LAND COMMISSION.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12190, 10 May 1905, Page 8

LAND COMMISSION.

(press association telegram.) KAWAKAWA, May 9.. The Land Commission on tho journey from Whangarei traversed the dreary manuka scrub and fern wastes. John Hall, commission agent, and a member of tho County Council, giving evidence here, said the best land in the district was held by natives. lie favoured freehold tenure. Sonio blocks in the vicinity had been successfully settled under the Homestead Act, which was adapted for settlement in this portion of the colony. H. Blunddl, County Engineer, oxpressed the opinion that the Austrians were gocd settlers. William Howard, representing the local branch of the Farmers'' Union, consisting of twelve members, said all the members were unanimous in asking for the freehold tenure. People regarded the lease-in-perpetuity as shaky, owing to the agitation for revaluation. William F. Parsons, formerly a homestead settler at Ritapekapoka. and Richard A. ITnll. butehor. of Kawakawa. lwlievod in the trochoid. Tho Commission then proceeded to Opua, whore evidence wns ftivon by one witness. This morning Henry Lane, holder of a hmall grazing run from the Government, said ho believed the freehold tenure was the best, and he thought the Crown tenants should be allowed to purchase the freehold at the original valuation after ten years. Improvements on Crown leaseholds were' not saleable in this district, because people feared ne-valuation. His experience of tho . Advances to Settlers' Department had been satisfactory, but np to within a couple of years he had not found tho administration of the land of the Crown satisfactory. It was all right now. The Commission left this forenoon for Whangaroa. You may talk about Niagara, And rave of quaint Japan ; Quote the Trans-Siberian railway As the greatest work of man. Not c'en tho greatest Colossus! Can such pride of place secure, As the famous cough reliever Known as Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. 16