CLOSER SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13209, 16 February 1905, Page 8

CLOSER SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

Sin,—lt was with great surprise I read your, leading article of tho 13th inst., and note (lie attitude yon take regarding settling tho country. You say that the high country would lw thrown ou tho Crown. Why should a small runh'older not be ab!o.~to work the higLcountvyjust. as well as the largo one, provided it is surveyed in pro? portion to low country, each run -having some high and some low country? Of course, if cut up separately it would not do. Another thing 1 you say is that the high country would bo a. breeding placo for rabbits. That is not so. There arc fow'or no rabbits there, and . there never havo been. many. Sir, anyone having tho interests of the country at heart would do all they could to urge the Government to move in the matter. You also fay that there would be a shrinkage in the quantity of wool. You are mistaken. There would bo a far greater quantity, as the stations havo not- got their land fully stocked,. Dozens of peoplo aro talking of leavini the district unless something is done. We want tho land, and wo will have it. Petition after petition will bo sent in until the Government deigns to tako notice. Was there any part of Patearoa Station not taken up, although it is equally as high as Blackstone Hill or Idti. Valley"? It is all high ooumry here, and winter feed will have to bo grown if it is cut up. Again, you say that the advancement of closer settlement does not depend on tho destruction of the pastoral industry. Neither' it does. Evidently you aro under tho impression that we want it for agricultural purposes. Nothing of the sort; it is for pastoral uses oil a .smaller scale, combined with agriculture, so that it woulcl bo an improvement in every way. I3lackstono Ilill Station, at anyrate, ran lie taken on 12 months' notice being given.—l am. ctc., ■ Would-hk Settler. - TO TDK EDITOR. Sir.,—Another petition' respecting! the above is now on its way to Wellington. Suroly the pavers that be must now realise that tho time has come when all tho large area? of Crown lands in Central "Olago must he cut up for closer settlement. No ono wlio is not a resident can realiso how keen is the demand for land in this district. Talk about advertising the colony and assisting immigration in order to induco peoplo to fictile the country!—and here are hundreds of young New Zealandcrs in Ceniial Otago who aro able and eager to tako up land, yet aro denied tho opportunity of doing sn. There must be something radically wrong somewhere. ■ Central Otago is certainly not receiving justice in land administration.—l am, etc., Youxc New Zkaiaxd.