MR J. ANSTEY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12711, 25 January 1907, Page 7

MR J. ANSTEY.

Mr John Anstey is a farmer it Beaoonsfield, Otipua. He was bom in Devonshire, England, in 1856, and was brought up on his father's farm. Ho camo out to Lyttelton in 1873, and for ibout three years found employment as a shearer ami engine-driver. In 1881 he acquired a freehold of 182 acres at Pareora, and in November, 1889, leased an educational reserve of 417 acres in the Beaconsfield district, whee ho has since resided. Mr Anstey also owns 156 acres of freehold at Coonoor. southwest of Timiru. He has taken an active interest in the Canterbury Farmers' Cooperative Association, of which he has been a director for many years. Mr Anstey has served for some years on the Pareora School Committee, of which he was for three years chairman. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1897. He wis a member of the Land Commission, in whose investigations he took a very active part. He was one of five members of the Commission who drew up what is known as the No. 2 report, which recommended n lease-in-perpetuity, with re-adjustment of rental by arbitration at periods of say fifty years for the first term and subsequent periods of twenty-one years, the tenant's interests in his improvements to be fully conserved to him in all rises, the value of which to be also fixed by arbitration.

MR W. W.

MdCARDLE

Mr William AVifcon McCardle, .IP., is a well known member of the AAellington Land Board. He was one of the I_»nd Commission. He is now settled in the AA'aikato. Mr McCardle is »*wt known in the Wairarapa. He it was who founded Pahiatua. He was born in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, in April, 1844, and was educated at tbe Grammar School there. At the of eighteen Mr McCardle arrived in Sew Zealand by tho whip Chariot ot Foam. His first employment was on an Ashburton sheep station. Two years later he worked; for Mr John Greenaway, a Christchiirch nurseryman. In looU Mr McCardle removed to Dunedin, where lie entered business as a uurseryn an. Six ycai* later ho cold out, and established a similar business in Abut srton. There ho remained until loo*,

when he went to Pahiatua, taking up a holding of 180 acres, most of which was **t apart as a stud sheep farm. He was an agitator for land reforms many years ago, and is credited with having influenced the passing of the Land Act of 1877, and its amendment of 1879. Ho> was a member of the first Council of the Borough of Masterton, and of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust and Parks Trust, and also of tlie Masterton School Committee. Other offices held by Mr McCardle included membership of the Wairarapa North Cninty Council, first chairman of the Pahiatua Road Board, and membership of the AA'olliugton Waste Lands Board. Probably no man in New Zealand has a wider experience of land matters than Mr McCardle. He was the% leading pioneer of the Forty-Mile Bush, and Pahiatua owes its existence to him more than to any other man.