SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1188, 7 December 1894, Page 7

SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

INDIGNATION MEETING AT-. MASTERTON. From Our Own Correspondent. Masterton, December 4. A special meeting* of members of tlie Reform Special Settlement Association, practically-resolving itself into an indignation meeting, was held at Masterton oil Monday evening. About 30 members wore present. Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.8., presided. The Chairman explained that the meeting had been called in consequence of the receipt by members from the Commissioner of Lands' of circulars demanding the payment of two instalments of rent in lieu of forfeiture, and that the conditions of the leases be complied with by the Ist of January, 1895. Mr Hogg expressed the opinion that the department was doing everything in its power to throw obstacles in the way of settlement. He had heard that the Commissioner was about to send in to the Minister of Lands a damaging report on the special settlements in this district, and he had in consequence written a letter on the subject pointing out the hardships and grievances of settlers. He had, however, not received so much as a reply. He regarded the Lands Department as a dead letter office, and considered special settlers were being treated in an almost scandalous manner. After some discussion, in which anything but complimentary references were made to the present Commissioner, a memorial to the Minister of Lands was unanimously adopted and ordered to be sent "to other associations who are in a similar position. This memorial complains that the two half-yearly payments demanded by the circulars as due on the sections on the Ist July, 1894, vary from <£B to <£ls, and are summarily demanded, and that it is intimated that if the amounts are not paid within 21 days from the issue of the notices the sections shall be liable to forfeiture. The petitioners submit that when this land was applied for and the block granted to the Association it was explicitlyunderstood that no demand for fay tw<? years after the

completion of the survey, and that any accrued rent for that period would be added to the capital value. It was also arranged that 5s per acre should be added for roading, with the understanding that the block would bo opened up, access being given to all the sections, and that the selectors should have a preferential claim to employment on the roads. Up to the present time no money has been voted for roading this block; no steps have been taken to give proper access to it or open it up; no work lias been given to the members of the Association on roads or tracks within the block, although several applications have been made; and beyond the survey of the sections and the representation of the roads on the lithographed plans, nothing whatever has been done to enable the members of the Association to carry out the conditions of settlement. In the present-in-stance, inasmuch as notice of the completion of survey was only given about the end of 1893, even if the Commissioner is right, the rental could only commence from Ist January, 1894, and two halfyearly instalments cannot therefore have been due, as the circular states, on Ist July last. They also submit that as no leases have yet been issued, and as the Land Act (section 144) provides that the improvements, shall be computed from the date of the lease, the notification with regard to rent, and certainly with regard to improvements, is in error. They contend further that the demand to promptly pay interest on the construction of roads that are only on paper ; to remit rentals before they are due, contrary to the original conditions of settlement and before the sections are accessible ; and the further reminder about improvements which, without incurring almost ruinous .expense, cannot be carried out until roads are made, is most unreasonable, besides being contrary to the conditions on which the land was taken up. The petitioners were asked to ballot for their sections before they knew the values placed on them, and now the first intimation of these values is accompanied with a demand for twelve months’ interest on land and roads, before the latter are cleared, a threat of forfeiture, and a printed invitation to .surrender. The memorialists, under the circumstances, trust the Minister will give due consideration to their representations and afford them relief by opening up the blocks with serviceable roads, giving those who require it employment, and dating the rent from the date of the leases, with the further proviso that the first two years’ rent shall be added to the capital value instead of being at once collected.