MR. McNAB IN SOUTH AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13463, 16 April 1907, Page 3

MR. McNAB IN SOUTH AUCKLAND.

1 HAG LAX TO OK 01 RE. VISIT TO MAT AM ATA. [CV OUIt SPECIAL ISEI'OliTElt.] Rotobua, Monday. I'm: Hon. R. MeXab. Minister for Lands, and his party. loft Raglan at seven o'clock on Saturday morning, by launch, and journeyed up the Whaingaro Harbour to see the Te Akau Block, and ilso to view the beauty I spots fronting the harbour that residents of Italian desired to see set aside as scenic reserves. The weather was very threatening, heavy rain had fallen during the night, and the harbour was rough, so that I the country was not, seen to advantage, J but ample opportunity was afforded the | Minister to get an idea of this beautiful, I rich block, of 90,000 acres, now locked up I and idle, and lie also took a note of the | scenic spots- | The drive over the wooded ranges, which are now being rapidly cleared for grazing | lauds, was >ver a steep and slippery road, i but good time was made, and Wluita- | whata was readied about mid-day, and j looking more like a gang of mud-bespatter-i ed road surveyors than a Cabinet Minister's j party, we reached Frankton in time to catch the express for Okoroire. The Minister left the train at Matamata, -nd drove to Okoroire, in order to see the Matainata and Selwyii country, and arrived at Okoroire at seven o'clock, resting there oil Sunday. HA Ml LTON D El> UT AT lONS. | When Mr. McXab arrived at. Frankton a I coachload of deputationists turned up from i Hamilton to interview him. The first j deputation consisted of the Hamilton Boj rough Council. The Mayor (Mr. J. 8. ! Bond) said the deputation desired to im- ! press upon the Minister the great importi a nee of placing the Hamilton endowment | lands in such a position that the borough j could get a fair rental for them. Tenants would not give the rent the land was worth because the. Council could not give them a tenure. The lease was one of 40 years, and no renewal was assured, and the deputation therefore asked that the proposal contained in the Hamilton Domain Hoard's Bill, which was amongst the slaughtered innocents last session, should receive the addition of a permissive clause enabling the present tenants to hold for the balance of the term under the new conditions. If the Bill went through : t would enable the Domain Board to wipe out the debt owing to the Borough Council. The present tenants thought they held a right of renewal, which they hadn't, and they might claim lights under the present leases. They also asked to bo supplied with a copy of the Bill.

The Minister, in reply, said the matter had btuii before him previously, and had neither been forgotten nor overlooked. lie could not promise to send a copy of the Jill. All legislative proposals hud to come before Cabinet first, and that would be about the beginning of the session. He would not give an absolute promise in regard to bringing the present tenants under the new conditions. lie would like to lirist see the leases and terms of tenure.

Mr. A. 8 warhrick, representing the Chamber of Commerce, asked that the Department of Agriculture should erect a building in Hamilton for the accommodation of the roads engineer, the stock inspector, and a branch of the Lands Office. The various Government officers we,re at present renting offices, and were scattered all over the place. Owing to the post office staff requiring increased accommodation the veterK nary department and stock department had to find accommodation elsewhere. The Chamber also desired that the roads engineer should be stationed in Hamilton.

Mr. McKab replied , that the roads engineer was not under his Department. In regard to his own Department the matter of increased accommodation had come before him before, but he had not been able to see his way to establish a branch of the Lands Office at Hamilton. He would look carefully into the question again to see what accommodation was required for the officers of his Department.

Captain Bell, representing the Waikato and Thames Reclamation Association, waited on the' Minister, and said the association was formed for the purpose of forwarding the drainage of the Piako swamp country. He asked that some members of the association should be allowed to accompany the Minister 011 his journey through the Piako swamps to point out to Turn what the association considered should he done to bring these lands into profitable occupation. The association also wished to bring under the .Minister's notice the silting up of the Thames and Ohinemuri Rivers, where 38.Q00 tons of tailings a month were deposited, with the result that the river bed was constantly changing and causing floods^

The Minister replied that all the arrangements for the party had been made already, but if it was possible to accede to the request lie would communicate with the deputation. He would be pleased to meet the deputation itself any time. Captain Bell then asked the Minister to ask the district engineer to forward plans and' levels of I'iako swamps to the association.

Mr. McXab replied that ho could not instruct an officer of another Department to do anything, and the deputation should approach the Hon. Mr. Hall-Jones. It was very doubtful indeed if the Minister for Public Works would allow copies to be made.

Captain Young replied that it was only conies of levels and plans of the swamp itself the association wanted, not plans of any scheme. The association had a scheme which would affect 230,000 acres. Mr. McNab advised the deputation to write to Mr. Hall-Jones. SHORTAGE OF TRUCKS. Mr. J. Barugh, chairman of directors of j the Auckland Fanners' Freezing Company, waited on the Hon. Mr. McXub at Fraukj ton, to urge that the available .supple of trucks 011 the Auckland railways should be largely augmented. He said that during the lamb freezing season the company had not been able to get the trucks it required and it had lost the chance of handling some 13,000 lambs through this cause. Consignments of lambs were got ready day after day, and the lambs had to be sent back to pasture owing to shortage of trucks, thus delaying the bringing 011 of store lambs. The men at the works often could not get a full day's work, and naturally. felt dissatisfied. The company desired the Government to set aside 30 trucks exclusively for the conveyance of lambs during the season. The answer the company got was that the Department could not undertake to provide fot a rush season. In the three months of the season the lambs were worth more than they were if kept later for mutton, and it was most important for the farmers that they should be able to get the lambs to the works at once. Mr. McXab replied that this matter comes within the Department oi ho Minister for Railways, to whom lie would represent it. He knew the difficulties the company and. the tanners had to labour under with the wide extension of the railway system and the enormous growth of traffic. He would forward the representations to the Minister for Railways to see if lie could devise some means of giving relief. lie (Mi. McNab) knew that everything was blocked from one end of th". colony to the other owing to the tremendous growth of traffic and the development of the country that was going on. The Government was .spending over a quarter of a million per annum on additions to open lines and rolling stock, but yet it was not able to cope with the tremendous increase which was going on over all the lines in the colony. VISIT TO MATAMATA. At Matamata Mr. McNab was met by a number of settlers, and entertained at afternoon tea. A deputation of some 12

or 14 settlers then laid a. number of matters before tlio Ministers notice. Tlio big development in the train traffic and postal business locally was responsible for a request that a stationmaster, who would also look alter the postal business, should be appointed .1! Matamata, find the request was ;dso made that .1 proper pofei office should lie established where business could be carried out without publicity. Mr McNab promised to refer these matters to the. Minister in charge of the Departments concerned. The deputation then pointed out that with the present "ailwav time-table it took three days to attend Hamilton stock sales, one day going, another .it the Kile, and a third returning, and it was, therefore, requested that, as the night goods trains were now travelling regnlarlv, one should be changed to the morning, and a passenger carriage attached on sale "da vs. This matter the Minister promised to at once comnninicate with the Hon. W. HallJones upon.

The next matter was a representation th.it the drainage of portion of the settlement had Jong been prejudiced bv a Vshaped piece of native land, and the settlers desired that this should be acquired so that the main drain should be put -up the centre. Negotiations had been carried on for some time by the Government to secure this land, and the settlers asked that the matter should bo expedited. This would add a number of farms to the settlement. and the settlers were also anxious to have the drainage system extended. Serious difficulty was expected in future, owing to absence of suitable road metal to provide for the heavy traffic on the roads. The Minister made a note of the points brought forward. The deputation then stated that when the settlement was founded, the wool shed was handed over as a hall. It was how proposed to erect a new hall at a cost of £300, and utilise what could be utilised of the old building, and sell the balance. Mr. Mc-Nab promised that if the plans submitted were satisfactory the idea would be approved of. '1 he party then drove through the'district, to enable the Minister to form an idea of what Matamata was like. INTERVIEW WITH MR. \l< NAB. IMPRESSIONS OF TOM KING COUNTRY. GROWTH OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC. As the King Country was new to the Minister for Lands, and as his intention in 1 visiting 'it was to learn something of the native lands no that he would be familiar with the subject when it came before Cabinet 011 the report of the Native Lands Commission, I interviewed him regarding his impressions of the country. "It seems to me." said Mr. McNab, " that for the ground I have gone over on. our trip, 1 do not know of any place in the whole colony where there is such a vast, unbroken stretch of country that is capable of fairly close wit-lenient as there, is in the district we have just come out of. An unbroken retell cannot be found in tho North of Auckland, and not in other provinces in the North Island, and not in the South Island except for narrow holts along some of the railways such as going south from Christchurch, and there if is level country. 1 suppose we must have passed by millions of acres, from Te Awamutu till we came over to Whalawhatu and Frankton again, and it is all eminently suitable for dairying. In fact, it is the very best dairying ground, and it has a wonderful future. Then again, from the practical proof submitted to us by Mr. Buckridge, at Pakoka, Mr. T, B. Hill at Raglan, and others, the country is splendidly adapted for apple-growing, and I am surprised to learn that Auckland city, surrounded as it is with fruitgrowing country, should have to pay such exorbitant prices for apples as 4d and 5d a lb, which, with the apples we saw, would work out at Id and 2d per apple." "And the native land question'.'" "Yes," replied the Minister, "most, of that country I passed through is native land, still lying in its virgin state, and doing nothing except increasing in value. If will have to lie dealt with by the Native Land Commission, and I hope the Commission will very soon come to the country lying between To Awamutu and Kawhia and Aotea harbours, where the native land is one tremendous block of country, and not only that, but the land nine right round two great harbours. It blocks notonly .settlement of the land by Kimjpeans, but it also blocks tlie settlements at the hack of the native land by preventing the road*lines coming t lirough the non-contribut-ing territory to the water front." Mr. McNab was asked if he had any idea before of what the native land question meant.

I He. said, "T had no real idea, of what it j meant, and 7 obtained a better idea of the native kind oucistioii by seeing these huge arms of Maori land than on the Northern tour. There, the great blocks, although lying waste and idle, were not so imminently -pressing and choking the European settlement that i« in the vicinity, as they are doing in the King Country." GROWTH OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC. The growth of railway traffic, touched on by Mr. McXab in a reply to a Hamilton deputation, was again referred to. The Minister said the growth of traffic was going on more particularly in the Auckland province, where the greatest development was taking place. The development going on wax wonderful. In the South the railway systems were all connected with one another, and i'« was so much easier to relieve congestion. The system was split in the North Island, and it was not possible to change rolling stock from one place to another, as could be readily done in the South. For a, number of years the Government had been spending a lot of money to cope with the increasing railway business; if it were only to cope, with growth of traffic it would be all right, but it had to deal with increase of traffic and extension of lines and opening of branch sections. In connection with the linking up of the Auckland-Wellington line, there would be rather a renewed effort to close the gap, while in other cases there would have to be easing off meanwhile, for it was becoming now a very important matter, not only to get the through connection established, but also to bring into interest bearing the immense sums of money lying in the Main Trunk works. TURNIP DISEASE AT MATAMATA. Speaking of Matamata settlement. Mr. McXab said the country looked remarkably well indeed, except in some places where a disease had appeared among jit the turnips. It was the first appearance of the disease lie had seen. The shores of the turnips became discoloured and withered, and the disease was evidently going to be a source of trouble. It was a sort of fungoid disease, and seemed to develop in both dry and wet places. Of course, in a mild climate like this, turnips were very apt to develop diseases, from which they were immune in more rigorous climates. The pulp of the turnip itself looked all right, but of course its development was bound to be stopped, and the cattle were being turned in before the roots matured, which of course meant loss. Mr. Clifton, of the Stock Department, said the disease had appeared before at Wairarapa, but he (Mr. MeNab) had not previously seen it. Officers of the Department were investigating the disease now, and every effort would be made to cope with it, and to stamp it out if possible. The Minister also said that the Matamata land struck him as being very much better than he had gathered before that it was. He had no idea there was such fertile soil there. Generally the settlement looked the picture of prosperity, and all the settlers seemed satisfied, there were no complaints about rent, and most of the settlers stated, when asked, that they hud substantial good will in the place now, and they were all apparently very comfortable. PIAKO SWAMPS. Asked if it was in view of some definite scheme for the drainage of the l'iako swamps that lie was visiting the locality, Mr. McNab replied that he wanted to see these lands so that when proposals for their drainage came before Cabinet he would be familiar with the subject, and would knowhow far his Department could be prepared to go in finding the money for works which the Public Works Department might recommend. Of course, when a scheme was elaborated no information regarding it could be divulged prior to its consideration by Cabinet