DOG IN A MANGER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7413, 1 October 1902, Page 3

DOG IN A MANGER.

j*. TO THE EDITOR. ? Sir,—l saw in your paper of "the |c 26th inst. a paragraph of the Land Iri Board meeting stating that Crown m. tenants had no right to the timber «- on their holdings, or in other words gl.that the timber is the property of lirithe Crown. Now, Sir, if there is ilpwiy such thing as a dog in the man_iK? er -^titude, i think their suggestion lM*>r the Commissioner's takes the jfflpcake. If the timber belongs to the IpCrown why didn't they fell the timIjfriber and clear it oft tbe land before |g«'tliey oflered it for sale or lease, or ilkelse let them pay the tenants for fellliling the timber and after it is down, |J||let them pay the tenants for all the §g|jjgrass the timber covers, or would be i§P- rass if tlle timber was not there. Ifiirhey say the tenants have no right illP,- let it sawmill have any of the s^Sfclmber to cut it and thoy also say jSriil royalties must be sent to the SBReceiver of Land Revenue, yet the Kptenants have to fall and clean or pfe"*'urn so many acres a year. They fecan burn it, mark you, if they can, iK'but they must not sell it. It is a Ifip'.onder the Land Board, or the ;fet'Crown, allows the tenants to split KJ'a bit of timber, to build themselves g* a whare to live in, places that I stip- {§' pose the members of the Land Board p would not allow a pig of theirs to i live in, but we poor slaves have got l. to allow our sons and daughters to live there. They must not- be allowed to have a few boards cut on their holdings to try and keep out some ol the wind and rain, and very often ;-. snow. Why, Sir, I shouldn't think fc. that any of the members of the m Land Board ever saw a bit of back H country In the bush, before thero SP were any roads, or know any of the fi hardships the settlers have to contend with in new bush country. I know what it is for I have had 20 years of it. The first five or six years everything you want or have

to make use of, you have to carry

on horseback, and all through the winter up to the horse's knees in mud. And, in a great many instances, the tenants have to carry all their stores and things half a mile, and sometimes over a mile on their own shoulders. And now in the last 12 months the settlers or tenants have made roads to their holdings, bo they can manage to get a dray or

trap there. Even at tho time of the last flood the tenants were blocked in and could not get a trap in or out of the Salisbury or Umutoi blocks for six weeks. Do the members of the Land Board think the tenants can do the same as wild pigs, live on berries or fern roots, so that they can make the allotted Improvements and send the royalties to Government as rent. It is no wonder that Government wants the land to be taken up under the lease in perpetuity tenure, if that is what they want to do with the tenants. People who have been brought up in towns or cities don't know anything of the hardships the settlers in the back blocks have to go through. I consider, Mr Editor, that the members of the Land Board ought to go through the back blocks sometimes, or, better still, let them be Crown tenants, the same as we are, and with the same means to live on, for say only one year. The Land Board is quite justified in protecting the interest of the Crown' in regard to any back rent, but there are plenty that have no hack rent, nor yet behind with their improvements, and yet would like a sawmill to take the timber off their land, if they can call. it theirs, but would want the royalties to fell the rest of the bush after the mill had gone through it. Trusting, dear Sir, th;it jt is not taking up too much of your valuable paper. I am. etc., SLAVEY,