WANGANUI.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3838, 23 June 1873, Page 2

WANGANUI.

(FBtoM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT). A few capitalists have dropped into Wanganui ..to attend the Government land sale at Patea on the 24th, regarding which a great deal of interest is naturally felt by the people generally. The settlement of that part of the country depends greatly upon the class of purchasers. ; Bona fide settlers, of industry and good sense, are invaluable ; land speculators are worse than useless. It is not speaking too strongly to say that it would be more to the public interest that the lands were actually given away to those who would settle down upon them than that they should be sold at high prices to remain uselessly locked up, waiting until their holders can derive a profit from them. And speaking of settlement, I regret to find still existing among some of the hard-working pioneers in the Patea district, a sort of chronic idea that the Government is unfriendly towards them, while it is disposed to condone all sorts of j petty offences at the hands of the natives I I believe the whole thing is a mistake, but it is very difficult to reason with. It may be necessary in the interests of peace, and chiefly in the interests of the settlers themselves, not to set the law in operation on every small occasion against the natives, and the former ought to be the first to see it, and to approve of it, but the settlers may rest assured that the Government will stand by them when any good reason can be shown for its doing so. The latest cause of complaint, I understand, is having called in all the old muskets, and given the settlers Snider rifles instead, minus ammunition,' thus leaving them unarmed, while the natives about them have guns and abundance of powder and shot. This is certainly a blunder, chargeable, no doubt to some subordinate, and it only needs the case to be properly stated to have the matter put to rights. Better surely to do this than go on fretting, and supposing all manner of neglect and other such things, which have no existence save , in a distempered imagination. , One of the largest meetings held in Wanganui, took place in the Odd Fellows' Hall on Thursday evening, when, after statements made by Messrs Watt, Iveson, Pharazyn, Morgan, and Hatcheson, the members of the Provincial Council for the town and country districts, a vote of want of confidence in the three first-named gentleman, for their support of the Provincial loan and their conduct generally during last session, was carried by a majority of at least four to one. And these three councillors were allowed to manage the meeting as they chose. Its promoters were anxious to keep it as public meetings have hitherto been kept in Wanganui, that is,. open to all, without attempting to draw any sharp line of distinction between electors and non-elec-tors, but these three councillors would not have a vote taken on these terms, and the point was conceded to them, electors only being allowed to hold up their hands. Again, the chairman's declaration of the decision of the meeting did not satisfy these gentlemen, and a division was called for, which was accordingly taken by tellers on both sides. There was plenty of hard hitting going, but the meeting wa3 orderly throughout, ■ and this is no small praise, considering that it lasted till after one o'clock in the morning. Much amusement was excited by an explanation given by Mr Iveson as to his tossing up a half-crown as a guide to him' in voting for or against the grant to' Dr Featherston. Fortunately for the Agent-General, the toss-up was favorable to him. Mr Iveson first denied having consulted the fates in this peculiar way, but afterwards, oh being pressed, he acknowledged that he had said he did to Mr Morgan, simply to humbug that gentleman. The latter, however, was too wide-awake to let the thing pass in this way, and produced a letter from Mr Dairy mple, member for Manawatu, in which the writer said that Mr Iveson had acknowledged the soft impeachment to him also. Rather a novel mode of arriving at how to vote. Mr Pharazyn was very anxious to explain away his expression of contempt for his constituents, which he had uttered in the Council, but he did not make much of it, and he certainly learned that popular intelligence as well as popular feeling is dead against him.