Settlers’ Hardships.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume II, Issue 172, 9 July 1894, Page 3

Settlers’ Hardships.

A Vigorous Protest by Mr Hogg.

The Wellington Land Board recently received intimation that the Minister of Lands had been advised that the control of speoial and village settlements was vested, not in the Board, but solely in the Minister and Commissioner of Lands. Following on this it is unnderstood that an exceedingly adverse and unfavorable report concerning certain settlements —the Pahiatua Settlements in the Makuri and Puketoi districts in particular—has been received at the Land Office. Mr Hogg, M.H.R., has entered a plea on behalf of the settlers in the following letter which he has addressed to the Minister of Land :

“ Wellington, June 26th, ’94 “ Dear Sir, —In the interest of Battlement ia the district which I represent I find it necessary to call your attention to the fact that from complaints that I am frequently receiving and also my own personal observation it ie painfully evident that the improvement of the country is being impeded, and great dissatisfaction exists owing to the way in whioh the land laws are administered. As you are probably aware a large number of the Makuri settlers and most, if not all, of the special settlers who have formed associations during the past three years contend that their sections have been grossly overvalued. A resolution calling attention to the unsatisfactory oharaeter of the process by whioh Crown lands are valued was passed some months ago by the Land Board, but, although directed to yourself, I am not aware that it has been considered.

I hare endeavoured in vain to get the Commissioner of Lands and members of the Wellington Land Board to visit Pahiatua in order that thoy may meet the settlers fact to face, hear their greviances, and, as far as practicable, view the land which is said to have been inordinately valued, but the Commissioner (Mr Baker) resolutely resists such a reasonable proposal on the ground that the evidence thus obtained will be one-sided, and even if the Board considers the valuations excessive it has no power to reduee them. To show that the prices and rents demanded from the settlers to whom I refer are disproportionate and oppressive I have at various times submitted to the Commissioner letters from good settlers who have made valuable improvements, containing offers to sell or surrender their holdings if barely compensated for labour and material, and casee have transpired before the Land Board in which settlers in the Makuri district have been compelled to surrender or transfer because they could not comply with the conditions and keep up their payments. Nearly two years ago I called attention in my place on the Land Board to the treatment which membere of Special Settlement Associations were receiving. I believed then ana I believe still that the part of the Land Act, 1892, dealing with special settlements was being administered in a manner contrary to your own wishes and designs, or the intentions of the Legislature, and calculated to meet the hopes of the associations and render the system workable. At the meeting of the Land Board in December let, 1895, I protested on behalf of the settlers against the wav in which information concerning the prices of their sections was withheld from them; the adoption, withoutreferenee to the Board, of the values fixed by the surveyors employed on the blooks; the arbitrary way in which the land was taxed for roads ; and the way in which the land was taxed for roads ; and the way in which bush land remote from mar ket had been suddenly raised from 50 to 100 per sent in price. On March 20th, 1893, when a ballot for tho Masterton Reform Special Settlement was taken by the Commissioner, and on the following evening when a ballot for the Stirling block was taken atEketahuna , tho settlers, on being made aware of the prices placed on tho sections, complained that the values were excessive, and main- ; laineu that prior to the ballot thoy should j have been afforded an opportunity of inspecting the sections and ascertaining for j themselves how far the values placed on \ them were warranted.

A few days later, on March 30th, 1893, I formed one of a deputation rep'-esenting several asrociations whioh waited upon you with the object of getting the values placed on the blocks reduced and the extra charge of 5s per acre for roads removed. On that occasion von promised to have tho blocks inspected And valued afresh, and you further intimated that a great deal more than the 5s per acre with which the blocks were loaded would bo expended in making road* through them. A reference to tlio reports published at the time in the Wellington and Wairarapa papers will show that my description of the interview is correct.

Although between one aud two .year* have since elapsed, the settlers I encounter inform me that up to the present they have not been made acquainted with the values finally placed upon their sections, and so far as 1 can ascertain ne leases in perpetuity have been prepared or issued. With regard to the 5s to 6s per acre added to the value of their land for roadmaking the settlers generally would have preferred borrowing under the Loans to Local Bodies Act, because im that ease they would be able to pay their annual payments out of tkirda and the debt would be extinguished in two years. Whereas they are now being taxed for roads, over the construction of whioh they have no control, for all time.

But to aggravate matters, except in the case: of members of tho older Associations, the settlers whose land is surcharged for roads, are without roads or pack traoks cf any kind, snd although they have no access to their land they are expected to pay rent, and carry out the improvement conditions, ami if they fail to do impossibilities the settlements will be proclaimed u failure, and the settlers do f-ignated speculators and dummies. To summarise, I have no hesitation in saying that up to the present tho special Bottlers in tho Makuri and Puketoi country have had no opportunity of going upon their sections and they have encountered every possible discouragement. Ist. Their land haa boon valued by surveyors without reference to the Laud Board which, I consider, should have been consulted ; the values are manifestly excessive; thoy have appealed to yourself and tho Rand Board and they Imre received no redross.

2nd. They were led to bolieve that if they submitted to an extra 5s per sere for roads they would bo able to get employment so that they might maintain themselves while doing some bushfalliug an well. No roads or tracks hare yet been made in the Masterton Reform, Pahiatua Nos 1,2, 3, and 4, MekoAickstono, and several other special settlement blocks.

3rd. The blocks ore remote from main roads, railways, or markets; portions of the country are notoriously too rough for small farm settlement, and if some of the unctions are surrendered or abandoned ou that account, is tho system to bo continued ?

1 have been closely identified with these settlements since the svutom was inaugurated by the late Mr Ballance, and I can point to the fact, that tho Forty Mile Bush abounds with evidence that no hotter

system of settlement for the laboring classes has been derived. With reference, however, to the experiments of the past two or three years, the settlers are not receiving the symp&thetio treatment and consideration, which is essential to their sucoese. They have to be content with rough and inferior country, bad roads or no roads at all, and most of them are working men with wives and families to maintain, and very limited means. Some of them are undergoing or are prepared to face hardships and privations that residents of towns but faintly appreciate in the hope that they will be able to plaee themselves and those depending upon them permanently beyond the reach of want. Allowed a reasonable latitude as to conditions, with strictly moderate rents, and a little encouragement in the shape of absolutely necessary public works, I am confident that in a few years they will become both prosperous and independent, and will help to consolidate the material wealth of the colony. But exsessive rent, extra burdens for roads that exist only on paper, evil reports and threatening circulars and memos from the Land Office, the nsgleot to answer letters, or issue leases enabling settlers in their hour of need to borrow, and tbs maintenaase of a generally unfeeling attitude towards the men whose dangerous and arduous toils entitle them to solicitude rather than oppression, is just the way to keep the bone and sinew ont of the bush, which under better auspices would quickly be converted into smiling homesteads. Yours very truly, A. W. Hogg. Hon. John McKenzie, Minister of Lands.”