SETTLEMENT OF MARLBOROUGH GROWN LANDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 177, 29 July 1907, Page 5

SETTLEMENT OF MARLBOROUGH GROWN LANDS.

THE COMMISSIONER'S ANNUAL

REPORT.

The Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr F.. Stephenson Smith), in his annual departmental report, says:—

During the past year'th© settlement in this district has been small, because of- the limited area of suitable Crown lands available. The demand has been ■very great, and it is much to be regretted that we have but little land to meet it. There have been, however, 91 new tenants - added to our list, chiefly on small isolated blocks and miscellaneous licenses. The total number of holdings within the district is, on Crown lands, JL,O4Oj occupying an area of 1,302,709 acres. This shows an increase of fifty-nine holdings during the year, held under various tenures, exclusive of land for settlements, which are treated separately in another place. For the e puropse of this report Marlborough may be conveniently divided by the Wairau River into two distinct portions, where quite different condi--1 tions often obtain. The north portion, including the whole of the Sounds and -portion of the Marlborough County, ■may be called generally " small-hold-ings country " ; the general characteristic of this portion is rather broken bush-clad hills, with some fertile .flat valleys running into them. Within , this northern portion most of our settlement takes place, generally under special conditions, because all the front country has been taken up long ago, leaving only the poorer and less accessible parts available for expansion) of the present holdings. It is also within !• this portion that most of the timber is obtained, and this, I think, temporarily retards the clearing of the bush, for many of the mills are working on private property. I estimate that about 1,500 acres only of bush has been felled and burnt during the past season, although, owing to the unusually dry season, , much standing bush, chiefly birch and inferior timber, has been destroyed. The settlers in these parts appear to be doing fairly well, owing to the high price of stock, wool, and other produce, but they have very much"to contend with in the way, of noxious weeds. This especially apI plies to the Upper Wairau, Wakai marina, and Pelorus Valleys. In the 1 west portion of this division the settlers have a harder time, because the land is poor and the weeds they have to contend with are, if possible, more) numerous and vigorous. There is some gold being got in this portion as well as in the Wakamarina'' Valley, but I fear it gives a rather poor return for" the labour expended upon, it.

The flax industry appears to be in a good sound position in Maryborough, and many settlers are obtaining a very welcome additional return for what was, until lately, only a waste part of their holdings. In some cases v this amounts to nearly the rent they have to pay. .The southern portion of the district (south, of the Wairau) contains nearly the whole of the land for settlement, which is-reported upon in another part, and most of- the pastoral land in the district. It is chiefly open land, and although / a very large portion is high mountainous country, some of the plains are both extensive and fertile. This southern portion as a whole, but especially the eastern portion, has suffered considerably from drought; the recorded rainfall for Grovetown, which is the nearest meteorological station to Blenheim, was about 22in for the year,and for the spring months—viz., October, November, and December—was , only 25m. The southern limit of the country ! over which the drought extended was about the Ure River. South of this I the rain, although less than normal, 1 was sufficient to keep the pasture growing and green. Tho effect of this drought 'was, of course, felt most on I the land where a considerable amount f of cropping was done, but the crops in spite of this were fairly good; but the shortness of feed, both locally and in j Canterbury, in conjunction with the slaughtermen's difficulty at the freeis-ing-works, had a very prejudicial effect 1 on the price of stock, especially fat j sheep and lambs. The hardness and \ dryness of the ground also, where it did not actually prevent ploughing, retarded the growth of the root-crops., and many of the settlers were conse- { quently iinablo to hold their surplus j stock, and had in many instances to them for a considerably reduced price." These remarks also apply to the Raikoura- district, where the feed was generally abundant; many of the settlers were cut off from their principal markets in Canterbury, because there was a shortness of feed in that district and a consequential lack of demand for store sheep. The progress made by the settlers in the Kaikoura, district has been very marked; the country which a few years ago was covered by. dens© bush is now in good grass, and the Crown tenants appear to be doing good service for themselves and for the cause of settlement in general. . Lease in Perpetuity.—There is no doubt that in Marlborongh the most popular tenure is lease in. perpetuity. Out of the 1,040 Crown tenants who hold permanent leases there are 619 who hold under this tenure 195,395 acres. :' '■ 1 Occupation with Right of Purchase. —Only forty tenants hold under this form of tenure 13,061 acres. Small Grazing Runs.^—The area held by 122 tenants is 260,141 acres, with an annual rent of £10,392 10s lOd. Pastoral Runs.—The area held under I this tenure by fifty-five tenants was 898,627 acres, yielding an annual ] rental of £3,889 13s. Occupation Leases under " The Mining Districts Land Occupation Act, 1894." There were no selections taken up under this heading during the year, but several have been applied for, some of which were refused because they! were, in a State forest, and the others j are awaiting survey. There were nine-1 teen selectors, holding.l,l6l acres and] paying rent £31 4s 4d current at the 31st March, 1907. -These holdings are generally situated up the Wakamarina Valley. Some of the selectors have made good use of their holdings and have kept them clear of noxious weeds. Others have only done a little work beyond getting a house to live in and ! enough land cleared to run a cow or '"■ two. - REVENUE. The actual revenue collected amounted to £32,985 15s 7d; miscellaneous items, £30 3s. The gross receipts were £33,015 18s 7d, an increase of £2,033 12s 9d on last year's receipts. REBATE OF RENT. Rebates amounting to £2,136 19s 5d were granted. This and the good prices obtained for stock and market produce accounts for the small amount of arrears. v ■• . . ARREARS OF RENT, "... This^amounts to £516 16 S| lid (out of a total annual rental of £31,838 .10s

j sd), andds distributed amo.ng.forty-one tenants, out of a total of 1,040 tenants. : .' r V "'. '.' SURRKDO>ER^' .. . ~ There were only six surrenders, com- ! prising mostly small areas cm which tenants could not make • W 'living, and which were immediately-taken up by adjoining owners. -' ;u " THIRDS " AND " FOURTHS." The sum of £2,746 was> paid to the local bodies, that amount being prac- | tically all moneys received during the I year, so that no complaint can be made i of the various Road Boards not taking prompt advantage of the revenue accrued under this heading. FOREST-COVERED CROWN LANDS. Some comment has been made in the public Press and in letters from intending settlers as to the impropriety of holding back forest-covered land until the timber has been cleared off it by sawmilling; and, while agreeing that it is most necessary that settlement should not be retarded, it should, I think, be remembered that it is not wise to destroy the little remaining timber we have, even for so desirable an object as ' settlement. The present system -of giving timber licenses to cut the timber on royalty before offering the land for settlement not only secures a, yep large proportion of the timber from being wasted, but obtains frequently as much as £4 an acre for the timber, and this not only does not impoverish the land, but to a certain extent helps the settler to make a better job 'of his bush-clear-ing, because ib removes most of the large trees. OFFICE-WORK. There were 5,275 letters received and despatched, and 2,000 rent-notices issued/ This does not include a large number of sale-plans, Crown Lands Guides, etc. Three hundred and sixtynine vouchers were passed, amounting to £8,325 165.. In N the office of the Receiver of Land Revenue, besides the gross receipts for the year, amounting to £33,015 18s 7d for which 1,820 receipts were issued, the sum of £851 Is 7d was paid into the Deposit Account, for which 167 receipts were issued and 271 cheques drawn. The table below gives a summary of the land transactions, .within the Marlborough lancl district -for the year ended 31st March, 1907. .. The total area dealt with is 33,897 acres, and the amount of receipts was £32,985 15s 7d, an increase of £2,003 9s 9d over last year's returns.

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