To the Editor of the Otago Witness

Otago Witness, Issue 313, 28 November 1857, Page 5

To the Editor of the Otago Witness

Invercargill, November 6th, 1857. SiR--In consequence of our Southern mail having missed a trip, we did not receive your paper of the 10th October until November 2nd. Your leading article of that date demands an answer. In the first place, if the Waste Land Board had done their duty, and acted honestly and honourably to all, instead of appearing to shrink from an enquiry into their past conduct, when demanded, they would seek it ; for I believe we are not the only persons who wish it. As to the meetings of the Board being public, it is all a farce ; for I remember an instance when a certain party, persisting in being present at one of their meetings, was of course allowed, but the proceedings were all carried on with paper and pencil ! If the Provincial Council doubt the veracity of our remarks ia the Memorial let them summon witnesses and have the things publicly proved ; for it is my opinion that there are other cases quite as well founded as Messrs. Chubbin and Gunn's, in whose case you remark, "it appears as if the Board had acted with caprice." A pretty caprice, after spending half-a-year's time and wages in making improvements, and just when settled to be coolly told, in the first place, to look out for country elsewhere, and afterwards to be threatened with the penalties incurred by unauthorised occupation of waste lands, because their stock was on a run which had been granted 17 months before. How would a certain member of the Executive t.ike it, if on pay day he were to be told his £250 were required for something else ? What kind of a caprice would he call that ? j Yet the loss would not be half so great as that incurred by Messrs. Chubbin and Gunn, and others I here. You say further on that we expect the Government to do impossibilities for us. No such thing ! i It is nearly two years since the first applications for land here were received in Dunedin. What has been done in that space of time ? The surveyors have been principally employed in Triangulation and Reconnaissance surveys, and I can assure you I that even Block I. of Invercargill district is not yet half pegged off on the ground, though it looks so inviting on paper. Why, there has been time to lay off a dozen such blocks, if the Government had but sent us a sufficient staff of surveyors ! I am puzzled to know where you picked up the information that sections had been applied for 20 or 30 miles from town. I never heard of them : the farthest that was applied for was at the Halfway Bush, 14 miles from town, where the settlers were anxious to have an accommodation house. Excepting that one, all the applications are in rotation following the bush, and the furthest is some seven miles from town on the main Dunedin route. " Spotting,'' as far as I can ascertain, has not been attempted, and certainly there is no necessity for it ; the land is all good, and bush abounds. Perhaps you may refer to those settlers in the New River folk, which is quite distinct from Invercargill, as a reserve has been made for a village, and will undoubtedly be aHundiedof itaelF. That in due time, Mr. Editor, we may prove to your satisfaction, and that of the public, that instead of having drawn the long bow, we have not mentioned half our grievances, is the ardent wish of A Settler. From the columns of our contemporary we copy the following letter from Mr. Adam : — To the Editor of the Otago Colonist. Sir, — I enclose a copy of a letter which appeared in an Edinburgh paper, (the Daily Scotsman).. It was sent from Otago, by my loquacious friend, in the same vessel with me, that we might make our appearance in Scotland about the same time ; the object, of course, being to assist me by every means in his power, for which he has my best thanks. But in sending you tins letter you must not think that I attach any importance to it, because the age of prophecy is gone, and its weight is that of a straw. I have not met with a single individual who has ever referred to it, so that I have been obliged to do so myself. I used it for a few days as a sort of safety-valve, because there were too many applications from tradesmen, and I thought that a reference to the voice of warning contained in that document would have the desired effect ; but this was a mistake, as I had to confess that in the first days of the colony labourers had 3s. per day, now they have 65., and tradesmen, in 1848, had 4s. and ss. per day, now they have 9s. and 10s. The bugbear about high rents has been so misunderstood, that I could send you a ship-load of house-carpenters, all willing to repay their passages. Even the philanthropy of the author has been suspected, when I told them that there was not a single individual in Scotland to whom he had extended a helping hand. With regard to the notorious compact existing among the merchants and storekeepers, I leave them to exculpate themselves the best way they can ; all I have been able to say on the matter is, that I never heard of it before. But storekeepers netd not be alarmed : letters written in this country, when they make a charge upon individuals, are generally accompanied with the writer's name, and when they come from the colonies without that"! necessary appendage, they ingloriously perish in I lighting the kitchen fire. I am, Sir, yours &c, James Adam. Sjf^Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, July 10, 1857. P.S. — I enclose an article on a book that has been published on Australia and New Zealand, by "An Englishman," in which Otago is made to bear all the satire he can possibly heap upon her. The editor of the Free Press says that the work in question is not popular. [We do not know who Mr. Adam's loquacious friend may be, but we fancy that the severest satire upon Mr. Adam would have been, to have sent a copy of his own productions that they might have made their appearance in Scotland about the same time,— Ed. O. W.~]