BRIN KLAN DS ESTATE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19511, 9 June 1933, Page 10

BRIN KLAN DS ESTATE

REQUEST FOR COMMONAGE. SMALL FARM SCHEME. The following letter has been received from the Minister’of Lands by Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., in connection with a request that a portion of the Brinklands state, near Fairlie, should be set aside as a commonage, and an alternative proposal that part of the land should be subdivided under the small farm scheme: — “I beg to refer to the discussion which you and the Hon. J. Bitchener had with me on the 26th January iast in connection with a suggestion made by the Mackenzie County Council that 100 acres of Brinklands Settlement be set aside as a commonage for the benefit of the cottagers at Fairlie. Since you interviewed me the Council has apparently reconsidered the matter, and from a letter addressed by the engineer to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Christchurch, it would seem that the alternative suggestion put forward, viz., that the Department subdivide into 5 or 10 acre blocks that portion of the estate which abuts to Fairlie, does not now meet with its approval, and the request for a commonage is persisted in. This request, in my opinion, cannot be acceded to. as the Land for Settlements Act does not contemplate the setting aside of land for such purpose. In any case on the 12th January last the Council was advised through you that after careful consideration it had been decided that no good reason could be seen why portion of the settlement should be set aside for a commonage.” Mr Burnett has addressed a further letter to the Minister as follows: “I am in receipt of yours of the 26th May dealing with the subdivision of the Brinklands Estate, Fairlie. Although not now in the Temuka electorate, the Mackenzie County was for many years included in my electorate, and I am in close contact with local feeling and desires over the whole county. While the Mackenzie Council no doubt have good reasons for the setting aside of a commonat. near the township, I am strongly o.i the opinion that the local working man should be given an opportunity of acquiring land under the small farm scheme, from 10 to 50 acres. I may also say that I have inspected other blocks of some of the best land in South Canterbury, eminently suited for small holdings, watered by natural springs and unencumbered with unnecessary improvements. I would suggest that Mr Campbell and Mr Cockayne be sent down to South Canterbury with a view of investigating the possibilities of small holdings on the best land.”