THE COLONIST. Published Daily—Mornings. Nelson, Monday, October 16, 1893. SEEKING SETTLEMENT.

Colonist, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7762, 16 October 1893, Page 3

THE COLONIST. Published Daily— Mornings. Nelson, Monday, October 16, 1893. SEEKING SETTLEMENT.

The efforts of the Government to induce settlement to the North of Canterbury on what is known as the Cheviot estate may be designated as experimental, but they cannot on that score be condemned, for they are assuredly in a right direction. A great deal has been said, both in .favor and against the purchase of this estate, but it has been clearly shown, save to those who will not be convinced, that Ministers took the only course that was open to them. They were Advised that the owners had valued the property below its actual value, and as the latter did not feel justified ! n increasing their valuation the Government was almost forced to purchase, with the object of protecting the revenue. But they did not deoide to purchase without having first been convinced that, from a colonial point of view, it was possible to settle the land in such a manner that its productiveness would be magnified, and its oapacity for findiog homes for men increased many fold. Mr D. McMillen, valuer to the Commissioner of Taxes, estimated the value of the whole area —83 604 acres— at £3 10s lOd an acre, his estimate being based on the stook carrying capacity of each block. Aooording to his values the whole eßtate is worth in round figures £296,000, and the price paid by the Government was about £260,000. Mr Merchant, the Chief Surveyor of Canterbury, reported that "the eatate is admirably suited for cutting up into town, suburban, village homestead, agricultural and pastoral holdings." He advised the expending of £20,000 to £30,000 on roads and draining, and with suoh an expenditure, from Mr McMillan's figures, the estate should biing in a net return of six per cent. Of the total area abouj 29,000 aorea is said to beploughable, a quarter of the whole— 2l,ooo aorea— being desoribed as good arable land, 11,000 aores as semj agricultural, and the rest as pastoral. As to the capabilities of the soil, the farming correspondent of the ' Oamaru Mail ' recently wrote as follows respecting the Cheviot Estate, " The roads are now in exoallent order, wh'ch is giving visitors a different feeling, as well aB making a different appearance to what it did two months ago, when the weather and the roads were as bad as they well could be. I will not, this time, give any further description of the land than I have already done, except that Ido not- care how high visitors' imagination may be placed as to the quality of the land they may be expecting to see when they come here, I can predict that they wiir find expectations far surpassed." In support of this, the writer referred to quotes from a South Canterbury farmer of twenty years' standing, who, after spending most of a week in riding over the estate, said, 'I have Been land on this eatate whioh will carry onebullook and half to the acre for nine months of the year, or seven and a half longwoolled sheep, and not a patoh at that, but .the most of the Waiau fJaji." The Waiau Hat, it is added, is four miles by one. The 1 Otago Daily Times, 9 in a Justly written artiole on the subject, says, " we are muob mistaken if there are not scores and scores of settlers and their sons who will be foun4 hungering and thirsting to get a bit of property on the Cheviot ; and have no doubt that if provision is made for all legitimate requirements of roade, which are oostly, Bnd drainage, whioh is eesential, the property will be rushed by applicants as soon as it is put on the market,'' Our g)n|emporary points out tbat "the Cheviot is a long way off from tboee comforts and conveniences of lifa whioh deem so dear to the mcdsrn settlers, though they ware cheerfully disregarded by the pioneers of the Colony >" and also that it is a long way oft from markets, and then proceeds to say " If, as we believe will happen, the right sort of men oome forward in numbers, with modest means at theirdjsposal, to take up the Cheviot lands, then there is a reasonable prospect of the Government porobase turning out BUOoeB3. ful, and if not direotly, at any rate indireotly, profitable to the State." The realisation of theae fair prospects is a matter of great im~ portanoe 4o the Colony, for sosopnaa^he gUeuot ia gtftgltf by afcorij ''tnpngqjl

settlers other areas must be thrown open for dose settlement, and the Liberal Government wil have accomplished a truly great purpose.