THE THAMES LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4480, 23 March 1876, Page 3

THE THAMES LANDS.

Mr. H. Alley, of Hikutaia, writes a letter in the Thames Advertiser, of yesterday, in reference to the position of the Thames lands. We make the following extracts :— I perused with pleasure your article on formiug a Laud Company. If you and your frieuds at the Thames are in earnest, I feel confident that the company would be a great success if carried out. It would show that the present despotic Government is keeping this portion of a fine province closed against the public, and it would bring to light the fact that even at the preseut time, as I am told, they are buying for their private frieuds, aud also allowing officers of theirs to purchase freehold property which they will not allow the public to purchase. There is a block of laud between Cambridge and Niho o-te-Iviore, which was in part purchased by the ring (with the sanction of the Native Minister) for the sum of Is 9d per acrc. Had the Government purchased the said block of land (it is surveyed), it was to bo one of a company's little blocks ; only Sir George Grey's great influence fortunately put a stop to a portion of the illegal traffic. The said block contains 240,000 acres of land, a good portion of it being fine open country, and covered with a good deal of natural grass. If the land had been bought by the Government, they could have cleared a nett profit of 30s to £2 per acre. But, supposing the Government only cleared 20s per acre, that would have left the Thames people £240,000 to carry out public works and to open up the country with. There are several other large blocks to be had at the Thames, Piako, Tauranga, Matamata, Ohinemutu, and right down to Poverty Bay. Two millions of acres of land are to be purchased and leased, which would leave the people of this province more funds, I believe, than any other in either island to carry out public works with, and it would shut up the croakers of the South from joining with a Government that is trying to make slaves of every man at the Thames. Our resources here in this province in land, coal, iron, gold, and timber are equal, if not larger than any other province of either island. The present Government have made a good road from Napier to Tauranga, and as soon as it reached the town of Tauranga, there at the centre of population, it was stopped. If the Government wished to do justice to this province, or to a large population, why did they not carry the road from Tauranga to tho Thames ? A Government should look to the welfare of the majority, but, instead of so, it is trying to crush out the Thames population—a population self-made and selfimported.