Taupeka Times. AND GOLDFIELD REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1892 "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1888, 16 April 1892, Page 2

Taupeka Times. AND GOLDFIELD REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1892 "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

The decision of Mr Justice Williams in the Ben Ohau run case will be heartily endorsed not only by all who are interested in the settlement of the lands of the colony but by everyone who wishes to sre the law respected and the designs of selfish and unscrupulous persons, irrespective of their social positions, frustrated. In the present instance the law has been completely vindicated, though by somewhat unexpected and unusual means, and an exposure made that is likely to have a very salutary effect in the future. A brief resume may be necessary for the purpose' of elucidating the salient features in the transaction between Mr J, R. Scott and the National Mortgage and Agency Company. The latter were the lessees of the Ben Ohau run in South Canterbury, and the lease for this falling in, the area of the run was increased by the addition of a strip of land of very undesirable quality. The added land was both sterile and overrun with rabbits ; but the company's manager, while deciding on not renewing the lease, was yet anxious for an extension of time, not more than six months or so, to enable him to remove the stock on the land. In order to accomplish his purpose in this respect and, at the same time, save the company from incurring any expense beyond the few months mentioned, the manager looked round and, as subsequent events have very fully proved, found in Mr J. R. Scott just the kind of instrument with which to carry out his design. The Dunedin manager to the company had on a previous occasion received a similar service from the accommodating Mr Scott, the arrangement being that he should receive £10 if he succeeded in doing his work effectively and securing the land for his 'employers, otherwise the scale of remuneration would be one guinea. Scott was, therefore, the man, and he was consulted on the subject both by Mr Ritchie and Mr Henderson. According to the evidence of these gentlemen, Scott agreed to become lessee of the run and take all responsibility ,remarking that, as he had no assets of any kind, the Government could get nothing out of him. Scott's story, however, was that the company would undertake all responsibility, that he was to be merely a figure-head in the matter, or, in other and, perhaps, less elegant language, a " blind," lending his name and receiving his price. When the run was put up, the company's manager at Christchurch acted as agent for Mr Scott in Dunedin, and secured the run for that gentleman, Scott himself putting his sign manual to the lease afterwards at the Land Office at Dunedin. This, anybody can see, was an exceedingly clumsy arrangement and audacious as it was clumsy ; and no one need be surprised that the, Minister of Lands quickly saw through the thin disguise, and took measures for the exposure of the scheme. Here was i the manager of this powerful company I buying up a run and acting in the capacity of agent for a man of straw, for a man so utterly frozen out, so lean in purse, so devoid of self-respect, that he is ready to lend himself for a paltry consideration to a transaction that reflects anything but credit on all concerned.

It will be seen after all when the thin disguise in which it was attempted to envelop the transaction has been blown away, and the main facts looked at, that the case is simple, and could not have presented many features of difficulty to a man of a mind so essentially keen and judicial as that of Mr Justice Williams. It is easy to see that even the Minister of Lands, who, without anything more to guide him than the presumptive evidence suggested by certain suspicious circumstances, was very early on the track of the National Mortgage and Agency Co. and of their instrument Scott, and the trial just concluded is but the final result of the measures early concerted by him to bring about the denouement witnessed in the Supreme Court. Nothing, therefore, could be more convincing, more simple or more deadly in its significance to the agents and representatives of the Company than the evidence produced against them. And, indeed, one cannot help expressing amazement that men of such experience, business capacity and shrewdness should, under sach small, such comparatively petty influences, have so fearfully compromised the company they represent and involve it in trouble and expense and odium, risks entirely unwarranted by any consideration to be gained by the success of the transaction. This, of course, is spoken from a mere business standpoint. As to the illegality of the transaction, the Judge said, " I have a pretty strong opinion that it was illegal. The intent and effect of the agreement was to impose upon the Crown as licensee, a man who had purchased in bad faith with the intention of not fulfilling his bargain, and who was unable to fulfil it, and to prevent the Crown obtaining a bona fide tenant. The agreement, therefore, interfered directly with the due administration in manner provided by lavr of Crown lands, and the natural tendency of it was to injuriously affect the revenue derived \rom Crown lands. This seems to be contrary to public policy in the strictest sense, as tending to cause a direct injury to the S tate." And let us add that whatever injures the State, as his Honor declares this transaction tended to do, injures every individual member of it. Looking at the subject from this standpoint we are able to see the actual position occupied towards the community by those who engage in such practices. In this instance, at all events,- it is satisfactory to know that the National Mortgage Agency Company, and not the State, have become the victim of their own wiles. They have been adroitly caught in their own toils, and we should say there is very little sympathy for them in the position they find themselves in. They are now saddled with the rent of an unprofitable run, together with the heavy expenditure needed to keep the rabbit plague, which rages fiercely there, within bounds, and altogether have provided themselves with an object-lesson pregnant with meaning not only to themselves but to all others who may feel tempted to embark on similar enterprises.