CROMWELL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

Otago Witness, Issue 3247, 7 June 1916, Page 3

CROMWELL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE GOVERNMENT. A deputation from the Cromwell Development Company took advantage of the pre—sonce of the lion. I*r M'Nab in town on the 31st tilt, to wait on him with a view to securing hn aid to urge upon his colleagues a hastening of tha various negotiations that have been in progress between the company and the Government in connection with the operations of the company at the Cromwell flat. Mr P. R. Sargood acted as chief spokesman. IJo emphasised tho magnitude of the. development work that the company had undertaken, and its importance to the whole of the Contra! Otago district, and placed in the hands of tho Minister documents setting forth the various desires of tho company, so that he could study the'-, matter at his leisure. Roughly speaking, the land immediately affected by tho present scheme was between 500(1 and' 40GO acres, and the cost would be about £45,000. The plans were all in the hands of tho Mince Department, and it was necessary that they should be approved. The company had hoped to have been ablo to see tho Minister of Lands the previous day, but the Minister, not being able to come to Dunedin, had. referred them by telegraph to Dr M'Nab. Tho Engineer (Mr F. ,7. Williams) laid the plans before the Minister, and showed their main features, after which various members of the deputation explained what had already been dono ; and what was immediately proposed. Already 200 acres of freehold land had been planted with trees (25,000 of them), and some of this had boon sold. '' The company was not in the position of being a land aggregator, however. It was provided that the land must bo sold. jhe company was virtually only acting for the development of the land, end could not get a title. If it did not sell tho Government would stop in and do so for it. The only title the company had was for the purpose of raising money to carry out the works. Of course it was entitled to make its price and choose its purchasers, otherwise it would not be able to pay for the works.

Mr Moritzson dealt at length with the proposed establishment of an experimental station. He explained that the company was offering 10 acres free of charge for fruit tree experiments, and 10 acres free of charge for forest trees. The cost to tho Government oi 'V> station would be very slight—only the ;.,.. ur and the cost of tho trees. There wc i be no reed for any increase of the pre.-, t Government staff in tho district, as the company would do all the work at cost price, and had, moreover, secured the services of a fully competent irrigation authority from California. This gentleman was taking up his duties immediately. The Government would get the free use of all the water it required, and in addition buildings would'bo erected by the company. The station was almost essential to the success of the fruit industry, but what affected the Government more nearly was the fact that the country was quite different from that dealt with by tho departmental experiment stations in' the South Island. What was done at Cromwell would, however, be a guide and render valuable assistance in the treatment of other patches of country of a similar nature in some other districts. It had been found that the trees from the Tapanui and Ranfurly plantations did not do at Cromwell, though the company's own trees had proved quite satisfactory. The Minister war. at pains to get n complete understanding of what the company desired of him, and promised to bring all the desires of tho deputation before the Minister of Mines on reaching ■Wellington.