The Star. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16, 1874.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2035, 15 September 1874, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16, 1874.

j all you* trumpets sp«aJcj j giro them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death."— Shaxbpxabb. CaM lout the Volunteers ! Arm the ifiMia t Mate every man leave his work and become a soldier, for are we not; tax have a bloody revolution ? Sir Cracroft Wilson blew the trumpet last nigbt *t the Oddfellows Hall, and declared his intention to fight it out to the bitter end with the General Government before they should touch our land fond. Speaking of the resolution for the Abolition of Provincial institutions in the North Island, recently passed by the Assembly, which he voted for, Sir eifcdnrf^Baid:— "Supposing that he (Mr Yogel) could g«t a majority of servile members of Parliament to assist luni in despoiling Canterbury and Otago of ttieir land fund. Does any one bftliovo that ■ueh an act of .spoliation would be effoated by a resolution or by an Act ?* • »' # Are the inhabitants of the South Island such muenU&;poltraoni as to tit still under •uoh spoliation ? Should we not rather warn the Ministry and the North Island that it would bring about a revolution, and that we would resist, even with arms in our hands, such a gross violation, and the result would b# that .Otago and Canterbury would retain not only L their land fund, but their Customs end Excise duties, which are worth half a million per annum. Depend upon it Ministon, though in my opinion they hare been foolishly rash, are not bo rash as to rouse the people of the South Island to defend their rights by armed resistance, and I for one should be prepared to continue the struggle to the bitter end. lam not speaking in jest. I do sot jest on suck serious subjects. Apart altogether from the question of provincial uu^tu^ons, I would prevent one sixpence of qj}r,ie^id fund being taken against our free will and consent, if rebellion and even armed: nnstanca had to be employed t* protect it, All t can say for my own part is, that I shall bt Tery happy to join in not only shooting a loader but in shooting something else if that 1», necessary to enable us to defend our fight*." Instead of a " Constitutional Afgociation,*' would it not be better to organise jiiff Land Fund Defence Corps "of, say, 6000 men, spend some of the money now waiting for the Colonial Government to lay hands on-in arming them, and Appoint: Sir Cracroft Wilson to take command? Sir Cracroft not only supports the Abolition of the North Island provinces, birtrsllTthe provinces, except Otago and Canterbury, failing to see that the party he is assisting with his vote will, to a dead certainty, abolish tiffin all, , and take . that which t&eir P?ly pbjeet^-iour land f»nd. It ii therefore clear that, we shall have to fight, so let us prepare. " Hang out ouf 'bafiners on the outward walls " •— get 1 ry tkb ) big guns into position--

bring out the rocket apparatus — have ail things in readinesß to meet the enemy, for he is already at our doors i Seriously, did a meeting ever listen to auch utter trash as was spoken last night by Sir Cracroft "Wilson ? The extracts printed above are fair specimens of what the meeting had to listen to, and yet a vote of absolute trust and confidence was passed ! Sir Gracroft Wilson will support the party whose spokesmen have declared — at Nelson and in other parts of the Colony — that the lands of Canterbury and Otago must be made Colonial property, and yet the decision of the meeting was that he is a fit representative of one of the most important districts in Canterbury. Will the electors of Heatbcote endorse this view* at the next election ?