LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14976, 23 April 1909, Page 6

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

It is satisfactory to learn that the negotiations which havo been going on for some time between tho Government and tho trustees of "tho lato Mr 0. G. Tripp havo at last resulted in tho Orari Gorge Estate being acquired by the Crown for closer settlement. People who have been looking for land in Canterbury bad begun to imagino that the Government had entirely suspended its settlement policy, so far as this province was concerned, and that they would have to go further afield and to unfamiliar conditions to make homes for themselves and their families. Tho Orari Gorge Estate, consisting, os it does, of 8000 acres of freehold and 17,000 acres of Crown leasehold, will not cut up into a great number of farms, but its acquisition will bo extremely gratifying to the people of South Canterbury, and will revive the expiring hopes of the scores of young men in the district who are anxious to get on to tho land. Mr T. Buxton, tho new member for Geraldine, is entitled to a good deal of credit for the part he has played in tho negotiations, and he is to be congratulated upon tho redemption of ono of tho first of his election pledges. If each of tho Canterbury members could do as much for tho promotion of closer settlement the province would have no decline in its rural population to deplore. It is worth recalling, by tho way, that the Orari Gorge Estate, which was taken up by tho late Mr C. G. Tripp in 1856, is ono of the last of tho great pastoral properties in tho dominion remaining in ■ the name of tho original holder. Mr Tripp was ono of the most rcmarkablo of the remarkable band of pioneers that undertook the subjection of tho wilderness in this part of New Zealand. A man of extraordinary enterprise and courage, ho might in those early days have laid field to fiold almost without limit, but while attending closely to his own affairs, he seemed even more concerned for the welfare of the people about him, and‘there are still many prosperous settlers between Ashburton and Timaru, formerly shepherds and shearers and ploughmen, who owe much of their present good fortune to his kindly assistance in their small beginnings. AVhon the members of tho Conciliation Board visited tho Orari Gorgo Estate last year in connection with the farm labourers’ dispute, one of tho representatives of the workers, an ardent Socialist, in acknowledging tho hospitality of tho father’s son, said that it was tho pleasant relations maintained between master and men in such exceptional places as this, that made it so difficult to convince the public of tlie urgent need for reform. The statement was a high tribute to tho traditions and tho practices handed down by tho first owner of the estate, and may well suggest that his memory should be perpetuated in tho name conferred upon tho new settlement.