The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1894.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume II, Issue 130, 2 April 1894, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR. Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1894.

HiKD as he fought, Mr Hogg, at the last meeting of the Wellington Land Board, was unable to persuade the members of the advisableness of holding a special sitting in Pahiatua to consider the excessive values set upon most of the land in the Makuri, Stirling, and Ooonoor settlements. Reference to the report appearing c'lsewhere will show that Mr Hogg spared no effort to attain his end, and clearlyproved the injustices and orushing disabilities to which settlers in this district particularly are subjected. We have repeatedly pointed out and condemned the existence of these disabilities, but in face of the evident determination of tho members of the Board, to reiterate them would be useless. With one statement made by the Commissioner we must disagree. Mr Baker maintained that the prices could only be reduced by legislation. No legislation is necessary. Let it be proved to the members of the Board that the sections aro enormously overvalued, and the Minister for Lands will at once give effect to a recommendation that tho valuation ho reduced. The Commissioner’s lame and impotent justification that as settlement extended back the value naturally rose is simply humbug. To say that the further back a settler is driven in the search for land the more valuable becomes these distant blocks is utter nonsense. And to value land away back in the heights of the Puketoi mountains at more than was paid for sections adjoining a main road and a township is to exhibit eithor a degree of incompetence or a disposition to rackrent the unfortunates who have been compelled to take up land away back. There is scarcely a settler in these districts who would not sell out if he could obtain the value set upon his section by the Land Board, with an addition for the improvements effected. The impossibility of finding purchasers completely disproves the Commissioner’s assertion that the land would bo eagerly taken at the fixed price were it abandoned by the present owners. The Commissioner and the members of tho Land Board have exhibited an utter absence of sympathy for the settlers, in contradistinction to which Mr Hogg’s conduct stands out as commendable in the highest degree.