THE BENMORE RUNS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12728, 23 December 1915, Page 4

THE BENMORE RUNS.

MR AXSTEY'S VlEWcv To a representative ot the "Mail" to-day. Mr Anstey expressed himself as sadly dissatisfied with Air Mas.vey ? s letter. tc l regard this reply.' ; said the member for Waitaki. "as very unsatisfactory. Quoting thousands of acres. God knows where, does not allot Benmore to returned soldiers. Only three additional runs are promised, but no increase in area from the utterly inadequate former proposal. "The Commissioner says the country is not suitable for returned soldiers. What about the 3" men in the Xoith Otago Mounted Rifles alone who were qualified and would have been applicants for Omarama if they had not been in Egypt at the time ot the ballot. And hundreds ot others with experience nf this- class of country who are Jiow at the trout. None of the reserved sections are 011 the University endowment, which is the best, safest. and nearest portion of the run. "Section '24 of the Land Act. 101-1. i~an awful farce. It provides for dummying for absentees who may never occupy. Tt only lives absent soldiers a chance at the ballot with hundreds of other preference applicants-. Why blazon all over the country that three absent soldiers have drawn sections which they have -never seon and may never occupy, and use this as an excuse- for disposing of the other ten flections- to the. exclusion of qualified patriotic men at the front? Tt would be interesting to know now many ot the ten might to be at the front."