BUSH TRAMWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14219, 16 November 1909, Page 6

BUSH TRAMWAYS.

LOGGER TENURE WANTED.

[BY TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

» Wellington, Monday. TnK restrictions under which bush tramways may be constructed are, in the opinion of a deputation which waited on the Prime Minister to-day, too onerous, in that no renewal of the five years' tenure is possible. Mr. W. T. Jennings, M. for Taumarunui, who introduced the deputation, stated that its aims received the sympathy of a considerable number of members of Parliament.

Mr. Myers, solicitor, Wellington, put forward the difficulties from which/ sawmillers suffered. He pointed out that the Public Works Act gave persons who owned timber, or the right to work timber, the privilege of going before a magistrate, where there was no practicable road, and obtaining an order for the construction of a tramway or road, but the right to use the road or tramway was limited to five years, and the section was not sufficient to enable the magistrate, no matter how great the interests might be, to renew the right for a further term. In one case the persons interested had very large blocks of timber, and they supplied practically the whole of the Taranaki district witn butter and cheese boxes. It would be impossible to cut their timber out in anything like five years, and if they obtained the necessary order from the magistrate now, the cost of construction would involve them in the expenditure of many thousands of pounds, and unless they could make fairly sure of continuance, beyond the period of five years, it would not pay them to incur the expense. The deputation suggested that the magistrate should be given power to grant _ a renewal of the permit after the expiration of the five years, and that the applicant should be required to pay adequate compensation to the owner of occupier of the land traversed. The deputation also urged that when the term concluded the tramway or road should be the property of the constructors. Sir Joseph Ward, in reply, said he would be very glad to give full consideration to the question brought forward. He pointed out the difficulty of interfering with private property in such a connection, especially when' that interference concerned not a portion, but the whole of the Dominion, but promised that the representations of the deputation would be fully and carefully considered.