HARASSING "SOCIAL PESTS."

Otago Witness, Issue 2006, 4 August 1892, Page 7

HARASSING "SOCIAL PESTS."

It seems too much to expect that the Minister for Lands should treat with any consideration those persons formerly termed squatters, and more recently " social pests." But from the correspondence which has passed between Mr A. C. Begg and tho Commissioner of Crown Lands at Christchurch, and which is published in this issue, it seems that the Minister intends not only to treat the persons named without any consideration, but is prepared to countenance, and it would seem even to authorise, absolute injustice. The circumstances of the case referred- to in the correspondence are very simple. The lease of the Station Peak run expired on December 31, 1891. The run was subdivided into five small grazing runs, and the leases of them were sold in February last, possession being given to the purchasers on March 1. No provision was made for compensation for improvements, nor indeed is any usual in Canterbury in such cases ; but it has been the invariable custom there to allow a retiring lessee three months in which to remove his stock and, if necessary, his improvements — the practical effect of this usage being that the incoming and outgoing parties could agree upon a valuation; and it has been the practice that three months should elapse between the sale and tho new tenant taking possession. In this case practically no timo at all was allowed either for negotiation or removal, and the result has been that fencing to the value of L 530 5s has been included in the sale, and the company of Robert Campbell and Sons has been deliberately robbed of that amount. It will be seen that this was done with the sanction of the Lands department, for the officer at Christchurch appears to have acted upon instructions from Wellington. Yet the department can be magnanimous when it likes, for it has "no objection " to Mr Begg either removing the fences or treating with tho present occupiers for their disposal. This is truly kind. Perhaps it would also have • ' no objection " to Mr Begg taking tea with the new occupiers. This shows that Mr M'Kenzie is, at all events, prepared to allow people like Mr Begg the right to live. To say that "no objection" will be offered to Mr Begg treating with the new occupiers is a silly evasion of responsibility, because we fail to see how the power could be arrogated by any department to prevent two persons from coming to an honest and equitable arrangement between themselves. We are further informed that the fences mentioned include some which the Government have utilised as the dividing boundaries of the runs in the new form in which they have been sold, and others subdivided the old run

into the usual paddocks ; so that the lucky purchasers have found their runs ring fenced and subdivided. The position of the Government is equally contemptible whether this circumstance affected the price or not. If it did, then the Government have, in plain terms, taken that which did not belong to them ; if it did not, then they have aided and abetted an act of spoliation, and it will be difficult to persuade anyone that this has not been done purely out of class animosity.