Native Land Lights.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 386, 5 December 1889, Page 3

Native Land Lights.

LTO THE EDITOR. J

Sir, —I cannot help thinking that Mr W. L, Rees makes a very great mistake in taking so much notice of and advertising so freely Messrs Chambers and Co. It is no doubt very provoking to have people making wild assertions about you, but Mr Bees must put up with that, and remember that those assertions, even it true, can have little weight with the majority of the voters, What does it matter to ua if Mr Chambers did have to fight for his title ? That is his trouble and affects no one but himself, It ia only the selfish instinct of these sheepfarmers that makes them think what affects them personally must of necessity affect the whole diefoipt —nay the wffole polony. Let rr,e illustrate what I mean. The native land jobbers cry out piteously " Fix up cur titles or you ruin us and the district," And in the same breath, " It will be a blassing to tbe district if our titles be fixed up, money will be spent in improving the land, labor will ba plentiful and Hie district will prosper," Their titles are fixed up and whet do we find to ba the result 7 Mr Arthur bas, I believe, a clear title to the Willows, Where are all these improvements he was going to tqake, where all the labor to be provided, and what benefit has it been to the district in comparison with what a few small farmers woqld five done 7 Mr Chambers, tbe last named gentleman's brother-in-law, has had hia titles fixed up for some six years, What great improvements has he made, and what labor beyond the ordinary has he provided 7 It ia the same everywhere, We see a class of men getting the cream of the land and when they have got it prefer black labor to white because it is cheaper, import things from abroad because they tqay he got a little cheaper, and then coming forward and advocating free trade with a hope of getting things a Ijttlg Cheaper still, and caring as much about the industrial population of the colony as they do about their sheep—that is for as much as they can make out ot them. And when, forsooth, complaints are timidly ventured they turn round upon and snarl at us, call us agitators who wish th set class against class, and tell us our condition is so good m tg Ue beyond improvement, pqr wage's sp high qs to require cutting doiwri'(forght|ing ih'tlieir selfishness that food is dear], and that in short, wa are the most lucky individuals under the sun, God knows I have had to struggle hard enough for what little I have, and it is a continual struggle to keep the wolf from the door. If these are such halcygn times M sotqq would have us bpliece, then ail I qan say is I am 8 pequliary tinitibky individual not to have tfie benefit of these good times with the rest qt my fellows, Ido not feel discontented with ray lot, because I know by experience that I am no worse off than my fellows, and that the wonderful prosperity of our qlqss is only believed in—perhaps qonscieniidnsly—by a tew who never did a day’s work in their life, I am thankful my education was not neglected, and with this and a pair of willing hands I hope to go throqgh tbe wor)d as comfortably as the debt loaded squatter, be he intelligent or npt.—l am. etc,, Not A Loafer,