PURCHASE OF NATIVE LANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 168, 16 July 1894, Page 2

PURCHASE OF NATIVE LANDS.

The Governmenb has been accused of a lack of energy in pushing forward tho acquisition of native lands. A return which has been laid before Parliament, showing tbe native lands purchased by the Crown, however, proves thab the Governmenb ha 8 done a good deal with tbe limited means a its command. Tho area of native land for which the titles wore completed in tbe year ending 31at March, 1893, was 345,850 acres, and of this total 179,453 acres wore acquired during 1893-4, and tho uncompleted purchases during the same period were represented by 173,128 acres. The total area of native lands finally acquired to the 31st March, 1893, comprised 5,487,814 acres, nnd during bhe year ending March, 1894, 345,850 acres, making the tobal area secured 5,833,664 acres. The area of land passed through the Native Lands Court to the Slab March, 1894, was 1,398,229 acres, and lands nob passed through tho Native Lands Court 83,724 acres. The total nett expenditure to tbe 31sb March, 1894, was £1,396,076, of which £219,999 came oub of bhe North Island Main Trunk Railway loan, and £1,077,517 oub of general loans. The Surveyor-General, in his report on the condition and settlement of lands acquired under the Native Land Purchases Acb, 1892, says that the lands acquired under tbe provisions of the abovementioned Act in the Whangarei districts will meet a pressing demand for settlement in that locality. He points oub that the purchase of the Paeroa township ab Ohinemuri will enable the Government to set at rest) the anxiety of residents on the question of tenure of their holdings. We learn from the report tbab tho Papamoa and other blocks in the Bay of Plenty district are now in the course of settlement, while the SurveyorGeneral believes that it may be found advisable not to do much beyond meeting urgent demands in tho way of settling bhe lands acquired in tbe King Country (Rohepotae) until some further progress has been made in the purchase of tho intermediate and adjoining blocks. The Ngaire Swamp, near Stratford, is being prepared for settlement, for which tho greater portion of ib is well adapted. Thn Awarua blocks, between Hnntervilla and Taupo, and the Waikopiro Block, near Danevirke, are considered by him, on tho whole, firsb class lands from a settlement point of view.