A Farce.

Patea Mail, Volume XXXIX, 17 July 1914, Page 2

A Farce.

The latest issue of the New Zealand Gazette has the following important announcement; “ In pursuance and exercise of the powers and authorities conferred by the Public Reserves and Domains Act, 1908 (hereinafter termed “ the said Act”) His Excellency the Governor of the Dominion of New Zealand, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of the said Dominion, doth hereby revoke an Order in Council dated the third day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, appointing the Wai-totara-Moumahaki Hoad Board a Domain Board to have control of the Waitotara Domain; and doth hereby appoint the Patea County Council to be the Waitotara Domain Board, having control of the land described in the Schedule hereto for the purposes of and subject to the prsvisions of Part II of the said Act; and doth hereby appoint Monday, the tenth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, at 2 o’clock p m , as the time when, and the Patea County Council Office, Patea, as the place where, the first meeting of the said Board shall be held. Scnedule.—Waitotara Domain. —All that parcel of land in the Wellington Laud District, containing by admeasurement 3 roods more or less, being Sections Noa 154, 155, 156, Town of Waitotara; Bounded towards the northwest and north-east by section No. 297, Block XII, Wairoa Survey District, 375 links and 200 links ; towards the south east by Trent Street, 375 links; and towards the eout west by section No. 153, 200 links; be all the aforesaid linkages more or less; as the same are delineated on the plan marked L and S 1/523a, deposited in the Head Office, Department of Lands and Survey at Wellington, and thereon bordered red.” Three quarters of an acre of land to be termed a “Domain ” requiring the services of a clerk and eight men to control it ? Its revenue amounts to nothing per annum and the expenditure to a like amount. The sections in question are. we believe, at present used by the children attending the Waitotara School as a horse paddock It would, in our humble opinion, have been better had the Council recommended the Government to change the purpose of the reserves and hand them over (o the Wanganui Education Board for the benefit of the School- As is is, it is little short of a farce to term them a “ Domain” compelling a secretary to furnish an annual “ return ” setting forth the fact that the receipts and expenditure haye been nil. As a school reserve the sections could be put to good use both now and in the future.