THE BLOCK IN QUESTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15893, 13 October 1913, Page 3

THE BLOCK IN QUESTION.

(Feom Orjjt Own / WELLINGTON, October'l2.

The total area of the Hauraki pastoral lands which have been brought into such unusual evidence by the'present stonewall in the House comprise an area of at least a quarter of a million acres, of which only a small portion is at present occupied, The present form of pastoral tenure is a 21-years' license, which is much less satisfactory to the holders than ordinary leasehold, and for some years there has been an agitation to have the lands thrown open on the same terms as ordinary .Crown lands, the right to all minerals to He reserved to the Crown. A deputation which urged this alteration waited apon the Prime Minister at Thames in January, and it is worthy of note that on that occasion Mr T. W. Rhodes, M.P., who introduced the deputation, publicly stated that he was the holder of one of the pastoral licenses but that the tenure was not satisfactory. The official description of the block taken up by Mr Rhodes as appearing on the Lands Department poster when it was opened, was as follows:—"Rough, broken, forest country, eight to eleven miles from Coromandel and nino ' to twelve miles from Mercury Bay.'.' Mr W. C. Kensington, cx-Under-secretary for Crown Lands, has described the block as follows: : -" I know the country very weil. This is so broken and such poor clammy soil in most parts, and being only pastoral lands, I do not think tho area excessive."