What Next?

Evening Star, Issue 8529, 30 May 1891, Page 4

What Next?

The Crown land rangers are either exceeding their powers, or, if they are acting under the authority of their superior officers, the Government are apparently desirous of still further encouraging the departure from our shores of the best class of settlers. The following instances of either injustice or tyranny have been brought under our notice. At Levin, a settler on land leased from the Crown was bullied by a ranger because he had sheep or cattle running on his grassed land, such stock being the property of another settler who paid so muoh money per week for the agistment. The settler was told that this was contrary to the regulations, and he must therefore discontinue the practice, or forfeit his land. The same thing, we have been informed on excellent authority, has occurred on some of the new settlements near Feilding, so that all the rangers are, apparently, acting under dearly defined instructions. It is a new thing to learn that the grass of a man's own sowing is not his property, and that, in consequence, he may not sell to his neighbor who wants it, and is willing to pay for it, but mustt rather let it rot on the ground unless he can afford to put his own stock on it to eat the grass down. We are aware that these Crown land rangers have not been selected because of their possessing any special aptness, or knowledge, fisting them to perform their alleged duties with satisfaction to the public. It has been said—wickedly, no doubt—that one of them could not tell the dififerecca between a dog-leg fence and a poly bullock, even though he had graduated as a hod carrier, taken his degree as a bricklayer, and afterwards achieved fame as an eleotion canvasser. . . . We have one word of advice to give the Minister of Lands, which is—send out a circular to the rangers explaining the meaning of the word "agisted."—' Feilding Star.'