OHUKA SECTIONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19377, 15 July 1937, Page 4

OHUKA SECTIONS

OFFERED TO COUNCIL TREE-PLANTING AREAS FORFEITED LEASEHOLDS (Special ,o the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. The opinion that tree-planting on a scale involving thousands of acres of country, and a large expenditure of money, should be the affair of the Government rather than of the district authorities was expressed at the monthly meeting of the Wairoa County Council yesterday, when an offer of sections was received from the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Gisborne. The council expressed its interest in tree-planting as a timber conservation .principle, but was unable to accept the offer, of the land.

The sections • referred to ; in the Crown Lands Commissioner's letter were 15S, 16S , and lot I of 17S, Ohuka settlement, situated on the Waikaremoana road, and running up to an altitude of 1800 ft. The total area involved was 3019 acres, and the value set by the Lands Department on the land and improvements was £I3BO.

These sections were formerly held by one Crown tenant, who abandoned the effort to farm them and forfeited his leases to the department. Ohuka settlement was described, at the time of its selection," as first and secondclass land, including some rich river flats along the Waikare-Taheke Stream, and running into fern and manuka hills, the sections being of a size considered sufficient to enable them to be worked economically.

The selector of the sections referred to in the commissioner’s offer was unable to keep down the fern and manuka, having less success in this direction than other selectors on Ohuka. Most of the original settlers on the block are still in occupation, though none of them have found more than a bare living in their farming operations, and their position holds little prospect of improvement, in the majority of cases, it is stated.

The offer of 3019 acres of the block to the County Council for treeplanting purposes Indicates the Lands Department’s view that at present prices for farm products the sections are not likely to attract new tenants, the encroachment of fern and manuka on the pastures being so rapid as to require frequent cutting-back. Planted by the State, the area might become a decided asset 20 or 30 years hence, but for the time being it must represent a liability to the country.