were arrange! by the Government and afterwards legalised, such as the settlement of the New Zealand Company' 3 claims \ and in 1846, when the thca Governor Grey ordered wines for the troops to be imported free, which was absolute/ iilegU at the timer, bat was validated by Act subsequently, tie ahewfid by various precedents thatjthera «-a<motbiug illeg U in the transactions connected with tke Piako Swamp, and was afraid that the member for City Weat was more guided in this matter by personal than party feeling. He denied positively thafc he personally was in any way interested in a single acre of land purchased' from natives. He thought Sir George Grey might Jiave made himself acquainted -with the facts of the case before he nirule charges against him in the Hoaae which had not tho slightest foundation in fac*;. He referred to an observation of Sir George Grey's where he spoke of the corrupt minions of Ministers, referring to hiuasetf and Mr Russell i Sir George Grey denied having used thewords. ' ,M.c WJiitaker concluded by saying that wirh the exception of the question of "Abolition, he came down here to work cordially with Sir G Grey, but after the terras used by him he felt himself placed in antagonism fco Sir G Grey.