The North Eastern Ensign at KellyGang 16/6/1874
THE TALLAGAROOPNA FORFEITURES
In commenting upon these cases of persecution as carried out .by the Minister of Lands, our Nagambie contemporary utters some arguments so much in accord with the sentiments advocated by this journal, that we have great pleasure in making the following extract: He says: "Judgment is at length pronounced in the Tallagaroopna case, and, under the circumstances, a heavy judgment it is, Six selections of Mr Fraser’s family are forfeited, together with improvements on three of those to the value of £475, and the rents paid thereon, which are equivalent to £500 more.
The pastoral license, too, is forfeited, redeemable by payment of a penalty of £50; making altogether a forfeiture of £1025 in money, in addition to loss of some 1800 acres of land, which is to be sold by auction. Since the decision is given, and irrevocable we assume, any protest against it would be a waste of pen and ink; but we can assume Mr Casey that, while all credit is due to him for his efforts to suppress dummyism, the general feeling amongst the residents in Mr Fraser's neighbourhood, so far as we have heard, is that he has been very hardly dealt with, and this feeling arises not merely from sympathy with a man who has had much to struggle against, but from the deeper and holier feeling of domesticity. No man will believe in the justice of a legal enactment that prevents a father from providing for his children. And the thought is aggravated, in the present case, by the consideration that the children have aided in furthering the family welfare.
The enforcement of the residence clause is surely uncalled for, when the parent's home centres the children's property. There has been much outcry about the Joachim case. Be it remembered that Joachim's family were children of tender years. Fraser's were men and women. We have no partiality for squatters' monopoly, but domestic affection is not confined to squatters, and we believe that Mr Casey's decision is an outrage to the domestic feeling of the colony.
Hitherto the Minister of Lands has professed to look more to the spirit than to the letter of the law. Pity it is that in this special case his judgment should have been ruled more by the letter than by the spirit.
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