NORTHERN AREAS.

Northern Advocate, 9 August 1919, Page 5

NORTHERN AREAS.

FOR SOLDIER SETTLEMENT,

SECTIONS LOCKED UP,

A recommendation that the Wainui and Paranui Blocks, in the Mangonui County, should be opened for settlement by soldiers will be made to the Minister for Lands by the North Auckland Land Board. This decision was reached at the meeting of the board this week, when Mr B. P. Greville ( commissioner of the district, reported that he had recently visited the two blocks in company with members of the board, and found that although there was s.ome timber on ttye sections it did not warrant the land being withheld from settlement. The timber was not easily accessible, and as there was no means of floating it away roads would be necessary and the cartage would destroy them. In many other parts of the district sections had been locked up, because there was supposed to be milling timber on the land, and he considered j it was time the board laid down a de- • finite policy. It should declare that in casea where it was not apparent that timber should be reserved, land settlement should get the benefit. The Wainui and Paranui Blocks had been under consideration at various times during the last eight or ten years, but the matter had been allowed to drift, although people were clamouring for sections all the time. There had been a disposition, the commissioner added, to take every stick of timber off a section, so that when a man got there the land was bare. The board should simply throw the blocks open for settlement, and if a soldier decided to work the timber on his section he could do so. He would propose that the board recommend the Minister to place the land pn the market for soldiers, who were anxious to settle there. Members of the board supported the commissioner's proposal which was carried.