GREAT ESTATES : HOW GOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8404, 4 November 1890, Page 3

GREAT ESTATES : HOW GOT.

TO TOE BMTOK. Sib, —-If a strat>ger, or a comparatively late arrival, unacquainted with Uk> early history of the ooiony, had been in the Choral Hail the other night, when the evils , of great estates wer« alluded bo, he would scarcely guess that the gentleman who now | denounces such, had played an important part in facilitating or even encouraging their acquisition. If our late arrival was to ask, and be told, as he might truly be, that | aged gentleman, whose oratory enchains his audience, was once Governor of this colony, when representative institutions were not in vogue, wh(m the Governor was unfettered by the trammels of popularly elected representatives, and had for subordinates a nominee Council, who wouM | have, risked and lost their crffioes ff | they had disobeyed or thwarted their chief; and under such a state of affairs, aofcing on a permission from the (London) Colonial Office, he, the orator who ' now denounces the big landowners, pro- " claimed certain regulations feu- the disposal . of the public estate ; and it was to a great J extent under these regulations that these , big estates were acquired. Public opinion at the time in some of the settlements, i notably in Canterbury and Otago, was strongly against land, monopolising, which , previously could not be practiced, except ; to a very limited extent; but public , opinion had no power against the will of an " absolute" Governor. Probably the estates l of Sir Charles Clifford were acquired under Sir George Grey's regulation® at either 10s or 5s per acre. The subdivision and sale , of these was mentioned last week. Would notour " late arrival " feel somewhat si*r« prised at such information, and more of the kind, which he might learn ?— am, &c., ' F.C.