TOKOMARU BAT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8056, 3 November 1897, Page 3

TOKOMARU BAT.

A PLEA FOR A TOWNSHIP SITE.

A Land Court is being held at Tokomaru under Judge Scannell and staff. The Mangahawina block is going through. This block has a frontage of about two miles to the bay, and all the business establishments of the place are built on this land. You may be sure the excitement amongst the Maoris is considerable, every man and woman in the place insisting that the section on which the stores, &c, are built is the exact piece of land that belongs to him or her, and the owners of the various buildings aro not altogether free from anxiety on the question of whether the Maori from whom they leased the lnml, nnrl to -whom they pay an annual rent, equal to the purchase of the freehold of similar land in any other part of the colony, is the Maori to whom the land will be allotted, or whether some other Maori will get the site, and in what position the owner of the buildings will find himself, Tokomaru Bay is growing to be a place of some importance. Every week the steamer lands a considerable quantity of goods. Last year we shipped nearly a thousand bales of wool, and this year the number will be well over the thousand. Every year adds hundreds of acres to the land under grass and thousands of sheep to our flocks. Yet it is impossible to get a site near the harbor for a business establishment with anything like a good title. That it should be so is not creditable to any Government ; certainly the present Government is no more to blame for this than any of their predecessors. Rather it deserves credit for passing the Native Townships Act, but if after passing that Act it is allowed to remain inoperative, then the Government will be neglecting a very necessary work that might be done without any cost to the country. We believe the Tokomaru people have already petitioned the Government, and also interviewed their member and written letters since, but so far without any result. The present opportunity of securing a township site should not bo let slip. — (Own Correspondent).