The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3025, 6 April 1867, Page 4

The Daily Southern Cross.

LTTOEO, NON UKO. " If I hara bean axtlngnia&ed, yat tliara ilib A thotumd beacom from the ipark I boif."

SATURDAY, APRIL 6.

Otte reply to our contemporary's^ laboured productions yesterday will be brief. "We need not follow him through his dreary columns to expose the fallacies, perversions of facts, and small impertinences of which he has been'guilty. "We shall confine ourselves mainly to the public questions at issue at the presenttiroe. But first, we would sayawordby way of setting ourselves right with the public. Our contemporary says, " The Ceoss may " endorse the opinion of those who denounce " the forty-acre system as a swindle, and the " immigrants who were attracted out under " that system, as ' paupers,' but the facts "of the!case will tell against him." "We do not endorse any such opinion ; and we may say, that except in his own columns we never remember to have seen the forty-acre system designated a "swindle," or the forty-acre settlers as " pauper immigrants." Let that sufiice. If our contemporary can manage to make capital out of his advocacy of that system, he is at liberty to do so. "We say at once that under existing circumstances, and without reference to the past at all, to attempt any such system of colonization in this province, would be an act of folly so ruinous, th.it only those who have a settled purpose to retrieve their own fortune in the general rain of the province could advocate it. "Whei, therefore, we charged our contemporary with being " the mouthpiece of Mr. " John"Williamson'spolicy, "and the organ of " those -who bring Mr. John "Williamson out "as Superintendent," we did it with the intention of tacking this further charge to them, ani which we proved by inference in in our feader of Thursday. The Herald disclaims being the mouthpiece of Mr. John Williamsjn, and says that that gentleman has had no communication with them since his name was mentioned in connection with the Superintendency. "We can well believe tiat. It would be strange indeed were Mr. "Williamson to select our contemporary as Ids mouthpiece. That, we are convinced, he would never do ; and that is a thing we did not so much as insinuate he had done. But the men who trade on Mr. Williamson'spoliticalreputation; — whomake capital out of his public character ; and see, or fancy they see, substantial advantage to themselves in his election through their -forward advocacy, could not select an agency for publicity more congenial to their tastes, or more thoroughly in accord with tt^eir views, than the New Zealand Herald, i "Why, thefactsin connection with that journal arejso notorious that,were its promoters not as blind as the mole, whose underground boring they resemble in their public policy more than anything else in nature, they could not fail to perceive that the community at large understand the reason why they now r *champion Mr. "Williamsons cause, and aflfect. admiration for his policy and official experience. 3?or'what purpose, let us ask, was the Herald established ? On what did its projectors trade, when they launched their I

penny-half-penny sheet upon the troubled waters of New Zealand politics ? "Was it on the necessity that existed for strengthening ' Mr. J. Williamsons position, by bringing out a second newspaper to uphold his views, and second his efforts ? Let the public answer. The facts must be fresh in the recollection of most of the people of Auckland. The unmeasured abuse of Mr. Williamson in the Herald disgusted even the strongest political opponents of that gentleman ; and coming from the quarter it did, considering the past and its lessons, it was offensive to every generous mind, of whatever shade of opinion. And even so late as the last Superintendency election, the Herald could see nothing but blemishes in Mr. Williamson and his policy. That gentleman was not to be compared to Mr, Bobert Graham in ability or political sagacity, and as for administrative talents he ooald not hold a candle to him. Now, the note is changed. Self-interest points a different way. It may pay once more to lay violent hands on Mr. Williamsons mantle ; and our contemporary, and the small knot of schemers who have dragged Mr. Williamson forward, and mouthed a policy for him, have no difficulty in persuading our contemporary to flatter the man whose public reputation they so recently tore with the envenomed tooth of ingratitude. The " mouthpiece of Mr. John Williamson," indeed ! We did not suppose it for a moment ; but we invited that gentleman, if he was to become a candidate for the Superintendency, to place his own views before the public at once, to prevent them being confounded with the opinions of his partisans. We say distinctly that the Otahuhu meeting protested against the Provincial G-overnment competing for the purchase of native lands. It voted a resolution to the effect that the Native Lands Act, 1866, and the East Coast Titles Investigation Act, ought to be repealed. It pledged itself not to vote for any candidate who opposed the principle of the resolutions proposed by Mr. Buckland, the third of which was as follows :—": — " That the Superintendent should " do his utmost to remove all restrictions " affecting the sale and transfer of " native lands to Europeans, and in ob- " taming for the native landowners Crown " grants for their lands." If, therefore, the Otahuhu meeting did not condemn the principle of the Government trading in land, it did nothing whatever. Be it remembered that the meeting pronounced in favour of the Council having a controlling voice in the policy of the province ; and also declared that it was necessary to have a reconstruction of the public departments with a view to retrenchment. How on earth could there be retrenchment to the extent 6f £25,000 or £30,000 a-year, as Mr. Eowe admitted to be necessary, if we are to keep up the Waste Lands and Survey departments as at present, and organise a Land Purchase Department to boot ? The idea is simply preposterous. And we say that although it suited a small and noisy section of the Newton meeting to prevent a formal expression of opinion on these points, and our contemporary to misrepresent what was said, that meeting was all but unanimous in its opinion that the time has gone by for continuing a system which has introduced population truly, but has failed to settle, by profitable occupation, one-fiftieth part of the land which passed away under selection to land-order holders. The Otahuhu meeting not only pronounced against placing restrictions on the acquisition of native land, but affirmed the principle that the Superintendent should do his utmost to enable the natives to obtain Crown grants for their land. Does that principle not go direct in the teeth of the Provincial Government buying land from the natives, without passing it through the Court in the ordinary way, as may now be done by the Native Lands Act 1 Is it proposed that the province shall first assist the natives to obtain Crown grants, and then compete with the general public for the purchase of lands held tinder this tenure from the native owners 1 If it is, then the proposal is a palpable absurdity. Where is the money to come from to effect such purchases? and what advantage would accrue to intending settlers if they were compelled to buy land at second-hand from the Government, when they could have it, with as good a title, from the original proprietor J We want free trade in land by all means. We want a man with £100, or £50, or £500, or any other sum, to be able to buy its worth in land, with a Grown title, from the native owner, on the best terms he can. Our contemporary said in effect on Wednesday, "No; this must not be allowed. " Only large capitalists ought to be allowed "to buy direct from the natives. The man "who can buy a block of one hundred " thousand acres can afford to pay the fees " which would fall too heavily upon those " who can only afford to buy a thousand " acres. Therefore, let the Provincial Go- " vernment step in and purchase large blocks, " reselling it at a fixed rate to men of small " capital, and so prevent monopoly of land." This system, we are further told in the same article, would " have the effect of making " land cheap, and of bringing in shipload " after shipload of immigrants, each possessing capital of from £200 to £2,000 !" We assure the public we do not caricature the policy which the Herald and its fellow•workers sketch out for the regeneration of this pi*ovince, already steeped in debt, prostrated by war, and paralysed by commercial disasters. We are not told where the province is to get the money to buy this land from the natives, neither are we told where the " shipload after shipload" of immigrants possessing "from "£2OO to £2,000 " each are to be caught. We know something of the state of things in Great Britain, and we do not think men of this class are running about the streets like the apochryphal little pigs in Jersey, which carry a penny roll and knife and fork in their mouths, crying, " Who'll eat me ! Who'll " eat me ! " It will take a great deal of "touting" to catch a "ship-load" of such simpletons; and when they arrived they would doubtless prefer going into an open market for land to taking the refuse the Government will throw them at a ridiculously high price. The public will see, however, that behind this delusive system — this dishonest sham which the Serald and its helpers wish to palm off on the province — lies the Paradise of Place and Pay. The patronage of the Government in the province and abroad would then be enormous ; and although the province itself would fall into utter and irremediable bankruptcy, those " work- " ing the oracle" would "make a purse/ We protest against this system, or any approach to it. The only hope for the province is to "snug down," and make things

safe until the crisis lias passed. The cry Sm " land monopoly" is a delusion. Our popuT lation, all told, is imder 40,000, and the natives in tJie province own about fifteen millions of acres ! Let the public look at the Waitakerei land. The natives proved their title, cut it up into small farms, selling it by auction at far less than the upset price of the Government land. Is there any appearance of monopoly in this sale, or its result ? On the contrary. Has the Waikato land been sold in large blocks to large capitalists 1 Ey no means ; but the fifty-acre sections — the small farms have been sold to land agents and speculators, their owners being unable or unwilling to work them for want of capital. The small farm system in the North has tended to absenteeism, and the worse system of land-sharking ; it has had a similar tendency in the South. In conclusion, we would appeal to the electors of Auckland to consider well the position of the province before they decide on a policy. A policy may look well on paper, and " ship-load after ship-load of immigrants " possessing from £200 to £2,000 each" may do to write about, but we shall wait long before we see them. Our contemporary the other day, advocated a policy which has thrust thousands upon thousands of capital out of the province within the last twelvemonth; and it now advocates a policy which would perpetuate excessive expenditure, and delude persons from England for the advantage of the money-lending town speculators, whose occupation, fortunately for the province at large, is very nearly gone.