LAND AT WAKAPATO.

Southland Times, Issue 20523, 27 June 1928, Page 9

LAND AT WAKAPATO.

To the Editor.

Sir, —In your issue of the 25th your reporter gives us a glowing account of the mining operations at Wakapatu beach. It is very evident your reporter did not look for the truth.

He says the company have the mining rights over 100 acres; how long since? If my memory serves me right its one acre, with prospecting rights over 100 acres, quite a different thing; however, the yarn reads all right, and to those who don’t know any better, I have no doubt the whole thing is O.K. Your reporter goes on to say: ' The country round Wakapatu is practically useless for farming purposes and is Crown Lands, eminently suitable for mining.” Now, Mr Editor, it is clear to me that your reporter is absolutely useless as a judge of land. There is very little of the land on the beach side of the railway at Wakapatu that I don’t know, and I am prepared to say that Wakapatu contains some of the finest land in Southland for farming purposes; not one or two acres, but two hundred or more of a stretch, and as to the tenure, I believe most of that land is freehold. I think you owe those interested in the land an apology for allowing your reporter to belittle their living through the columns of your paper. Some of the settlers in the district have been there upwards of forty years; not living on charitable aid, but farming, and, as Slim Jim puts it, getting a fat living for the like of you and your reporters. —I am. etc., “PLAY THE GAME.’’ [Our correspondent is unduly sensitive; probably the description of the Wakapatu platinum winning activities gave the reference to the quality of the land too wide an application.—Ed., S.T.]