The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 991, 29 October 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of -whatever state or persuasion, religious or Bolipical. ♦ ♦ ♦ * • Here shall the Press the Pkoplh's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

A general feeling of satisfaction and relief will be experienced at the intelligence that the Broomhall contract has been annulled on payment of a sum of £3,500, as compensation to the projector of the scheme — satisfaction that a large tract of valuable land, for the opening of which, bona fide settlers m the Colony are anxiously waiting, has been saved to the Colony, and relief that the Government has got rid oi a hungry speculator, who raised a somewhat plausible claim for compensation, at so easy a price. From the first we denounced the Broom.hall Special Settlement scheme as a snare. The names of the "Whit« worth firm, with their immense wealth and large connection with labour, were freely mixed up with it by its advocates, but it was apparent throughout that tho scheme was purely and simply looked at by Mr Broomhall as " a good thing," to be put at the proper moment on the London market. We pointed out again < and again, that irrespective altogether of whether Mr Broomhall carried out the termsof his contract for the settlement of these Te Aroha lands, or whether the contract entered into on his part was a fair quid pro quo for the value of the land granted, there were those m the colony who had a prior and a juster claim upon those lands— the people of the Tkamea who had waaited patiently on that goldfield through good times and bad times for the opening up of the Te Aroha lands, and who looked to them as the heritage of years of toil and labour throughout the vicissitudes of the early days of the goldfield. And it is a feather m the cap of two at least of the present Ministry, the Premier and tho Natire Minister that they have from first to last protested and successfully protested against the illegal alienation of these lands for the selfish pnrposo 9f monetary speculation m Capel Court. Sir George Grey bas done justice to bis Thames constituency m this matter and will have their cordial and warmest thanks for his persistency m their behalf. Mr Sheehan has been equally steadfast. On the last occasion of the matter cropping up m the Assembly we find him saying : — " Mr Broomhall had always talked of bringing oat settles, but when the land waa ready for him, ha went home and endearoured to float a company so as to make a profit. He had read Mr Mackay's report of July 21, 1877. Mr Maekay stated that at the outset he had informed Mr Broomhall that the title waa not yet extinguished, and that he had better | keep his intention seoret, bat, instead of this, Mr Brobmhall went to Auckland and made an offer to the Waste Lands Board. He was himself to blame if bis negotiations had failed. When he, (Mr Sheehan) looked into the aflair, he found that the Crown had not extinguished the native title. Mr Proomhall was a mere speculator, who knew that the I land would be worth double the money m a year, and, as a matter of fact, £2 per acre could be got for the land. The Thames Valley would have been settled by miners, who had been years saving money for that very purpose, and that very block was promised to the Thames people by Sir D. McLean. He believed "the peoplo of Auckland j wonld survive the great calamity of losin^ Broomhall as a special settler." i And Mr Sheehan is right. The i very iournal which sang the praises of Mr Broomhall, when it was i thought that he had concluded his bargain with the Waste Lands Board, »nd which bemoaned his fate, with bitter reproaches against those who had opposed him for having scared away settlers by hundreds, and capital by hundreds of thousands of pounds, when the prospects of the grant became more than doubtful, has now already admitted, that "anybody m Auckland with the Broomhall block m his possession on the terms offered by the Waste Lands Board; could have dooe tbe

same m Qaeen street any day, and have secured better settlers. The ]|a]e by the Waste Lands Board was 'not legal, and there was no obligation on the part of the Ministry to ■hand' the land over to the Waste (Lands Board at all." For our own part,? we never hesitated to condemn the schem©. The "indefinite rista of extensive drainage to be made throughout the whole valley of the Thames and Piako and the connections of the Whitworths and other great employers of labour with this part of the Colony," did not prevent us from seeing through the purely mercenary character of the scheme, and as such we denounced it. Time has shown the correctness of the Tiew taken by this Journal, and we trust the. exposure of the hollow, i ness of the scheme, and the danger from which the colony hag narrowly escaped, will serve as a warning to our Waste Lands Board m the future, not to be so easily led away by the glib utterances of those who, m pretending to do the colony and their fellow creatures a service, are all the while engaged m calculating how much there if m it.