LEASING OF NATIVE LANDS.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 74, 19 March 1895, Page 3

LEASING OF NATIVE LANDS.

(TO THE EDITOR.; Sir, —I was much pleased to tee your remarks in the Times of 12th instant respecting the leasing of native lands and the neglect shown in opening up the roads, and would like to call the attention of the lessees of sections in the block between the Ngariki and Arawhata Roads to the necessity of keeping a strict watch with the view of forcing the Public Trustee to fulfil the conditions under which the land is leased. When this block was put in the market one of the conditions was that as soon as possible after tenders were in the Ngariki and Kiua Roads would bo felled and a twelvefoot track stumped; the Arawhata Road also was to be felled. The work on the inland portion of the Kina Road has been let, leaving (as you say) a portion of the outer end. Tenders as first sent in for Ngariki Road were considered too high, but I understand an offer has since been made to do the work at the price allowed, and have seen a reply received from the Public Trustee thanking? the party for the offer, but stating that the work had been postponed for “a time.” This, to my mind, means that unless the lessees watch things very closely it will be postponed “ indefinitely.”—l am, &c., Lookout. March 15, 1895.