To the Editor of the Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 931, 2 October 1869, Page 9

To the Editor of the Otago Witness.

Siß~ln your leader in today's issue you make the assertion that it is the duty of those who condemn this now famous Aot to prove that it does not carry out the report of the three Commissioners. I apprehend that the o-mis prdbandi is placed by you on the wrong shoulders. It is for those who have, supported and still support this Act, to show that it is founded on the report, not for those, who are opposed to the Act to prove a negative. ) I [may mention, just to shew how readily some persons can form opinions, that be- a cause Mr Driver and Mr J. A. Connell stated in their evidence that the Waste Land Board, being a mere political body, was hence subject .to political influence, therefore it was wise to make the Chief Commissioner a General Government servant. I may also state, for the information of those who have not perused the report, that the only persons examined, not runholders, and not settlers on- the goldfields, and not mere officials, regarding official matters, were Major Richardson, and Messrs Donald Reid, J. W. Thomson, W. L. Squires, W. A. Murray, and T. Redmayne, not another oountry member. And then, forsooth, we must not pretend to discuss this Act, but accept the report, even wanting the granus salis usually put along with Commissioners' reports, to aid in their digestion. The Commusionera, as Mr Maoandrew has stated, peregrinated from Dan to Beersheba. and did not examine witnesses in the district whence the petition originated. How then can it be expected that the people of Otago will allow their land laws to be out and carved, without asking their opinions, or giving them an opportunity of expressing their views ? Nay, enacting a law regarding compensation which the Provincial Counoil had expressly negatived.—l am, &c, Citizen,