The Evening Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 410, 21 August 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1877.

From the Press Agency we learn that Mr. Thomas Potssell, the New Zealand Rothschild, is endeavouring to add to his already immense landed possessions in the Colony. We are informed of one small purchase which he hopes to be able to complete before Parliament shall have time to carry out the restrictive measures it now sees to be necessary in order to conserve the dearest interests of the people. The Otamakapuka block, consisting of 145,000 acres, is only one amongst the many that land speculators are now on the qui vive to acquire. We cannot comprehend what the Press in the large centres of New Zealand can be thinking about to behold, unmoved and with silence, the appropriation of that on which entirely depends our future wealth. It is all nonsense to suppose that permitting speculators to alienate the Native lands is assisting colonisation. Unless speedy action be taken by Parliament, whose members should make common cause against land monopoly, it will only be possible to partially mitigate the evil hereafter. Disagreement in the House, delaying the framing of measures more consonant with justice to all, means the successful carrying out of the purchases that are now hanging in the balance, and upjn which the Government should at once set its foot. It is to be sincerely hoped that the coolness and J unconcern which has hitherto played into the hands of the land speculators will be transformed into a jealous watchfulness for our lands that will successfully checkmate monopolists. It is all very well to argue that the lands they are in treaty for are the property of the Natives, and that the latter have a perfect right to do as they like with their own. This hypothesis will not stand good, inasmuch as, although these lands have not been alienated from the Natives, and the Government recognises the justice of the Natives being paid for any they may sell to Europeans, the whole of the Native lands are virtually the property of the Crown.