THE LAND BOARD APPOINTMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10901, 7 September 1897, Page 4

THE LAND BOARD APPOINTMENT.

TO THB KDITOB. Sib,—Will you grant me spacs to say a few words in reply to Mr Watson Shennan's very angry letter of the Ist inst ? As it is evident he has a certain family,—and only one family,—in his inind'a eye when he writes about kcd grab"bing, &0., he, he might have told us the name of that family, asd not' have left us wondering whether it waa ourselves or some other decent family in the district that he was abusing for writing thoss letters; but Mr Shennan is niggardly of advice in vt the Scotchman's motto, so I shall not ask him if I am a member of the family that ha referred to— the simplest way will be to assume that I am. I aupDOse that his assertions are as true of my family as they are of a great many other families in the district regarding the land grabbing, and I believe it is also true that Mi Shennan himself out-guzzled a relative of mine for a run Mr Shennan now holds. This relative I of mine is the boss land guzzler—thanks for the word, Mr Shennan—in our family, and answers the cescript'ion of a party who occupies two' runs. I shall not ssy anything about scurrility, falsehood, low, mean action, and bo forth. I am not angry, yet I must Bay that Mr Shennan has drawn upon his imagination to a very large extent indeed for bis facts. I kaew nothing about the lettere signed " Maniototo" and "Pro Bono Publico" until I raad them in your paper, and our boss guzzler knew nothing; about them until I showed them to him. I extremely regret that in attacking the changed front o! the Minister for Lands any reflections should bs cast upon Mr Kitkpatrick: uo one that I know wonld do so intentionally.

Bat it must be remembered that the Minister for Land 3 has been at this uncie and nephew business before, and so far the symptoms in the present instance are exactly similar. Whan Sir Scobie Mackenzie said that Mr Douglas diddled tiio Minister through Mr Ritchie, Mr Douglas wrote a letter fcb the Times very much like Mr Shennaa's, only I don't think he said anything about the Scotchman's motto. No doubt the comparison is " odorous," but it is irresistible with the petitions and everything complete. If the Minister is desirous of settling the interior of Otago, ■feby did he select a Land Board member who wishes and recommends that as least 60,000 acres be not settled, and that 60,000 seres to be the next available land ? tMr Shenuan attempts to mislead your readers by stating that all the land that has been recaritly opened for settlement, some tens of thousands of acres, has bsen grabbed by one party; then he adds that this will astonish your readers. Like Captain Jackson Barry's statements, it is astonishing. It is quite true that my family hold in the aggregate a few thousand acres ; there are a good many families in the district in a similar position. Would Mr Shennan deny tha right of sons and daughters to hold land on their own account because their lather or uncle was a selector ? Does he think that those sons and daughters should, like the sundowners, desire that that laad rsmain in the hands of the equatter, and would they then belong to the respectable portion of the community according, to Mr Shennan? No; they have independence and intelligence enough to think that they can make as good use of the land as Mr Shennan can if they get the opportunity, notwithstanding Blr Shannan's fine flock of merino sheep, which it would bs a pity to disseminate. ,He should .recognise that in Maniototo there ia a fine flook of young men and young wsmea that it would be a pity to disseminate, and he need not be afraid that the land will fall into tha hands of one party if opened up, or that Hugh's petition means that the land is not wanted by the people. A similar petition was urged against the cutting up of the Hamilton run, yet there were hundreds of. applicants for the sections when open, among them being many of the petitioners themselves, and what is true, if not astonishing, none of the Laws wers* amongst those applicants.—l am, &c., John Law, jun. Ewehurn Homestead, September 5.