BUSH VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 103, 1 May 1894, Page 5

BUSH VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

DECISION OF THE GOVERNMENT,

Mr G. Mueller, Commissioner of Crown Lands, informs us that, acting undor instructions from the Government, he ba9 given instructions for two bush village settlements of 1,000 acres each .to be laid off on the road route between the Kaihu Valley and Hokianga with a view to giving assistance to struggling settlers and establishing small homesteads. There are about 14 miles of road yet to finish between Opanake and Taheke (Hokianga), and for the present a portion of this will be done by co-operative labour, the men to be employed at bush felling and clearing and also at road making. Each of these section of 1,000 acres will afford bnsh work for about 60 men, and when cleared will be divided into 100 acre sections, which can then be taken up on perpetual lease by 'a number of the men who cleared them. Another section of 1,000 acres in the vicinity will be reserved for a similar purpose though Mr Mueller baa as yeb received no instructions to throw it open. Tho whole of the present road works in tho North will not absorb more than 30 men from Auckland at present, as tho struggling small settlers have the first claim, but Mr Mueller says thab he could put a couple of thousand men on absolutely necessary road works in the North if the money were only available.

This afternoon Mr Mueller received instructions from Wellington thab only married men were to be employed on the bush settlement clearing work.