HATUMA SETTLERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7389, 15 February 1902, Page 3

HATUMA SETTLERS.

As to the position of the Hatuma settlers, inquiry at the Land Office shows (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) that the* settlers have made a general application for rebate of rents. The grounds given are that their first season was a very bad one.; that they had to buy stock on the top of the market, and that the grass on the property requires renewing. The Crown Lands Board has recommended that' relief be given, and the Government has asked the settlers to render particulars * of their losses. These have for the most part been sent in, and will be considered at the Board's meeting next week. We understand that the settlers are not asking for a reduotiqn of rent ; they are satisfied on the whole with their bargains ; but they ask for a rebate for the present season for the reasons given.

In addition to this, the settlers complain of over valuation for the rating purposes. The Hatutna estate was bought at £4 Is per acre, and was rated at somewhere about that figure. Since it was out up, the valuation has been raised to £6, and the settlers say that this means that they are valued at too high a figure in proportion to the rest of the district. They have applied for a revaluation of the land in the Waipukurau Road Board distriot, and this has now been granted by the- Government.