WAIKOIKOI HUNDRED. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4029, 16 January 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

WAIKOIKOI HUNDRED. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir—l feel that I should be allowing an injustice to be done to Mr James Logan, and should also be doi»"----an injustice to myself, did I allow the expressions used by Mr Reid at the Htting of the Waite L-inds Hoard held yesterday, as reported in your columns of to-day's date, to pass unnoticed.

These expressions ore hurled at the head of t be i»ifortunate appji^nf an,( hi* auenj, and. j-.e iq covainand,ed tq eridurg in silenei, ami prcplndec) from any attempt either to justify himself, or turn the tables on his adversary.

If an injustice is done it matters nothing.it is only to a "squatter;" and what voice is bold enough to say a word in favour of anything that a squatter lias done and which the " man of the people" chooses to pronounce ss " underhand," &c, &c. ? The Waste Lands Hoard, by its action of yesterday has virtually said:—" Whatever we do is. right, ;W we will allow no eri-icism whatever upon our "actions. The infallibility of ttio pope nviy be nil open question and a good lie *1 may be said on both sides, hut the Waste Lands Board of Otago is another affair altogether. Who shall dare to impugn its authority or criticise its acts?"

Now, Sir, I have no sympathy whatever with squatters as a class any more than I have sympathy with either miners or agriculturists as a class. I look vi.on it as one of the misfortunes anil disgraces o f tne colony that there aro so iiwuy pf its public men who appear to Ijvq only to foster and encourage a feeling of antagonism botwo'en settlers who could not possibly do without each other, and to whose united presence in tile Colony us prosperity and comparative greatness are. due.

As a land agent, I have fought nuny a battle for the squatter, but I have fought many a harder fp» a poorer man to my own disadvantage ajraiu jt bijii. All that I carp to know pj in my ccm&if'uent is that he is a gplfliijst and d.esnps to 'acquire land, and I make it my business to see that he obtains what he wants in accordance with the provisions of the existing lav.

If I (jntl gltjiov the Government or the Waste Lands Board attempting to deprive the colonist of his rights in what appears to me to be an unlawful manner then I am prepareu to meet cither the Government or the Board with their own weapons, and if I am capable of doing it, preventing the wrong being done, To apply this principle tg the cage of tho Waikoikoi Hundred,

The tand Act, 1572, provides (clause SO) that the price at which rural lands shall be offered for sale shall bo twenty shillings per acre. It provides that any pen on desirous of purchasing rural land shall make an application in wrif-ng, ai'is deposit 10 per cent, of the ups.t n .,,i co an.JUmt'if no more than 0119 .jpplipan'e apply for. 'the. ;l'.xml on the same day, h« is entitled to the fee simple on payment, of the bal ?i nce"of'l&s'pc|. acre. '■' '*' A If two or more persons, iipply for. tV,9 \s\\yl on the same day, then the 'value v; as^Tjainqd by competition at public'auction,' up ; sgt price being 20s per acre. This righ^'ot th,us applying at the price stated, is a right ponfsrred upon every colonist by statu,tp and cannot possibly be lawfully takgii froivi him by any less authority than, that wJsicli cnnreiTod tt. The l*and Apt provides further, that ere the price of land oan bo raised, a largo machinery must be put in motion. 'I he Superintendent and the Provincial Council must both join in recommending the augmentation to the Governor, who may raise the prise from and after a date to be fixed in the Order in Couiipi), . Now, Sir, up to this time, this right o{ applying for ' land when declared a Himdretj, a? acre has bcenjenioyed aijicS ejjerb^l^' the settlers in mis : O-aVi"^ VrtnoufAny attempt on tho part of any body I whether- Gaveiumont *r Wmte Lands Board, to iater- [ fera v»-llli It. And up to a few weeka ago, when a few sections m one of the new Hundreds were declared of special value on account of fencing actually o.xisUni; thereon, no land whatever in nm; Kimctroti Xvis at? tempted to be \yith^Jl «»,»E\ $» o)^#ion df'tha\ V°i & 1 Lana Act of IS,s6 ; contains a clause (64) \vhi?h is i vJ,^ lorX <iJ d3 c now celebrated Sslti clw; B oßhe Land Act of 1872 ; but no Bpartl tf. QaveiViment, up to tins tin;e had eve^. seen, p v .' wan imagined, what a use. i\ imgl\ilievvirneato. It was inserted in both ■Apw to meet very peculiar and special cases. Sometimes a miner, with leave of the runholder, settled down on a small piece of land and made extensive improvements. This clause enabled the Board to make a special case of it, and sell the land with such conditions as should recoup the occupier if another purchased it And it also unquestionably enabled and enables the Board m tha cleel#rrat,ibnof a new Hundred to offer such sections' as may be increased in value by fencing or other improvements at a price increased from 20s to such a price as will cover fairly the value of the improvements on the land ' ; ■ But mark, Sir, the action of: the Waste Lands Board in tlie matter of the Waikoikoi Hunared' ''W There ar? no ifnprovem'eiits tf &jiy kii}& wbatexer,

save some sheep fencing,- and counting every section advertised for sale which such fencing only touches, and very partially improves, the whjle area of such sections is 1200 acres. The total value of these improvements, which were erected entirely by Mr Logan, as claimed by himself from the Government, is £315, and the rest of the Hundred, not including the area Bet apart m deferred payments, upon which, also, there are no improvements whatever) in area 4930 acres, is as bare and naked of improvement as the prairies of America. Yet the Boaid increase the upset price of the whole 6130 acres by 20s per acre all round, thus representing improvements for which they have to pay £315 byasumof £0130, which they expect Mr Logan, or anyotherpurchaserorpurchasers,topaythem,andwhen Mr Logan attempts to resist this in his view unlawful attempt to obtain money by an abuse of their function and a wresting of the Act, when he attempts to exercise his n s ht as a colonist to apply for land when declared open for sale at the price provided by the law, he 19 brow-beaten and called hard names, and, in addition, insult is added to injury by the refusal to hear him in support of his application or in defence of his conduct.-

Sir, this matter is of great public importance. Thefirst oi trie new Hundreds whicharereally saleable has been opened, and attempted to be shut. The Board has attempted by a side wind to seize the powers of the Legislature, and to increase by 100 per cent, the ordinary price of rural land. The question arises. Is the Waikoikoi Hundred to be the only case, and Mr Logan the only victim ? or are the Board prepared in the same way to act in the precisely similarly situated cases of the Waiwera, Kuriwoa, Kaiwera, and otner Hundreds which are to he opened in February and March ?

Hundreds of colonists are waiting to apply for these lands. Are they too to be deprived of their rights, and refused even a hearing by the Waste Lands Board.' Are th y also to be compelled to pay twice the lawful price for land they desire to purchase ? I might—did not space and the patience or impatieme, of your readers, forbld-go at length into a history of the manr.er in which the whole of this matter of the Waikoikoi Huudre J has been bungledUie resolutions and counter resolutions, the proclamations and counter proclamations, the notices anil counter notices, which have, with lightning rapidity, followed each other, until it was next to impossible for any person to know how, when, or where, or at what price these lands were to be obtained. The actual result of the sale held at Lawrence was that two purchasers were found for some 500 acres -the rest of the Hundred being now locked up (in the view o. the Waste Land Board), and waiting the decision of the Board when and at what price, from 'Os to a £100 an acre, the settlers are to be allowed to acquire it.

In conclusion, I may say that as the dec'sion of the board yesterday will be appealed against, and will be subject to review by the Supreme Court, it is with very great reluctance that I have referred to the matter at all m your columns; but everything I have here said, and a good deal more, would have been said to the Hoard itself, had it given me a hearing ; and l feel that I cannot allow such remarks as those of Mr held to pass a single day unnoticed. As regards the statement in the Superintendent's letter of yesterday's date to the Chief Commissioner— that he had agreed, on the 15th December, with the advice of the Executive Council, to the withdrawal of the land from sale at 20s per acre—without going- into any very critical argument, it is sufficient to point out that at that very date a proclamation was running which was dulj published in the Provincial Gazette and which has never been withdrawn, altered or suspended, proclaiming the lands in the Waikoikoi Hundred to be'-open for sale or leasing on the 7th January, 1875," and to an advertisement, under the Land of the Chief Commissioner, in the Gazette of the ??,"!, December, giving notice that the lands in the Waikoikoi Hundred would be "open for application " on the same date.

Further, that on the 15th December no land in. the Hundred was " open for sale," and therefore could not be withdrawn.—l am, i-e.

J. AITKKX COXXELL.

Dunedin, January 12th,