THE HAWKDUN RUNS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16785, 29 August 1916, Page 7

THE HAWKDUN RUNS.

Sib, —The secretary of the felt. Bathana Land Leaguo lias laboriously tried in, your last Friday's issue to explain tho few questions asked by mys>elf. Ho has also ottered to givo up any land ho might acquire if the lessees would forgo their privilege. Nob bad that, to give a tiling you haven't gotl Ho had no intention oi sneering at sol-' diers Very well. He goes on in the usual manner of people ignorant of landsettlement or farming to sneer at ■ farmers.; Thcio is a great wave of patriotism, he, mentions, in this locality, all emanating through tho subdivision of tho Hawkdun runs This statement is contrary to fact. The wave has been hero since the -war first started, as the public well and truly knows. Tho wave is, propelled along, he continues, by those* already po6sessed of many broad acres, chief among the propellers being one who employs alien labour. Partly true. The said alien, 1 am informed, was born in England. His mother was an Englishwoman, his lather a German. He has been, in his present position since before tho war. He has paid his just debts, sul>' scribed liberally to the patriotic funds, and other just causes, and is a sober, honest, and industrious man. And let me also in*\ form tho secretary of the league that the chief propeller mentioned did not "mop up" another farm; he bought it honestly at full market rates—and that he is an old soldier, and has two war medals to his credit, one with five clasps, no less. Yet tho secretary of tho Land League grudges him his living _ simply _ because he proposed a motion in the interests of returning soldiers. Did the secretary of the leaguo plead tho soldiers' cause when he ' interviewed the Land Board? No, decidedly not. The pick of the run wa6 asked for on behalf of tho land leaguers. But he has changed front since then, and now runs with tho hare and hunts' with the hounds. I do not know much about Caractacus, tho British chief, but I was told a story once about a socialistic Irishman, whose sole* property was two pigs. The late Mr Seddon said residents had no privilege, and that all landa opened for settlement could be applied for by any one in New Zealand' who was a qualified applicant. The Com-, missioner of Crown Lands also made thatplain at the last meeting of the Land Board. St. Bathans, we are told, has a big future as a mining centre. I am not an authority on this. Let the cobbler stick to his last, for he is absolutely ignorant of land settlement, or farming, and the patriotic societies will see that the returning', soldiers will get justice.—l am, etc., Becks, AugusS 28. Back-blookbh.