BOSH SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 2

BOSH SETTLEMENT.

IVSSS-SPENT THOUSANDS, ROABB PAVED WITH SOVEREIGNS LOCAL GOVERNMENT WANTED. No. VI. The circumstances under which the people of the Ohura country and the resources at their command arc cut off from the society and markets of Ncru* Zealand for a period of four mouths or more each year arc a grave reflection on one. of iho earliest movements of the land settlement policy. When these men ■wore thrown into the hush they had, for the most part, not a shilling of capital, • They were assisted ami coddled in every way. Still they could not hope to succeed, for the reason that, when they had produce ready for sale they were cut off from their market. Forty miles to a rail is quite suflicient tax over good roads. In bad weather it was, of course, impossible, and at that time none of the creeks between Stratford and Vvhangamomona. were bridged. They bung on, struggling to keep their sections by road works, instead of looking to their sections to keep them. The cost of stores by the time they reached the Clearing was terribly increased. In summer the carriage is £1 a ten; in winter at _ least twice as much; while the _ railway schedule rate for the same distance i.s only 22s Gd per ton. Seed, fencingwire, everything that it is necessary for the pioneer to have, arrive at Ills holding more man 100 per cent, dearer than they would have been with proper roads. Is it surprising that one alter another these men, recruited in the first place from an unsuitable class, wont under in the struggle, and sorrowfully returned to the world? It could nob bo otherwise. And to-day only thirty-five out of 150 who originally selected" are still in possession of their holdings. SETTLEMENT WITHOUT ROADS. The secret of this miserable history is the initial error of pushing settlement too far ahead of tho means of access, particularly in a district where there is no natural metal.

Looking at tho position from Uie Taranaki end—because access through the King Country is more remote and impracticable—wo find that the Ohura Main road, which is tho arterial liigliivay from Taranaki to Waikato, lies for a distance of fifty-eight miles within tho Stratford county, that is, as far as tho Tangaraknu coalfields. Of this length 16J- miles from Stratford has been made and metalled with, blue moral or shell-rock, and handed over to the county for maintenance. At other points on the road,on tho Shddle and in tho neighbourhood, of tho Clearing, a total of four or fire miles has been made with burnt papa, so that altogether twenty-one miles out of tho whole fifty-eight is metalled. Yet tho nature of this country is such that every settler T/lio lives a mile or so away from tho end of tho shell-rock is cut off entirely from the markets, except for what he can carry on the saddle, and spare three days to transport. There is very strong feeling throughout tho Ohura country as to tho misspending of money on reading. It is put thus: Tho Government purchased 159,000 acres of land from tho Maoris at Is lOd an acre, and tho survey would cost, say, 2s 2d an acre more. Yet this land, which cost 4s an acre, was sold at prices ranging from 7s (id to £2 ss, and averaging about £1 Is per acre. Now, if this land had been handed over for administration by a local body there would have been available for expenditure on reading tb© difference between 4s and £1 Is an acre, that is, £135,000. For this sum, and tho amount already borrowed under the Loans for Local Bodies Act and levied in rates by tho Stratford county, the settlors are satisfied they could have carried out thoroughly tho whole of the reading. They would not have buried pnngas and fascines _in the mud, nor would they have spent thousands of pounds in rounding up surfaces and clearing wator-tables that were all made of mud to begin with. They would not have cantered over these beautiful burnt papa tracks tor nino years, and yet have persisted in spending money on png xnudways. They do not deny that tho Government has expended every penny of tho £115,000 it claims to have spent on the Ohura Main road ; but they do say it has been uselessly buried, and echo says, right from Putikituna to Mangapapa, and from Tufiara to Strathmore, “Somebody ought to bo in gaol for this.” HOW TO OPEN LAND.

This is what the Land Commission says about reading:— . “ Tho present State methods of roadino- require fundamental change. It is heTd that unless land is provided with transit facilities for the bringing in of tho requirements of settlement work and tho removal of products, it cannot, from a settlement and productive standpoint, be considered to have full value. It is clearly laid down that the settlement value of tho remaining Crown lands is tho value of those lands roaded, and that reading should ho ]n*ior to, or coincident with, settlement. Tho practice of the State placing colonists on waste lands in advance of reading has been unsatisfactory, and must ho condemned. A solvent and flourishing colony cannot he absolved from blame when it calls upon its pioneer settlers to carry out their life’s work under conditions inimical to the well-being, happiness, and prosperity of themselves and their families." THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE. And the whole of Ohura, from Mr MoCutchan, who represented it on the Commission, downwards, agrees _ with this. There should ho no such thing as the maintenance, of roads by tho Government. They should he made, and handed over, and then Government responsibility should oease. In fact, Ohura holds to the opinion that if the State withheld Crown lands from settlement until such roads were constructed as would give effective access to markets and civilisation, both State and indi-

vicinal would bo bettor off. There would bo nc wastage of produce, and there would bo less of this cruel exile of pioneers which punishes an unborn rvnorauon. The question of a remedy arises. Assuming that the work of making a good burnt papa road is proceeded with while fuel is obtainable, tho cost of one mile of Government road. 12:i wide and Sin deep would be about £750. At this rate the road could bo completed right through to the Tnngarakau coalfields for. say £25.500. But then the question of maintenance arises. This is the main provincial road, destined to carry all the traffic of the King Country, and the SlreAford County is not at all sure of being able to maintain it. Even with traffic restricted as it now is by tho bad going beyond, the Stratford County lias absorbed all its revenue for the riding, and incurred a debt of £-1000 in maintaining tho sixteen miles of made road over which it has control. And there “made' roads are as good and as cheaply maintained as any in the colony, especially if they are of papa. It is not surprising, in view of all that has been said about mismanagement of expenditure iy the Ohura district, that the settlers desire to obtain as close local government as they can, and there is a movement for the formation of a separate county to include the Ohura and East Ridings of Stratford. It was hoped to get the empowering bill passed this .session, but a technical omission thwarted the object.