THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 809, 23 August 1877, Page 2

THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1877.

There are special settlements and special settlements, aud while we would almost as soon see the lands of the Colony remaining iu the hands of their aboriginal owners as passing away from the colonists into those of English speculators of the Pritchard aud Broomhall type, we look with pleasure and satisfaction on such movements as that now going on at Grahamstown, for the special settlement of lands ou the Waihou. Mr William Fox is an ardent advocate of. the Bt-ojmliall scheme, and whether in advocating these or urging his extreme views on Local Option he does not hesitate to qnote scripture freely. We tell him therefore, and those who with him are intent on monopolising the best of our soil for the used up • artisans of the manufacturing towns of Great Britain, that they are not justified in taking the childrens bread and casting ib to the dogs. It is a gross anu palpable injustice to our toiling miners and labourers that when, as in the case with num- ' bers at the Thames, they have saved a small capital, which, with the assistance of land grants on easy terms would enable them to settle down as owners and cultivators of soil, they are pat off with empty promises from year to year. And this injustice is rendered doubly irksome when they see the raw and by no means choeicst material o Europe, from the overflowings of Scandinavia to the locked out artisans of the west of England, granted opportunities and encouragement greater even than those which they have vainly asked for themselves. The policy which permits this is essentially a selfish and is certainly a mistaken one. They are here already, are working out the colonisation of the country and sharing the burden of taxation, and therefore we need offer them no further attraction — is the argument of the shallow politican in respect to such men as those at Grahamstown who seek land for special settlement. They have swallowed the hook, bub we must bait it for those who have yet to be caught. But what are the facts ot the case ? Ask any man who has known the Thames gold fields during the pasb half dozen years. Thf-re has been a sbeady exodus from them of men and families with small capibal but with ihe endurance* and experience as colonists which would have ensured them success as small farmers, which j tbey desired to become on the waste ! lands of the Upper Thames, had j only facilities for settlement been '

afforded them. Many df these had waited patiently a long tinie for the penalisation of their hopes) until dis^ justed with the ill kept faith of Government promises they left for -gbhtfr colonies or other parts, of New •piiland. v Some j ho weve» A Jthose |||wliom these promises^Sopities ap; settlement were gifff- sbiijjlvepnain, and we 'learn fi^i a jije'nt Issue of the " Grahamstowjpttai"." that Mr Stephenson, wnb has interested himself in getting land for a special settlement on the Wailiou, has forwarded " r a i'let'teV to the Chairman of the Waste Lands Board on this matter, of which the following- is a coppy .^Brownstreet, Thames, August 6fch, 1877.— To the Hon. the Chairman and | members of the Waste Lands Board, Province of. Auckland. — i Gentlemen,— l have the honor to make application on behalf of the persons asking for a block of land to be set apart on tbe deferred payment principle, in the Upper Thames district, and which your Board passed a resolution to the efiecb that as soon as lauds are handed over to you they should be set" apart for that purpose— to ask that blocks 2 and 3 and»4, Waihou, now passed through the Lands Court and purchased on behalf of the Government, be given to us as soon as they come into your possession, and for ' which we are content to wait all arrangements necessary as long as we have the understanding that they will be set apart for our use and occupation. — I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, Sam Stephenson. The letter will come before the Board at its next meeting, and we trust to find that, in the report of those proceedings, tardy justice will at last have been done to these people at the Thames. They have borne the heat and burden of the day, have assisted to raise up a centre of population second only to Auckland in this portion of tbe North Island, and have thus made a market for the up-country lands of the Thames Valley, and rendered settlement profitable and attractive 6Ver a large area of country. '. It is hard that they should see these lands pass utterly away into the hands of others who came into tbe field afc the eleventh hour, aud that they should be allowed themselves neither part nor portion in the inheritance they have helped to win. It is scant eucouragon.cn t...to .the industrious and saving that the means they have gathered together | ior years in the hope that with it they might settle down on a homestead of their own, should be refused that one investment. Yet, we speak from actual knowledge of facts when we say that in scores of instances, for want of such facilities, the money which has been saved for the purpose of settlement has been embarked on other less safe ventures [ and lost, or, worse still, been squan- ' dered in utter recklessness aud despair. It is but a remnant of the goldfields tide of colonisation and settlement which might, nnder happier auspices, have been made to overflow much of the Upper Thames distriot, for whicli Mr Stephenson and others are now endeavouring to obtain simple justice and a recognition of long since made official promises. Others who have held the local administration of the waste lands of the Thames have so far failed in their duties to these individuals and to the Colony. It was for the Auckland Waste Lands Board to have made good the default of their predecessors, but we look in vain in the published report of Tuesday's meeting of that body for any reference to the subject.