TOPICS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4332, 16 April 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

CITY COUNCIL ESTIMATES. In the City Council’s estimate for the general rates from April Ist, 1901, to March 51st, 1902. the receipts; are placed at £47,500, which comprises the following items :—Bate of Is 3d in Ihe £1 on £458,238, with additions during the year, £29,139 17s (id ; rents (reclaimed ground £9000), £10,670; license,;, £5120; building and sanitary fees, £1150; Government subsidy, £550; interest from Harbour Board, £507; intercet oh fixed deposits and sundries, £403 2s 6d. The estimated expenditurecf £35.570 jy divided as follows:—lni crest on loans, £7142-;--Kfc»et lighting, £3500; scavenging and watering, £3000; refuse and destructor, £3500; To Arb baths and widening Clyde quay, £4000; working expenses drainage, £3500; new engines for pumping station, £2000; proportion of salaries, £3OOO. The. expenditure, will leave a. balance of £11,930 available for street works.

ACCOMMODATION AT HANDIER PLAINS.

A Wellington resident who has just returned-from a visit, to Hamper Plains, speaks in high terms of the health-giv-ing rpialitiefi of the resort. The accommodation available there for visitors, however, ho describes ns being both insufficient and indifferent. During Easter f.he accommodation was great ly overtaxed. Some persons who arrived on one particular day had to return to Culverden, as there wore no rcopis to he had at the springs. Quite a number i f people in Canterbury telegrams advising them that it was impossible to accommodate them at Hanmor Plains, with the- result that they had cither to defer or abandon their projected visits. The gentleman in question considers that (here in every warrant for increasing and improving the accommodation at the springs. In his opinion establishment!-? resembling those at British watering places, such as Matlock and at the Continental spas. would be highly remunerative at Hamm r PlainsTwhicli is yearly increasing in favour ns a health resort.

MORE LAND FOR SETTLEMENT. The Mangawhata Settlement, Manawatu, comprising 122(5 acres, will he ! open for selection on the Li fit May. Tli(, land, which is in a dairying district, wo.: 'recently acquired from Mr M. Morrison by the Government, under the Land for .Settlements Act. It is divided into seven farpis. The property was originally a. portion of a,'block of land granted to Messrs J. Douglas and R. Campbell, in 1871, under the Wellington Special Settlement's Act, ,187 J, It is situated between Bongo Lea and Orona Bridge railway station, about fourteen miles from Palmer,si on North, by Ihe Palmerston - Boston railway line Jov •eleven miles, and for the remainder of I the distance by road. Tbo whole area 1 comprises low-lying grass flats, interI sccted by low .hillock:;. The latter wero | af ono time drifting sand, but they are. i now covered with pasture. With Die * exception of the hillocks, the land was ! at one time covered 1 with dense forest, which was mostly burnt, and sown in grasses at least twenty years ago. Ninety-two acres of native forest, stiil remains on different parts of the estate. exclusive of seventy-five acres which were felled, burnt and laid down in grass ccven years ago. About one thousand acres of .the settlement is i level. Of these three hundred acres •'have been stumped and ploughed at various' times, and, after cropping, laid down in grass. The sections in the settlement generally comprise first-class land, and, as they arc situated in a progressive' district, near important townships, and adjacent to the railway, it is considered that a good opportunity will be offered to fanners to acquire a 999 years' 1 lease on liberal and advantageous terms.