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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 21 October 1880, Page 2

After years of straining on the chains ■with -which they were placed out of harm's reach by the Grey Government, the drove of ravenous wolves which Itave for years infested and despoiled the JJorth Island have been cut adrift by the Hall Government, and they will make short wort of that after which tli'ey hungered. We read that 300,000 acres are being devoured p.t one gulp, fluxl of about another million jyhich will he disposed of in smaller parcels, The last item of interesting information in connection with this subject is that Mr. Robert Graham has secured a hotel site at Obinemutu, the title for which was " settled by the native committee, of chiefs," The telegram from ;whiehw£ glean this valuable information adds,i " Tlie sorvey and the Crown, grants) will /ollow for this valuable property.". It ig indeed valuable. -This js ; th,e. property that the .Grey Goyernjnent would; not permit. Mr. Graham to a^ttire(ibig-!

cause they wished the country in the vicinity of the Lvikes to remain, in the possession of the Cclonv pending some decision as to how it should be dealt with. This land should be the property of the people. It should not be possible for any man, or set of men, to interfere in the least degree with the free use of the liealinir waters in the vicinity of these lands. If it were not desirable that the Government should secure the whole of this locality to the people of the Colony, and it was open for purchase, the Governnlent should acquire it, sell it. and devote the profits to the reduction of the indebtedness which has been incurred in war and other less reputable ways. Like Patatere, the universally prized hot springs with their beautiful surroundings, together constituting a sanitoriuxn such as no other country in the world enjoys, will drift into the hands of private persons, who will, possessing the key to the waters, levy blackmail on visitors. Thus the people of this Colony pay L 8 per head per year to be deprived of their rights. If the question of permitting what is termed an " hotel site," but what is actually a point of vantage from which Mr. Graham and his confreres will be able to acquire the surrounding native lands, had been raised in Parliament, we should have been told by the Ministry that the property was worth- j less. They said that about Piako, and, later, about Patetere. The first was nothing better than an irreclaimable swamp, and the second a mass of pumice. * But the lucky purchasers of Piako seem to flourish on their losses, and the negotiators for Patetere, which were kept at bay for a season, seem to have a preference for pumice now thp.t their progress is no longer barred. If the Hall Government lives long enough, the lands of the colony will be parted with without in any degree benefiting anybody but their particular friends.