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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1148, 15 September 1882, Page 2

We must ask Captain Andrews to give us some information as to the cottages in which the pilot boatmen are living. Has a refund of past rent been made to those men? If such is not the case we distinctly say that the Government are assuming the attitude of usurers. Those two cottages were certainly built at a cost ofjunder ninety pounds, and the rent paid for them has been three pounds per month, or thirty-six pounds per annum. Shameful and disgraceful usury ! No wonder that Gisborne is quoted as a hotbed of iniquity when these swindling transactions are matters of every day occurrence. We demand the instant attention of the Harbor Master and the Collector of Customs to this matter. Let all proper investigation be at once made, anu the men recouped in the amount of which they have been so wickedly and unjustly defrauded. This shall be done, and done quickly, or we will know the reason why ! 11