LAND FOR SETTLEMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16233, 6 January 1927, Page 7

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT

AREAS IN POVERTY BAY

TO BE OPENED SHORTLY

Within the next few months over 20,000 acres of Crown Lands jn the Poverty Bay district will be opened for settlement, this area including what is practically the best virgin bush land left in the district. More than half the land which will be made available for settlement comes through the system of native land consolidation which was largely introduced through the efforts of the Hon. A. T. Ngata. To Wern, the 10,000-aere block some 34 miles from Matawai, will be the first area to bo opened, it being anticipated that this will be ready for selection some time next month. It is practically certain that this block will be opened in areas of not less than 500 to 600 acres, while some of the. sections at the back of the property will bo larger in area. This will mean that the land will be subdivided into about 22 sections, a proposition which should give settlers an infinitely better chance than, if the land had been cut up into smaller areas for mixed farming. EAST COAST LAND

Within the next few months, also it is expected that the PorbporO consolidation will be completed and a further area of about 11,000 acres of Crown land will then be available for settlement. Of this, about 0000 acres is still in virgin forest, and this land, which is situated some distance from Kuatoria, on the opposite side of the Waiapu river, is probably the finest bush land left in Poverty Bay. One of the things which is being accomplished by the Poroporo consolidation is the improvement of the native tenures of land adjacent to ttuatoria itself, and further areas suitable for dairying will bo made available from the natives when the consolidation is complete. The Crown, which has an interest aggregating about 5000 acres in the land near Ruhtoria, will accept the hill country, so that the land to be opened there will be pastoral country of good_ quality, fully improved.

FURTHER AREAS

The opening up of Tc Wera, and the subsequent roading that will be carried out will allow a further area of land to be opened up in the not far distant future. The Crown holds interests totalling in the vicinity of 50 000 acres of land in tho Tahora block. This land, which is average second class land,- has not been worth while opening up to the present, because of the heavy cost, of roading to tho proportv. The road to To Wera which will now have to be completed and metalled, will provide a road lor a considerable part of the distance to the Tnhora block, and the cost of the subsequent* roading that would be necessary would .not bo so high as to deter jthe Crown from opening tho land. Provided it were opened in fnirlv large blocks it would be entirely suitable for closer settlement, for t"he land is not as steep as the Waioeka country, nor is it considered likely to deteriorate after deforestation.