THE FEILDING CONTRACT.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3879, 9 August 1873, Page 2

THE FEILDING CONTRACT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT. Sir, — I notice in your issue of to-day, in an article devoted to the " Feilding contract," a statement that "it is doubtful whether the full intention of the contract will be carried out." As the performance of the Feilding contract is a matter of almost vital importance to a large section of the inhabitants of this province, 1 trust you will pardon me if. I point out that not only is there no reason assigned for such a doubt, but j that your article itself furnishes four very good reasons why no doubt should be entertained upon the subject, for it states — Ist. That £15,000 is to be paid to the Government in a day or two. 2nd. That this £15,000 ia raised on the Duke of Manchester's private estate. 3rd. That' the Government retains in its hands a material guarantee for the performance of its obligations by the Corporation. 4th. That arrangements had been completed in England that immigrants and families will be at once sent out. If, as I understand, the "full intention" of the Feilding contract is ■ the purchase and colonisation of land by the Emigrant and Colonists' Aid Corporation, I can hardly suggest a better guarantee that it is likely to be carried out than that the head of the corporation should make use of his private estate to effect the first object, and that " complete arrangements should have already been made in England" to carry out the other — to say nothing of the material guarantee retained by the Government. I may add, however, that the directors of the corporation , are most anxious to carry out to the full the spirit of their contract ; and now that the primary difficulties, almost insuperable, from starting such an undertaking at one side of the world by a directory at the other, have been overcome, I believe that the colonization of the block will proceed quite ad rapidly and even more satisfactorily than was contemplated by either party to thp I contract. — I have, &c, A. FOLLETT HALCOMBE, Agent" E. and C. Aid Corporation. August 8, 1873.