GOVERNMENT LAND PURCHASES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XX, Issue 6211, 21 March 1895, Page 4

GOVERNMENT LAND PURCHASES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Upper Merrivale is the name of the recent purchase of the Government from Sir Thos. Elder, of Souch Australia. It lies nearly due west of Dunedin. The latitude of Papakaio is about 45deg. That of Upper Merrivale is 46deg., or only about 70 miles further south. It has a regular climate. The frost rarely makes the ice bear a man's weight. The rainfall is about 37 inches, or nearly twice that of the Oamaru district. It, however, occurs much more regularly. The grass grows early and late. There will be about 500 to 1000 acres of bush on it—black, white, and red pine, totara, and kowai or goai. The country commences at the north-west bank of the Orawia—a small river running into the Waiau, which abounds in trout. From this the country rises rapidly into a broken country, most of which is ploughable. The country near the river is good, but as it gets higher it improves, and one or two of the paddocks cannot be beaten anywhere. Limestone breaks out here and there, and rises into a ridge of about 900 ft high, which cannot be broken up at all, as the reefs break out every few yards. In some places huge blocks of stone occur, and make a very picturesque appearance. A block of perfectly flat country, bar two or old river terraces occurs near the Waiau River. This is much like the Papakaio plain, or Mr M'Lean's run, being shingly. There are, however, some patches of good swamp which follow the lines of two creeks where flax grows abundantly. The poor ground is not, in its native state, adapted for sheep for more than a few days at a time, as they get what we call locally "dozy." Turnips,' however, do well, liut the trouble is how to put it down in fjrass which will not die out the first few months. A red fescue is said to do well on similar ground, but of this I can onlv speak from hearsay. There will be about 800 acres of this poor ground, and a similar quantity of very fertile rocky or broken limestone country, but the balance will be found equal in quality to any land in Otago, excepting, perhaps, alluvial land in small quantities along the Jacobs and New Rivers, or the land near Stirling, or, again, your own Totara. When I say this I~must ask your readers to remember that this climate is cooler than yours, that in consequence plants do not have quite such a luxuriant growth, and that more food is from this cause required to keep an animal up to the mark. If the Government keep its expenditure down to a reasonable limit-, and make the crosscountry roads half a chain wide, and, in fact, avoid the mistakes of the past in spending too much on roads that are but only occasionally used, they will in this purchase have deserved well of the country. The former offer to Government was on the condition that its purchase money would be accepted in New Zealand bonds or consols. I have not heard whether this is subject to similar terms. —I am etc., W. Dap.ley.

E tstern Bush, March 17th. 1895. P.S. —The distance from Otautau—the most practicably roaded, but not the nearest railway station—varies from 13 to 21 miles.—W.D.