A Rev Honner criticised Cotton's scheme in the "Register", 15 February 1888, saying: "If I may judge of those blocks by some I have seen, then they must be intended for blockheads, for no sane man would live on them, unless he was seeking a wilderness for the occupation of meditation." But Cotton retorted on 17 February 1888: "I hope when the historian has to look back at the difficulties small holdings had to encounter... that there will not be "perils among false brethren" to be received as amongst the bitterest opposition."