SETTLEMENT OF THE LANDSTOPPED by the GOVERNMENT. 6

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 16, 19 July 1898, Page 6

SETTLEMENT OF THE LANDSTOPPED by the GOVERNMENT. 6

Sik—"Will you please grant me space in your paper to show tho public what a farce the much-boasted settlement of the land by the Government is? They are for ever denouncing Captain Russell and his Party to the public as the large landowners, and making the public believe that as such they are the veiy curse of the colony. They know well how .such talk suits and takes with a large portion of the public, who think, and reasonably, too, that the settlement of the land should have first attention — for agriculture should occupy the foremost position in the colony, and if the colony is- to keep pace with other countries every effort should be made to settle the land. lint, unfortunately, instead of settling the land, as they proi'ess, tho Government are, in leal truth, holding the. land back from settlement. In this district they are keeping more Crown lands idle than all the large landowners can have put logethor. Surrounding this Pongakawa Settlement alone they have kept (5-1,000 acres of Crown lands idle for the last seven years. All the land is within easy distance of a good harbour. By making ashort road of only four miles or so across one of the lots of idle Crown land, thus would open the outlet for it all. Yet during that time the Government have forced through the Land for Settlements Act, telling the public they have no Crown lands left to settle on, only in the back regions ; while at the same time Crown lands kept idle here are the very ourse and

sole cause of stoppage to all progress to this district. The replies to petitions and appeals from settlers who are locked in with these idle Crown lauds arc, year after year, that they have no money to open Crown lands here. Yet immense sums can be spent buying private estates — lands already settled — while Crown lands that require no such large sums for purchase money are kept totally idle. If this is not the way to bring the colony to bankruptcy I don't know what is. No money, the Government say, to open Crown land for settlement ; yet thoy have enough, they say, to pension 10,000 or more aged persons. The debates on the Old Age Pensions Bill have already cot-la large sum — enough to open a lot of Crown Lands — and what fov ? a bait, only, to secure the votes of tho aged at the expense of the colony, for if Crown lauds must be kept idle because they have no monej' to open them for settlement how can they pension the aged ? It is abominable for the funds of the colony to be so squandered merely to gain them popularity. No money, the Government say, to open Crown lands for settlement; but they can spend unnecessarily £40,000 or more, report says, for- grander Parliament Buildings, while the one thing above all others on which the progress of the colony depends most — settlement of the land — is stopped. FurtherI more, through tbe Government not opening ! the idle Crown lands here for settlement they have deprived the Rotorua railway of a large revenue, for this idle Crown land runs back to within a short distance of Rotorua, and both passengers and slock would have gone via the railway to the "Waikato and Auckland, and would have been one of its feeders. \ The Premier boasted in his recent address •at Hamilton that, there are now some 2000 persons on the Cheviot Estate, where there was only 70 before. He mi^ht also have truthfully said that his Government have for seven years kept Crown lands here totally idle that would now have been busy and prosperous, and had as many persons on as the Cheviott Estate has, if the land had been opened for settlement, for it has been- proved that the land is not only suitable for agricultural and pastoral purposes, but the Government fruit expert states that it is tho finest fruitgrowing land he has seen in the colony, and the cost would have been a mere trifle to have settled this land, compared to what it has cost to settle the Cheviot Estate. The idle Crown land joins to this settlement, where nearly every farm crop has for eight years been most satisfactory, without manure of any kind. Tho maize crops this season again have been equal to any at Opotiki, or on the so much boasted Opouriao Estate, even though tho Opouriao was old pasture ploughed up, and this is new land. Mr. Palmer, Government Pomologist, states that he has not seen land anywhere in the colony so eminently adapted for growing so many different kinds of fruit as this land is. He mentioned nearly 20 sorts — orange, lemon, vine, fig, guanas, prune, peach, &c, and the fruits grown here quite bear out what Mr. Palmer said. My oranges and lemons have done splendidly, and the vines have borne immense crops for four years; this year again 40lb and up to 70lb of large grapes from single vines, and they have had little attention, and no manure of any kind at all. Particulars of crops grow ing, vines,. &c, have been sent each season to the Government and the Lands Department asking for someone to come and see them, po as to induce them to open the idle. Crown lands; but no, they still keep them idle. I suppose this land is not within Hie circle of political influence ; it cannot be, because the}' have no money to open them for seitloment, for such large sums are being continually frittered away on things of such far less importance. Report «i)s the Minister of Lands will retire. It is a great pity for this district he did not do so seven years ago, for his boast of selling tho laud is a farce. The Premier maintains that he is the friend of the people, and also makes believe that the colony has made great i)rogress during his term of office. If keeping a body of settlers locked in, with idle Crown lauds, for seven \ears is friendship, he has done that here certainly, and through keeping the laud idle he has effectually stopped all progress in this large district. I am, &c., Idle Crown Lands. Bay of Plenty, 23rd June, 1898. [Upon enquiry from the Surveyor-General we learn that the lands referred to are already open for selection, but with the exception of a very small part they are of inferior quality. The road referred to has long been agitated for by a particular settler, but the Lauds Department holds a different opinion as to the return to be obtained from the making of this road for the outlay it would entail. — Ed. E. P.] A little girl named Olive King, four years old, of Revans-street, Newtown, was playing with the fire at her home last evening, when her clothes caught on fire, and in a moment she was a mass of flames. Her father, attracted by the noise, rushed iv, aud succeeded in extinguishing the flames, but not until the child had beeu severely burnt. She was removed to the Hospital. If thero is one tinner looked forward to more than another by tho Wellington publics it is tho Clearing Sales at C. Smith's, the Cash Draper, Cuba-street. Meeting of Parliament and want-of-confidonco motions are quito secondary considerations to careful housewives. But C. Smith's Clearing- Sale is of vital importance to everyone. Money saved is money made. Tho snlo commences every morning, sharp at 9 o'clock. Bargains oxtvaordinary; reductions enormous. — Advt.