THE LAND COMMISSION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8241, 13 June 1905, Page 2

THE LAND COMMISSION.

(press association.]

MASTERTON, June 12. Ihe Land Commission sat here to-day, luvo witnesses out of six favored freehold. Tho chief complaint was the undervaluing of vieu ie impvoved areas, so that they were unable to get a loan to carry out improvements except \at exorbitant rates of interest. All the sixth witness wanted was lhc Government to do Iheir share of repairing roads. Sonic of tho witnesses spoke strongly against the administration of the Land Boards.

A correspondent of the New Zealand Times says : — "Apparently on the principle that 'any stick is good enough to beat a dog with,' the Whangamomona, settlers, according lo a Press Association message- from Stratford, are now complaining that owing to tho Land Commissioners' hurried trip they were deprived of voicing their views as complcd'ly as the South Island settlers. The objection that the Commission of late has travelled like lightning over the country, and in some pfaces had scarcely nodded 'Good day' to the settlers before being oIF again, does not hold good in tnis caso, and the other side of the story deserves publicity. "The Commissioners spent a whole day in Whnngninomonn, and look a largo amount of evidence on practically every matter which conies within I v« scope of tho order of reference. There, was no need to hurry. Stratford is distant forty miles from tho place, and it is known Ihat this Commissioners did not intend leaving until tho following morning by coach. Not only was tho visit not a hurried one. but the evidence, was _ absolutory exhausted, ami before ihe silting was declared closed the chairman several times asked if any other person present wished to make a statement. Several of the matters mentioned in tho I'ress Association message — such as optional tenure and the necessity of completing roads and -railways — were minutely gone into and repealed in detail at Strathmore, twenty miles nearer Stratford, where tho Commission sat the following day. "While it cannot be gainsaid that th© Commission's time in a few centres was curtailed, it is hard to understand the justice of the complaint from Whangamomona.."