SPECIAL SETTLEMENT DEPUTATION.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1698, 12 June 1874, Page 2

SPECIAL SETTLEMENT DEPUTATION.

A deputation r consisting of Messrs J. Cadman, M.P.C., W. Bowc, Payne and McCloughen waited upon the' Superintendent in.' Auckland on Wednesday relative to the formation of a special settlement, in, the Upper Thames District. Mr-Bowe appears to have acted as spokesman to the deputation, and informed the Superintendent that-a number of families residing at the Thames and Coromandel were desirous of forming a special settle? xaent in the Thames Valley. A plan had been considered by, some fourteen heads of families -to form a mutual association for occupying the land, and they, were prepared to guarantee 'payment of a certain sum of money and to carry out improvements on the huid at once They 'wanted the land on a 'system of defsrred payments. They had capital, and if the lancl could be obtained, he (Mr Kowe) had no doubt that it would soon become one of the most prosperous settlements ml the Worth I-land. The people

with families in the colony were calculated to make as good settlers'as" those now being brought from Epgland. Mr Payne, one of the deputation, informed His Honor that the land was situated at 'the foot of the Aretha mountain, near to the. Thames Eivcr- His Honor expressed his sense of the desirability of encouraging such a system of settlement as that referred to, and it had been a feature of his former administration to give every facility to carrying them out. Mr. llqwe further stated that therbloelc of land required had been partially acquired by the Government ; there was no native difficulty in !i;he:v':w^y:p:'4be^blD'cfc.--c6ritained---'"abdut--10,000, acres, and the intending settlers were miners who had made a' little money and wished to remain in the country. They were prepared to occupy the land and stock it at once; to provide means of education for their children, erect schoolhouses and places of worship, and employ their own teachers and niinisters. His Honor the Superintendent requested the deputation to put their pi'oposals ih writing, and they would receive the careful consideration of the government. The Provincial Government had-nb Jand available in the neighborhood suggested, but it was hoped that land in the Thames district would.be, acquired for the settlement of an industrious people. * The Commissioners of. Crown Lands,h:d been preparing a series of regulations which would enablo the Government to deal with eases such as that under discussion. These, regulations it was intended to embody ma statute with the assistance of the Assembly which would enable him to dedl better with these cases. He appreciated the desire, of the Thames-miners to apply themselves to other than mining pursuits. The deputation, might; depend upon it that whatever proposal they submitted ih reference to the formation of a special' settlement within the Tipper Thames district would- receive his "most favorable consideration, also that of his Executive Council/ "" ;