SALE OF LAND AT THE GREY BY THE NELSON GOVERNMENT.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1287, 25 January 1870, Page 3

SALE OF LAND AT THE GREY BY THE NELSON GOVERNMENT.

The Grey River Argus oi January 20th, states : — " The Nelson Government has once more got itself into disrepute in the Grey district by tbe manner in which it has neglected the best interests of the residents. In this instance the cause of complaint is that the best of that magnificent plain, the Totara Fiat, has been sold in Nelson at £1 per acre, without the residents in the district—and in some cases the actual squatters on fche land—being made aware either of the intended sale, or of the reduction of the price from £2 to £1 per acre. The facts of the case, as far as known in the district, are somewhat fully stated in the letter from our up-river correspondent, and should they prove to be correct, a feeling of intense indignation will be aroused in the district. One Nelson speculator is said to have bought at least 500 acres of land, for fche purchase of portions of which Mr. Warden Lowe had actually received deposits, and on another portion a crop is now standing. The probabilities are that these statements are correct, and our reason for saying so is, that about two month ago fche sections on Totara Flat were advertised in the Nelson and Westport papers to be sold by auction in Nelson. No notice was inserted in the only paper circulating in '.he district—the only available means by which the residents could become aware of the fact. We venture to say that not more than one man in every five hundred up fche Grey River ever sees a Nelson or Westport paper, and not more than one in every thousand ever is privileged to look inside a Government Gazette. At fche time (he announcement of the intended sale was made, we charitably supposed that the Commissioner of Crown Lands in Nelson was rather deficient in his geography of the West Coast,, and might have been under the impression that the Totara Flat was somewhere in the vicinity of Westport, and in the course of business, as we did not feel inclined to do Government advertising for nothing, the proper medium for making know the sale was pointed out to him, bufc to that communication no answer whatever was received, and the matter died out of recollection, until the result is made known in this very unwelcome manner to those who are interested in it. Bufc ifc has a wider range than this, and, following so closely upon the Wangapeka affair, is sufficient to cause the residents on the JSelson side to enquire whether they arc-really living under so iery paternal a Government, as so many are still foolish enough to suppose. A public expression of opinion ought to be given on this matter without delay." [It ought, to be mentioned that after land is offered by auction and not sold, it is open by law for any one to purchase it at the upset price.—^'D. Colonist. A correspondent of the same paper, writing from Napoleon, on January 17th, says—we have no idea to whom he alludes:—" Great consternation has been caused by the announcement which has been made that the land on Totara Flat has been sold in Nelson without any notice being given to intending purchasers in this part, of the country. It appears the upset price of the land has been reduced to £1 per acre, and that it has all been bought up by speculators in Nelson. About six weeks ago we were honored by a visit from two "swells" from the North, one of whom is or was a member of the General Assembly, and the other a rich merchant in that direction, who is frightfully addicted to taking cold water as a beverage. People wondered why or how these magnates came to wander in this direction, but now we know all about it. They came to see " how the land lay." One of them, our temperance friend, has purchased 500 acres in the very best part of the flat, and the other has become possessed, ifc is said, of a larger area. If this land had been offered for sale two years ago at £1 per acre, and the proper publicity of the fact given in this district, every inch of it would be under cultivation to-day. The " Cockatoos" are furious, and those who were intendto become such are in a worse state. One individual applipd for a certain area of land on this flat, and paid the requisite deposit soma months ago, but it appears his application has been disregarded. It is also rumored that the town lots in the Ahaura township are to he sold by auction on the sly in Nelson this week, but this is too absurd to be noticed. The townspeople, much as they are attached to the Nelson Government, could nofc swallow that. Still what right; have they to complain ? Would it nofc be the doings of their favorite Government, and have they not time and again afc public meetings and otherwise proclaimed the confidence they had in the Nelson Government, to the utter discomfiture of fche ' adventurers' who dared fco raise a voice in favor of separation or annexation to Westland, or any change which would belter our condition, for it cannot be worse than ifc is ?"