SOUTH MARYBOROUGH

Otago Witness, Issue 2665, 12 April 1905, Page 36

SOUTH MARYBOROUGH

Lower Conway, April 1. — Just beyond the river begins what was once part of the Nelson Province. Over there the birdie warbles in the bushy gullies, the sun is shining on the yellow tussocks, the dingy fein, and on bright green grassy places where the sheep have camped. The clouds are high and light, drifting, drifting, steadily seaward from the nor' -west, and the tender wind comes up the river valley from the south-east. They tell us that this country has no history — that it is dull and monotonous ; but the other evening I had the pleasure of a chat with one who has been station hand in this valley for many years. He spoke of the time when Mr Edmund Oscar Palmer alone confronted the opposition of a public meeting in KaiRbura, urging on the setttlers the necessity of taking united action and calling upon the Government to cut up the large holdings, the leases of which were about to expire, into blocks suitable for the small settler. "They jeered at him; they said that the country would not run one sheep to 20 acres ; but he faced them, and said that there was a man in the room who could say very differently did he only like to' get vp — he had his eye on me, but how could I spea_k in public ; I felt more like pitching in with my fists to those who were insulting Mr Palmer, — for he had worked all over the country for years." However, Mr Palmer eventually carried the meeting with him, and the small settler is here battling with the tough fern — a fact due entirely to his persistence and determination.