MINISTER’S BUSY DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 665, 17 May 1929, Page 14

MINISTER’S BUSY DAY

SETTLERS UNFOLD TALES OF WOE HAURAKI PLAINS DEPUTATIONS CFrom Our Own Correspondent) NGATEA, Thursday. Tli© Hon. G. W. Forbes, Minister of Lands and Agriculture, commenced a tour of Ilauraki Plains today, and heard numerous deputations on subjects ranging from drainage matters to plagues of crickets and electoral boundaries. Ho was accompanied by Hr. C. J. Reakes, head of the Department of Agriculture. Messrs. A. W. Hall, M.P. for Hauraki, K. M. Graham, Commissioner of Crown Lands, R. MacMorran, chief drainage engineer. M. J. Galvin, fields inspector, Lands Department, D. Campbell, State Forest Department, and A. W. Mulligan, private secretary.

The party was met at Maramanua by settlers and members of the Wai-takaruru-Pipiroa Ratepayers’ Association, who urged the opening up for settlement of the large blocks of hill land situated between Maramariia and Waitakaruru, which was provisionally reserved for State forest. At W aitakaruru the Minister and party inspected the Stream Canal, which the settlers desire extending and improving. Mr. R. MacMorran explained that tile Lands Drainage Department had a scheme costing £ 7,000-odd, but tile difficulty was to allocate this cost among the Crown settlers, the freeholders and the State. Until the amount of subsidy became known the freeholders would not know the amount ol their share, so could not take steps to secure their contribution. . Th ,° Minister said that he recogflL sed ■ tl ? M urgency of finalising the financial arrangements, and would lose no tune In going thoroughly into the question. After lunch, provided by the flateMr. C. W. Harris headed a deputation which advocated utilising a Government reserve in Waitakaruru as an agricultural experimental station. v The Minister undertook to discuss the matter with Dr. Reakes and Mr Graham, Commissioner of Crown Lands. The question of opening up as two dairy farms the 80 acres of Government reserve situated between the canal and the domain, was the subject 3* * r s q S est by Mr. C. Adams, president of the Ratepayers’ Association. He pointed out that the area was grazed by anyone and no one in particular, and was very suitable for dairying. Ho demand existed for the land as building sections. Other speakers spoke of the growth of weeds on the reserve and the unsatisfactory position as regards boundary drains. The Commissioner of Crown Lands explained that the area had been reserved when the rest of the district was thrown open for selection, as a place where those settlers who had deep peat farms could graze their stock in bad times. That necessity had passed, but the area might again be required for the same purpose when further areas of peat land were settled.

In regard to another reserve between tli© two canals, the Minister promised to have it opened for selection as soon as possible on whatever terms the Land Board recommended. The officers of his department would look into the question of opening an area of peat land near the Maukoro Canal, which a deputation asserted was now fit for farming, Consideration of a subsidy for metalling the Pouanua Road was also promised.

At Pipiroa, Dr. Reakes spent some time investigating the effects of a. seasonable plague of crickets, and promised to advise the settlers of a means of combating the plague. At the county office, !Ngatea, Mr. 25. L. Walton performed his last official duty as county chairman by introducing deputations. The Hauraki Pugins West Drainage Board asked that its maintenance subsidy be made available up to June 30 in each year, instead of lapsing at March 31, at. the end of the financial year, as at present.

The Minister said, that no objection could be raised to this, and the subsidies promised by the previous Government would be honoured. A deputation of Awaiti settlers waited on the Minister and asked that he represent to the Internal Affairs Department the desirability of having the 130 electors in Awaiti transferred from the Waikato electorate to the Thames electorate. They were separated from Waikato by miles of bottomless peat, and had no community of interest. Th© alteration in boundary was made as the result of an appeal against the decisions of the Boundaries Commission, and thus the Awaiti settlers had no opportunity of appealing. The Minister said that he knew of no machinery for altering electoral boundaries except at the usual time, but he would have the matter investigated and the injustice rectified, if possible. Kaiher© settlers who desired repairs to their wharf were promised an investigation of the position, and a similar answer was given a deputation from the Xgatea School Committee, which desired access through a Government reserve to part of the playground.