THE WASTE LANDS BOARD AND HOWICK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9394, 28 December 1893, Page 3

THE WASTE LANDS BOARD AND HOWICK.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — October last the Howick township Road Board wrote to the Waste Lands Board, requesting that the Stockade reserve •be vested in the Howick Board. Up to date this Board has not received auy notice of its receipt, the first discourtesy therefore rests with the Waste Lands Board. On Monday, 18th instant, I was asked by a gentleman, " What are you going to do about that reserve?' My answer was that anything he had to say about the reserve must be submitted to the Board, as I did not transact Board business out of the Board-room, and referred him to the clerk of the Board, who would show him the minutes on the subject. He expressed himself as astonished at such proceedings. I remarked, that was his way of looking at it; mine was different. He (the interviewer) then said he should report the interview to the Board at the meeting next day. He then informed me in whose august presence I stood ; " I am the Commissioner of Crown Lands," and left. The decision come to by the Waste Lands Board re this reserve seems strange and incomprehensible, for apart from the discourtesy of the chairman, do cause or reason is assigned for refusing the request of the inhabitants. Is it fair of the Waste Lanas Board to deprive the settlement of a reserve, that was said by the authorities ia Wellington to belong to Howick, simply because the Commissioner's dignity was ruffled by me. Had the Commissioner stated facts bearing on this case instead of points of courtesy at the last Board meeting, the public might have been enlightened as to who made application for the reserve before it was surveyed; the frivolous pretext advanced of the chairman's discourtesy gives an opening to complete the little transaction.— am, etc., John Burrow, Chairman " Howick Township Road Board.