RUN 140s, TAPANUI.

Evening Star, Issue 11626, 10 July 1902, Page 7

RUN 140s, TAPANUI.

TO THU EDITOR Sir, —The thanks of the Tapanui comnitlhity hre due to you for championing their cause in your article of July 7, My letter to the ‘ Rtajr ’ did not state the case half strong enough. For instance, 1 accompanied Mr Christopher Atkin when he filed his Application for the run. Mr Barron, the Chief Commissioner, expressed hiihself as gratified that a tenant for the hill country had been found, and stated that there Would be no difficulty in opeding the low-lying portions of the run for close settlement. Payment for the first half-year’s rent was then made by my cheque, as Mr Atkin was unknown to the CroWn Land Receiver. The receipt was handed to me, and the transaction closed by the new lessee asking Mt Barron to connect his freehold with run 140b with a small strip of rough land for the convenience of mustering. This application Mr Barron promised to consider when making the Survey. The following week Mr Dallas, a member of the Board, accompanied by Mr T. Hughan (ranger), visited Tapanui, and the former gentleman then said that “ Mr Atkin should not have the run. Letters then passed between mvself and the Land Board, but that body still declined to grant a lease to the purchaser or survey the land for settlement. Some weeks later the half-year’s rent end license fee of one guinea was returned to Mr Atkiu direct, and not to me as the agant in the transaction and Tenderer of the cheque. The order was payable to Christopher Atkin, and he cashed it With out reference to me at the time, or, needless to say, I would have compelled the Board to keep to their bargain. Such work as this is is a fair description of how the members of the Otago Land Board sometimes treat the people of Tapartui. Note the difference in the manner of obliging the lessee of the run. He Was allowed to crop the very Mst pdrtidds of 140b, adjac&ifc to the Tapahtii and alongSide the site of the present Skte nursery. Several crops of grain Were grown, and threshed or cut ihto chiiff and sold, although there is no provision in the hid le.4se empowering lesees to crop. This land remains to this day a mass of we°ds for the State nursery stuff or small settler to eradicate. Whilst paying ohe peiihv ppr acre for the land, the Crown tenant was allowed bv the Board to crop soil that the small settled were proffering 3s an acre for. When the application of the Tapanui people was made under the Goldfields Act to get tins land, the warden was dis.tinctlv favorable to granting the application, but as usual the Board blocked the way. The Star fully reported the meeting of the Land Board at the time the applications were niade, in December, 1897. For years it has been understood that run lessees were only ten-inis at will, and on the goldfields the people have had the rmht fo select .up to fifty acres. Although this prmlege was freelv exercised elsewhere in the Otago goldfields, it was denied to the people .of Tapanui, by the Otago Land Board, who refused to recommend the Minister of Lands to grant applications’ Boarrl were content to let the run lessee crop the land with oats at ore pennrental rather than accept 5s per acre per annum from the Intendin'* small settler The Board were so satisfied with £25 per annum for 6.000 acres that they would not accept £125 from the anxious' band of small settlers waiting to make their homes on fertile run HOn. For ten weary years the people of Tapanui have vainly tried to got the run opened for settlenrent. and each time their wishes have bmn thwarted by the Land Board, although the Right Hon. Richard Fieddon, Premier, visited tho run three vears ago. and reported to his late colleague the Minister of Lands that the land must be opened for close settloment. Again -thanking you for assistin'* the people of Tapanui to get tfmir rio-fite— I am, etc., toTapanui, July 9. Df '

TO TTTE EDITOR. ’ air ’ — '^ s . ono °f fte Comih’ssioners re ferrnd to in your leader of the 7th List re atjve to the Land Board’s action in tbcmatier of Run 14pn, near Tapanui. I deem « a! 7 to p!a<;e you the true leicts of the ns follow ! =- . in ant.cipabon of the expiry 0 f the exiermg pastoral license oh 28th February, 1903. and with the view of disposing and classifyp? e . V )n m best possible way in the public interests, inspected the colmtrv, they «irefu ly went into the matter, and found A e sta tements previously made by Mr , others—that the lower'part (probably about 1,000 acres) was 6t for purposes, and no doubt would be. readily taken up-were substantially correct. , But the qiicstioh Which had to he considered, apart .from the local view was what affect woUid this have in connectionwith the balance of the run ? About this there could be little doubt, as without the IoW country the remainder would be practically valueless, and not only so, but wool i he a continual source of expense to the Government for rabbiting. To anyone unacquainted with thus country it might be said that, apart froth the law land, the run is broken throughout, rough bush gullies and peat hop making it extremely difSculc to work. The Latid Board had to studv the interests of the fhture of the riln as a whqle, aftd not intentionally saddle the country with the cost for all time of keeping down the rabbit pest, besides contiii-

gent expenses under' the Noxious Weeds Act.

Tak : ng all this into consideration, it Was decided that in the event of Mr Rogers, the adjoining tenant, taking up the run, or any other approved purchaser coming forward, the low land should be reserved lor agricultural and plantation purposes, Mr Quin subsequently discussed the matter with the Commissioners, when he advised them that this was also his suggestion, and he would practically guarantee that the country would be taken up by the lessee of the adjoining run, who had sufficient low ground to enable him to work both runs. Mr Quin Was then informed that the run would be offered accordingly, but that if it. were not purchased the low land must again be made part of the run, and the whole offered Us formerly. With this arrangement he Was quite Satisfied, but afterwards informed the Commissioners that fae was doubtful if Mr Rogers would be a buyer, as at first intimated. The run was duly offered by auction on 241h -February last, but did not find a buyer. Subsequently Mr Quin put in an application lor a Mr Atkin, and this cante up in the Usual way for approval by the Land Board, when it was decided, after a report had been obtained from the ranger, that as Mr Atkin had only forty-five acres of low land it would be impossible for him to carry out his lease. Taking all the surroundings into consideration, th© BoaCd exercised their discretionary power and declined the application. The statement madq, that the lease had been cancelled is incorrect; as no lease had been granted. It might be remarked in passing that one of the difficulties the Land Board had to anticipate was this : that at the end of, say, the first year, Mr Atkin might refuse to continue his lease, and if the agricultural land had then been disposed of the run would have been left probably without a tenant-for an indefinite period, and, as previously referred to, the cost of keeping down the various pests, etc., would be more than the annual rental of the agricultural land. The action of the Land Board has so far been on.y in the direction of refusing a lease to a man who is apparently not in a position to carry out his engagements—in other words, they hold that the low land now held by him is totally insufficient to grow feed to enable him to winter his sheep. If an approved applicant can be found the Land Board will be glad to lease tiie run, and reserve the agricultural land for sett.ement and forest-planting. Meantime, no action has been taken in order to see whether such an applicant is forthcoming. One important point in connection with this matter should not be lost sight of—viz., that by section 190 of the Land Act, 1892, it is incumbent on the Commissioner and the Land Board to see that a pastoral run has sufficient low country to ensure its proper working.—l am, etc., Wm. Dallas. July 9.