MR WASON AT ASHBURTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7225, 26 April 1884, Page 6

MR WASON AT ASHBURTON.

TO THE EDITOB. Sik, —I certainly hoped I had made myself clear at Ashburton the other evening, but from your correspondent's remarks it is evident that to some extent I have failed. I have always endeavoured to act up to the Lite Mr Chambers' advice to those who are injured by law or lawyers, viz., " to appear as if they felt it not," and although mulcted in almost ruinous coats through a defective law, I am not aware of ever having complained or aolicitod sympathy from any one. What I stated at Ashburton as 'a gross public wrong, and not a private gi ievance—was that a Government with a most overwhelming majority should not only have refused to amend the law, but should have thwarted and hindered those. who endeavoured to prevent a repetition of such a public scandal. Again, Sir, I say it is no private grievance, but a gross, unjustifiable public wrong for a Government to interfere in a dispute between parties, and at the bidding of their powerful masters, bring ruin upon hundreds of struggling settlers. Six shillings and eightpence in the ■£ within twelve months for the Waimea settlers, Is 6d in the £ upon Bakaia, is a very serious joke : an additional three years' burden upon this already over-burdened district is ■what we have to thank the nocturnal orgy at Wellington. But, Sir, you may ask how was this managed, for there are honorable men in the House who would never have been parties to such a scandal. The Government dodger with two Bills, the first a harmless and perhaps necessary Bill;

the second a two-edged sword, which tho Ministor in charge kept out of sight _ until tho session and night wore the period to suit his nefarious purpose. Lot Hansard, speak. Mr Ivess moved tho rejection of the Bill, principally upon the ground that a largo number of his constituents wore affected by it, and ho should like to havo the opportunity of consulting thorn. All honour to him for bin action. I daresay tho majority for tho Bill was safe enough, but in order to render further opposition useless, a Minister of tho Crown, a member of the Government, was not ashamed to get up in his place, and " " the only word that fits is not fitted for your columns. On page .181 Hanoanl, it is thus written : —"Mr '\V. W. Johnston was sorry tho honorable member for Wakanui should havo submittod his amondment on the <rround that his constituents wero interested, and had had no opportunity of seeing the measure. Tho Bill did not affect his constituents in any way." As far as the above scandal affects mo it is nothing; only as it affects the public weal is it important. Mr Ivess was certainly rather caustic in his remarks about my having changed my views as regards the present Government. In replying to him I pointed out that the Ministry I supported at tho last election was that of Sir John Hall, and that his Ministry had nothing whatever in common with the present Government. Did Sir John Hall ever propose a socialistic scheme for specially taxing every honest, hard-working, saving' man in the Colony, for the support in luxurious idleness of the idle, dissolute and drunken F Did Sir John Hall ever figure as a disciple and improver upon tho doctrines of Mr George, as set forth in " Progress and Poverty " ? Did Sir John Hall ever strive to inflict upon the country a scheme of perpetual leasing of lands, a scheme calculated to reproduce all the very worst featiue3 of Irish life, an absentee pro-pz-ietary in Wellington, and a starving tenantry in the country, veritable slaves of the soil ? At the present moment, within a few miles of where I sit, there is an example of what the country gets now. What it would get did the present Minister of Lands ever carry his perpetual leasing —perpetual slaving, I have said—can • be imagined. There are a number of deferred payment selectors near Rakaia. The Government, through their spies, have discovered that certain of them arc not complying with the terms of their bond —nor, I may say, in passing did the celebrated Merchant of Venice, nor, as a matter of course, does the ordinary tenant. A whole batch is summoned to Christchurch at the very busiest time of the year, but thanks to the courtesy of the Board, the hearing was deferred for a time. But the other day the settlers had tx> appear, at great cost to themselves. The result briefly was—" Execute your bond " within three months or clear out. You have not invariably resided in your house, but have dared to seek work elsewhere. " Execute your bond," or we will resume your house, land and improvements. You have inconveniently been sick, and in the hospital have kept up your payments at great personal deprivation, but your fence is not right, so " execute your bond" or clear out. Is not this very like a story of Irish landlord oppression ? And for what is it all ? Ostensibly, to avert any possible dummyism; in reality, to exalt the horn and show the activity of the most energetic Minister of Lands we ever have been blessed or cursed with. Never, in the farming history of Canterbury, has agricultural labour been at such a discount as now. Never have there been so many farms for sale in the hands of merchants, banks, &c. At the same time, owing to a variety of causes, never has the average farmer of the British Isles so anxiously regarded the Colonial horizon for an outlet for his repressed energy. But the British farmer does not come here with his capital arfd skill; he rather seeks the ice-bound wastes of Manitoba, the deserts of Mexico, and he does so because he seeks freedom. What boots it to exchange the tyranny of the worst type of landlord for the tyranny of a Wellington despot? Would that the present Minister of Lands, during the short tenure of office that remains to him, could only realise the great fact that the people are the best judges of what suits them, and that his bureaucratic, Frenchified, meddlesome, fussy interference is utterly hateful to all classes of the community. In contesting such an important seat as Ashburton, I am perfectly prepared to accept good-humouredly any amount of misrepresentation, ridicule, or abuse, from those who differ from me. I only claim my right of reply on either the platform or in the columns of the Press; and in the present case I think I may fairly say that it is not I who have changed my views to any material extent, but those who have, under false pretences, usurped the reins of power; instead of prudence have given us extravagance; instead of economy, more borrowing— i.e., more interest, more poverty, more crime ; instead of liberal measures, likely to attract capital from other lands, nothing but Socialistic fads from which capital flies. Hence lower wages, insane efforts to lower them still further by immigration ; and still further efforts to ruin the country by a special tax of 6d per sack.on the chief labour produce of the country. —I am, &c, J. CATHCART WASON. Corwar, Ashburton County.