THE EONGA AND OPOURI RESERVES.

Colonist, Volume XLI, Issue 9269, 6 September 1898, Page 2

THE EONGA AND OPOURI RESERVES.

A PUBLIC MEETING CALLED FOR TO-NIGHT. It will be within the knowledge of all that when the Chairman of the Waste Lands Committee reported to the House that the Committee recommended the Government to consider the best means of conserving the iotest lands oi the Eonga, Opouri, and Rai Valleys, and made the usual motion that the report lie on the table, Mr C. H. i Mills asked that this should be postponed, to enable members io examine the evidence . upon which the Committee had arrived at its decision, and this was agreed to. From i word that was brought to town yesterday, it appears that Mr Mills, and those associated with him, bad in view something more than a mere extension of time to , enable members to examine evidence. It is known here that to-night, at Havelock, a public indignation meeting is to be held, - without doubt for the purpose of passing resolutions to be forwarded to Wellington in the hope of influencing members of the House in their consideration of the recornt mendation of the Waste Lands Committee 1 Though we do not think too much importance should be attached to the result likely to be achieved by the Havelock meeting, still it is a wise thing to meet every advance of the opposition, and for this purpose a public meeting has been called by the Mayor for this evening, in the City Council Chamber. The Havelock faction have shown themselves desperately in earnest, and that very • quality in itself ofttimes carries the day l against more just demands moderately mads. It, then, behovas the Nelson people - who have supported the conservation of these grand forests to show to-night that they are equally as much in earnest as the Havelock people. It may be positively , harmful to the cause if the meeting tonight does not, by its representative charac- > ter, unity, and enthusiasm, display on the , face of it that the Nelson people are fully as determined to preserve as the Havelock people to destroy. It would hardly be possible to say anything regarding the desirableness of what the National Park petitioners ask for, and just now it is hardly necessary. f What is required is action — let that action be of the most decisive character. Let it be remembered, toe, that every one who • signed the petition can, by bis or her t presence to-night, materially aid in emphasising the fact that the petitioners for . conservation are thoroughly in earnest. .