TRIALS OF POMOHAKA SETTLERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 135, 8 June 1906, Page 6

TRIALS OF POMOHAKA SETTLERS.

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER.' [BT TELIORArn — OVVK CORRESPONDENT.! DUNEDIN, This Day. The trials and tribulations of the Pomohak.i .settlers arc once more tlo be threshed out on the floor of the Parliamentiuy Chamber. Replying to a depu- i tatiou representing these struggling settlers, who pleaded for a remission of rents, the Minister for Lands &aid he lecogniscd that matters were in an unsabiMactory state, and that it would be necessary for something to be done. If all the settlers were willing to give up their sections on payment for impiovements,, possibly tllie estate might be recast by making the tedious larger, and also by making other slight modiiicutions. He thought hunaelf thall the holdings were too small, and he said so when he first taw them. There was another thing ; it wag land that) required' capital to drain and plough it. Another thing that had crippled Pomohaka from the start was the name it got. The members of the lending board were new at the time, and he did not think tlhey were » as liberal as they might have been, or they might have saved them some of ten per cent. He would put the whole mat' ter before Cabinet, and after what he had heard that day he would have tiwo or three suggestions to make. He thought that duripg the se&sion he would get! a Bill passed to enable some arrangement being made whereby the position of eettlers could be improved. It was not) for the benefit of the colony or of the Government to have settlers who considered tlhey were labouring under an injustice. At the same time the men living in the district must have known tlio land when they took it up and what hope they had of succeeding. Perhaps Pomohaka was overloaded, but they should remember that it was purchased when a new department was initiated, and tlhey could not Bay at that lime how it would work out. He did not think il) should bo made to appear as if an injustice had been done. It was more of a mistake. Mr. Malcolm, M.H.R., said the deputation felt sure they had Mr. Duncan's goodwill in seeking for a happy settlement of what had reasonably beeti described as a mistake. The idea of in- | creating the f'uo of the holdings would meet w ith the approval of ecUtlers, but j on a revaluation. " ' j