THE LAUDER RUNS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13845, 7 March 1907, Page 6

THE LAUDER RUNS.

Tins morning wo publish, at tlio request of Mr John Ewing, the text of a petition which has heou forwarded to the Minister of Lands by residents on one of the Lauder runs, askin" that in the, subdivision of those lauds for the purpose of closer settlement a bloc* of land may he reserved for their use under tho occupation leasing system. Mr Ewing himself, in an accompanying letter which appears in this issue and in a letter which be has addressed to tho Minister on tho subject, discusses in a critical spirit the question of the operation of tho land for settlements scheme. Ho has apparently come to 'tho conclusion that tho country is being settled by the wronopeople in tho wrong way. He does not indicate, however, by what means ho would generally proposo to produce a different form of settlement. He does, however, suggest rather bolatedly the adoption of a plan in the subdivision of the Lauder runs whereby the whole of the country abovo the snow line should be offered in large areas under pastoral lease, the ,low lands being leased in blocks of small to moderate ' size. But the assumption that there would he eager competition for tho use of tho mountain tops as summer country is not by any means certainly sound. The arrangement under which the rims have been so cut up that each of the four subdivisions shall contain its proportion of high country really seems best calculated to secure that the tops of the ranges shall be actually disposed of. In any case, tho objection. which Mr Ewing raises to tho methods that have been followed in the subdivision of the runs should, if it was to be effective, havo been taken long ago. There is, however, tho other point of the necessity for tho reservation of a portion of the runs for occupation by miners and their families under occupation lease. This is the point to which Mr J. J. Ramsay, whoso activities have in the past been exerted chiefly in the direction of securing that the runs shall be cut up for settlement by a farming population, directed attention in our issue of last Saturday. Mr Ramsay's proposal is that one of tho four small runs into which the Lauder runs are being cut up shall be reserved in tho meantime for the use, of the remnant of the mining population at Cambrians. But ft may be questioned whether either tho Minister of Lands or the member for Mount Ida, each of whom Mr Ramsay impressively warns that the small run ho specifies must not be included in tho lands that are offered for application for settlement, will consider that there is any real need to reserve several thousands of acres for such a purpose. The miners of Cambrians themselves do not ask the Minister to make any such extensive provision for their requirements. Their, request, as we gather from Mr Ewing'g letter, is that a block shall he set apart, including tho portion of the Lauder runs which is now occupied by them, and that each of them shall be assigned such a section in this block as shall, consistently with a due regard for the wants of the others, most completely suit his needs. But, if we are not mistaken, the "unsympathetic Land Board," against which Mr Ramsay has directed so much criticism, has already provided for a reservation of tho kind desired by tlio miners. It is, at anyrato,.the ease that the plan of the subdivision of the Lauder runs shows that two block's of an aggregate area of about 2500 acres, included in which are tho sections already held under occupation lease by miners of tho district, havo been set aside as commonage or reserve, and. it may probably he inferred that these blocks will'be applicable to the purpose to which the miners wish to see a portion of tho runs devoted. If so, the Land Board has clearly not been so negligent as has been alleged concerning the interests of the mining settlers.