DEPARTMENTAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 2747, 19 February 1896, Page 2

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS.

The Colonial Treasurer will probably leave for the South to-morrow. Mr Sheridan, Native Land Purchase Officer, left yesterday for Auckland on departmental business.

In this interests of lessees of Crown lands in the South Island whose Hooks of sheep were decimated by the rigours of the weather last 1 winter, the Government have decided to make a reduction of 20 per cent, on the railway freight for the carriage of stove sheep purchased to re-stook Crown lands. The reduction (which will only apply to long distances) will have effect till the end of April, and the owner of the sheep will require to make a declaration that they have been purchased for the re-stocking of drown lands. The minimum charge will bo 30s per truck. There is a lot of store sheep for sale in North Canterbury, the Amnri and South Marlborough, the stock in these districts not having been prejudicially affected by the snow that' fell last winter. Most of the sheep needed for ro-stooking will be purchased in those places. The Pqketapu estate, one and a half miles from Palmerston South, which was recently purchased by the Government under the. Land for Settlements Act, has been subdivided into 12 sections, ranging in area from 19 to 59 acres. These are to ba publicly disposed of at Palmerston South on the IBth of March. The conformation of the land is undulating, the soil is good, aud it is partially covered with bush.

An area of 2073 acres of forfeited land in the Marten Nos. 1 and 2 Special Settlement Association’s blocks, near Eangiwahia (Counties of Oroua and Pahiatua), is to be disposed of in 11 sections on the optional system at Wellington on the 18th of March next. It is all improved land, and the sections lie at a distance of from throe to ten miles from Makuri,

Forty-nine sections of Crown land in the township of Ormondville (Seventy-mile Bush) are to be sold by auction at Napier on the Bth of April, and on the same date 50 acres'at Onomatutu (Marlborough) are to ba disposed of on the optional system at Blenheim, and at Auckland on the same date J 293 aoreg ip. the Bay qf Islands district will be offered under the optional system. On tho 15th April 1514 acres in Southland will be offered at Invercargill under the same system.