NOTES BY COLONUS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XI, Issue 1080, 21 January 1879, Page 7

NOTES BY COLON US.

WASTE LANDS BOABD PROCEEDINGS. I am very much in 'favor 'of commons — of rescuing some land here and there from the grip 'of private proprietorship, and devoting ie for the louefit of the general I'Ubiic. Especially in the neighbourhood of a township, I thiuk it most desirable to reserve some Crown land, which, while the town is in an incipient state, may be of great help to some of the poorer inhabitants, in the way of enabling them to J run a few head of cattle, and subsequent ly, when the town increases in size, may i be extremely useful from a sanitary point of view, acting as lungs to let in fresh air, and serving for purposes of exercise and recreation. On these grounds 1 regretted to see the Land Board had determined to sell a small common of three hundred acres or so, at the township of Hawksbury. This, in the face of a very strong petition against the sale from the inhabit tants of the town, in which, among other public statements, the petitioners say, the common is the greatest blessing they possess, and the greatest privilege conferred upon them by the late Provincial Council, enabling many of them to support their families and maintain themselves creditably, and praying that a privilege from which the inhabitants have received so much benefit; may be left to them as heretofore. It seems extraordinary that the Minister of Lands, who professes himself suchjaV careful conservator of the waste laud for the benefit of the people, should have, as 1 suppose we may, s>iy, ordered or directed the Board to sell this laud— -a useful commonage to be sold^ merely to get a Scrap of cash into the Government strong-box. - Mr ; i)ouglas,; one of ; the pro- ;- . moters of the sale, , had actual >y the effrontery to tell the Board he could get a sin gle purchaser for the common at £10,000 It would not have been surprising to have found the Board accepting the offer, after perp3trating ; tbe ? apparently gross piece of injustice of selling the common at aIJ, A proceeding ~of this sort seems to raise again -the question, whether it would hot be better that all the members of the Waste La^ds Board, except, perhaps, the Chairman, should be elected by the people, instead of their being mere nominees of Government, and at tlie beck and call of any Minister of Lands for the time! being, who, as a popular administrator,; micht certainly be worse than Mr Stout,

though in the above instance he seems to hayeacte<l in an incomprehensible manner. The Board seems* to have acted better when having, in accordance with Warden Robinson's report, resolved, to eject p*rties who we je encroaching upon, fencing in, and cropping, the auriferous reserve at Macraes. I do not understand why the Board did not see its way to accede to a petition of residents at Macraes, pray'tig that 10,000 acres of land should be opened for sale in the Newthorne district! Warden Robin* son, although he does not seem in. favor of the Rale, admits in his report that there would probably be applications for a great part of the laud. Th*>n why not sejl it, satisfy the hunger for land, and get settlers into the country 1 The fact that. 4000 acres of High and stoney land in Moonlight Flat remains unsold, can hardly be a good reason for delaying the sale of inoie good land. It seems to me vpry questionalli whether the Board uid well to grant a saw mill license to Mr J. M'Farlane, over VOO acres of. reserved bush in Green vale district, in the face of the obj-ctions to the sale of the Crookston: Progress Committee, and settlers in the district. I think it is a most objectionable proceeding to let sawmillers into mere, patcnes of bush, much required by settlers for fencing, building, and firewood purposes considering that the wood cut by the mill, may be sent out of the district. Ido not think the fact of Mr M'Farlane Having erected a mill, or the statement; of Mr Oonnell, that the wood was required for railway sleepers, should have weighed with the Board. Government can afford to get railway sleepersotherwLse than by cutting'up patches of bush much required by settlers. As to the talk the Board had about the sale of bush, members seeming mostly in favor of the sale, I should think it was most unadvisable to sell bush in localities where ihe supply is very limited. What in the world are settlnrs to do fcr firewood if the bush be all sold? Of course, when bush is more abundant, it may be all very well to sell a few acres of it ; but to cell the bulk of a mere patch of bush, seems utterly unf-iir and preposterous. Whether bush is better preserved or not by sale, seems quite an open question as yet. ,