Correspondence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1179, 12 September 1885, Page 4

Correspondence.

"COCKATOO" IN HEPLYT O Otffl COAL s ' ' CREitK COTIR7^PON T DENT. * ." ' (To the Editor.) Slß,— Your Coal Cre'k eoivespondent s;iys Ihnve unjustly attack* d Mr Pylte for showing favor to 1 lie squntiers, aa thai gentl.mm ga*e good reasons lor advocating non-rosi . 'ence on deferred-payment lauds. I have not hal an opporturity of perusing these reasons of Mr'Pybe's, and therefore cannot say wbe.lh.er they were good or bad. I noticed, however, that when, the division came on in the-H-u-e over Mr Pyfce's motion the squatters all votrd on his side ; and since then Messrs Stout, Rolleston, and Ballanee have c-xpre.-soi! i-xaclly the same opinion on the subject B 3 I did, and I thinlc any of these three genilrmen's opinions aye more worthy of consideration than either Mr PyWs or your Coal Creek correspondent's. He says no public mnn in New Zealand lms done more to settlo the, people on tho land than Mr Pykc. If such be thecise, no public man hnsdone more to rob poor settlers than Mr Pyke. I agrerj with your correspondent whon he <=a.ys that our farmers area hnrd-working lot, of people ; for they must, work — it is a case of pump or drown with them. He says thut money »nd land were secured at their market price. That. assertion may apply to squatters, but not to smnli farmers. How eoulrl the land be at it 3 m.irket price if they could hive got, ,\ supori r article at less money in America or at Homo .without having to spend a lot ofjime and jnv ifey coming lo tliis outlandish part of fcb<gloric? 'No, Sir,* it wag not at. its inavkefc value; and your Coal Crck correspondent will bo forced to admit, that before ho is very much older, or else I hive made veiy stupid calculations. It was certainly not the market value of land at all ; it was a value conferred upon it by a false pro3perilv— a speculative prosperity— tbnt sprung from our borrowed millions and the rich gold -finds of the early days. Such prosperity will vauish like a dream when these two mig* ty asenls gel exhausted. Unless agriculture, whi'-h will hare to bear tho burden, is then on a sound foundation, there must be a collapse, and you will see how New Zealand will turn out a Soul h Sea bubble, not even fit to take a place with Cape Town or South Aus' ralia. Agricult ure is far from being on a sound foundation, although your correspondent would make us believe the contrary. He certainly knows a deal about it, and I arc sure we would al! feel obliged to him if he would tell us what other things we should try. It is very easy saying " don't grow oats at a loss ; try other things," &o.; butleiyour Coal Creek correspondent show us what we have got to do to find ourselves in a far better condition in a few years. Let him go into figures, Sir, and show us poor cockatoos nil the items in the expenditure and profit of Ihe mixed farming vihich be hints would do such a lot for v?. If he gives us any practical information on the subject, I will consider that "Cockatoo's" letters have not been written in vain. He need not have bothered himself reminding us that Mr Pyke possessed a Briton's spirit aud loved fairplay. Anyone reading his "Grand Qld Flag " would understand that. You can see. the spirit of Shakespeare or Dugald Fergusr h 'peeping out at the v end of every line in it, and nobody will deny that they are true Britons. There must surely be something in common between the spirits of Shakespeare and Dugald Ferguson and Mr Pyke, or how would they get so mixed up in the "Grand Old Flag." What did the old boy moan by sending a copy to the wanton widow over the water ? 4re we going to have another "King John of Abyssinia" episode, or is Mr Pyke only making a quiet bid for John Brown's old shoes ? If that, be bo, he is likely to become, like Jack Falstaff— Her own true knight By day or night Or any other kind of light. —I am, &c., A Cockatoo.