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Pahiatua Herald, Volume II, Issue 175, 16 July 1894, Page 2

The settlers in tho Makuri district intend making another and final effort to obtain a reduction in tie. valuati m of their lanij. A petition for presentation t-0 the members of tho House of Representatives is now being-signed,

and this the settlers regard as their last resource. Should their appeal be disregarded in all probability every section in that district will be offered to the Government at their own valuation. The men who are now on the land have had the conviction b irne upon thorn by painful experience that under existing conditions it is utterly impossible to make even a living from their sections ; and unless they receive the concessions asked for they will be compelled to forfeit and leave the land once more tenantless and ownerless. This is only one of the results of the gross maladministration of the Lands Department. Instead of settlement being fostered, every action of the Lands Department seems to be in the direction of retarding it. The settlers are treated as milch cows, to be drained of their capital, and ground down by excessive valuations and harassing conditions, until all their energies are exhausted, and they must either sell out at a ruinous reduction or forfeit. Practically the settlors are being rack-rented off the land—a condition of affairs for which we consider the obstinacy of the Commissioner of Crown Lands is in a great measure responsible. The additional charge of 6s per acre imposed for roading is little short of iniquitous, considering that the settlers have had to rate themselves heavily for loads to obtain access to their sections. Time and again Mr Hogg hag endeavored to convince the Commissioner that the valuations are excessive, but ho has always been met with an impenetrable assumption of superior knowledge against which no amount of argument could prevail. Under the circumstances we are forced to the conclusion either that Mr Baker has no knowledge of the real value of bush land or that he has no sympathy with the settlers in their difficulties. Should the final appeal of the settlers of this district be disregarded the justice of their claims will be borne upon the Commissioner and the Minister of Lands in a manner they will little relish. On their shoulders will rest the responsibility of driving off the land, by a wioked adherence to excessive valuations, a body of settlers, who under fairer treatment, would be able to improve their own lot and assist materially in the sucoessful settlement of the bush lands of the colony.