The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 699, 7 December 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY DECEMBER!, 1876

Equal and exact justice to all men, Ot whatever stute or persuasion, religious or political • * * * * Here jhall the Preri the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

We do not know how it is, but as soon as the Editors of the Auckland newspapers are interviewed by some gentleman from home, " doing the colonies" as the delegate of an Immigration Association, or as pioneer speculator on account of a few friends, and who talks glibly about immigrants, special settlements, and English capital, they lose their heads forthwith, and jealous as they have hitherto been of anything of land monopolies amongst capitalists in the colony, are willing to give the eloquent and persuasive stranger the run of the Waste Land's office. It was so when Mr Holloway travelled the Province, and what has come of itl It Was so when Mr Vesey Stewart and party landed s>me eighteen months ago in Auckland, when nothing less than a public banquet was sufficient recompense to the party who had so kindly accepted thousands of the best acres of land to be found in the Province, and now we learn that leas actual work is done on these Katikati lands than on any other settlement of the same size and population, and the settlers are actually crying for more land J The Auckland papers, and especially the " Cross," appear to have been seiztd with the sume kind of spasmodic eagerness for immigration of any kind and on any terms, on the arrival of Mr Brooiuhull. We showed in a recent article how utterly one sided and unbusinesslike was the proposal submitted by that gentleman to the Auckland Waste Land Board, and our contemporary the " Cross" calls us to task for these remarks, and tauntingly adds :—: — "Considering the enormous extent of land in the Waikato belonging ito prirate ptnons, and remaining

uncultivated, but ready to bo sold, peih.ip«i, lor the nap, (sic) we should have thought thai* onr Waikato contempoiary would have welcomed the probability of a Biifcossful und productive occupation of lands which liavo been lying- in a state of nature, yielding nothing hub ti-trep, Icm, mid fl.tx." Our Auckland contemporary can know litflo of this distiict if he imagines that there is the slightest need of giving the land in it away for one penny less than its full market value as inducement to ensure its settlement. Such portions of it as are fit for settlement by practical colonists of moderate capital, let alone inexperienced immigrants, if put up by the Government for sale from time to time in suitable sized blocks will find ready purchasers within the colony. There is no need to hawk it in return for immigrants in the English market. Such parts of it as our own local and otheT capitalists will not look at would be no use whatever to less experienced and unacclimatised immigrants from home. We speak for the Waikato. There are doubtless other parts of the Province where the Broomhall or Whitworth settlers, as they are called, would be well worth the land — in the far north for instance, but noteven there, unless, as we pointed out on Saturday, proper precautions *>re taken to secure a suitable class of immigrants only. The " Cross" says "It were absurd to suppose that the Whitworth party, who are providing the means for this important colonisation, are at all likely to introduce immigrants other thin such as the Colonists of New Zealand would gladly welcome us true workers in the advance of our colonisation." Now this is simply bunkum. The transaction is purely a business one — so much land for so many hundreds of immigrants, and we have no more reason to trust to Mr Broomhall or the Whitworth party to give us first class immigrants than they have to leave it to the Province to give them first class land. Mr Broomhall personally inspectsand examines, and compares and classifies the lands offered before he will make his selection, and quite right too. He is not going to buy n pig in a poke, whatever we may do. We have spoken of Waikato which we are entitled to do with weight. We will now refer to the Thames lands, with which wo are equally well acquainted. The " Cross" says " There is plenty of land in the Lower Thames, more than sufficient to furnish settlements for all the Thames miners who may desire to settle on the land, without in any way interfering with the project of Mr Broomhall's settlement." The statements made at the Waste Lands Board pointed out that there was not the sufficiency of lands now spoken of by the " Cross," and that journal, and very properly so, too, soundly rated the working of the Land Purchase department of the Native office, which shewed such a result for supposed work and actual expenditure. But apart from this, there are others in the colony besides the Thames miners who may de&iro to colonise these lands, and there is not a week paisea but one or more capitalists from the South or Auckland, travels this country for the purpose ofseeking room for investment and settlement. Moreover, though liable to be accused of reiteration, we must repeat what we stated on a former occasion — that these very lands in the Thames country which havo been pitched upon by Mr B roo rah all as suitable for his settlement, are the very pick of the Thames country. A large proportion of them if put up to auction to-morrow would realise three pounds per acre, and be eagerly competed for at,that price — while Otnahau itself is just th<s site where the largest inland city in this part of New Zealand is bound to spring up, as population increases. Verily Mr Broorahall takes little on faith, but uses his judgment with an eye to business that does him infinite credit. All we ask is that the smartness shall not all be on one side.