ENORMOUS AREA UNUSED

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 4 September 1912, Page 5

ENORMOUS AREA UNUSED

i-rS 6 tal ?E? a inv°lved is about io 000 acres. Whatever is to be done with or to jt, I am strongly of opinion that steps should be adopted to utilise the enormous area not now occupied at a.i by European lessees. Nearly 20 000 acres have been reserved for commonages and kaiangas. and are practically Kile. In addition to this, nearly 30,000 acres have been reserved for occupation 1)7 the natives, and for this purpose the practice has been to issue to them occupation licenses for short periods at low rentals. The exneriment has not proved a success. Where the natives occupy they do little to develop the ifind, and in many eases they do not occupy at all, but let Europeans have the use of it upon payment, but without tenw'-A. It would he an excellent thine: it m scheme were devised under whioh these areas could be taken up by the natives in small associations under management or control of some Kind and with funds advanced by the Public Trustee for the working " and stocking. Tn this way the lands *-o"ld be brought into profitable use. andrffche natives would be trained in dairying and farming." * "