UPPER WAIKATO. HAMILTON. UPPER WAIKATO. HAMILTON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2829, 20 August 1866, Page 3

UPPER WAIKATO. HAMILTON. UPPER WAIKATO. HAMILTON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

August 13. The news received by the mail on Wednesday relative to the decision of the committee of the House of Representatives appointed to consider the claim 3 of the settlers for back pay, &c, has beea a heavy blow and great discouragement to the military settlers. They had anxiously hoped, from the ventilation the subject had had through the press, the able and eloquent letter penned by Mr. Gillies to the Colonial Secretary, along with the determined action shown by Mr. Newman in the House of Assembly, that a more favourable result would have been arrived at ; *»ut it is now patent to every one that the members of the committee have prejudged the whole affair — some because they knew nothing about the matter, and others, such at Colonel Haultain, from rancorous hostility, although he styles himself a Waikato military settler. Why the gallant Colonel's spleen against iv we cannot tell, but, if we are not much mistaken, the time is not far distant when he will neither he member" for Frankly n, nor yet a Minister of the Crown. The men are utill undaunted, and determined, if possible, to carry their claims into the Supreme Court ; and if the Colonial Government deny them the right to sue, they intend to petition her Majesty the Queen, through the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for such right, which 1 believe will be readily grunted. Meanwhile the men are holding meetings, and intend applying to the provinces of Auckland and Otago, and the sister colonies of Victoria, New Scuth Wales, and Tasmania, for pecuniary means to carry on the lawsuit, and which they believe will be readily given. The first public sale of horses and cattle was held on Wednesday last, by Mr. Allen, of Te Awamutu. It consisted of 22 horses, formerly belonging to the Defence Force, who are just disbanded. The men rode into Hamilton on Tuesday afternoon, under the command of Captain Pye, and were discharged. The whole of the horses — a very good-looking stnd — were disposed of at sums varying from £8 to £20. The weather has changed, and during the last three days a vast quantity of rain has fallen, which makes the seed vegetate m.Qst rapidly.