SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1906, 11 February 1875, Page 2

SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

' (To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sic, —The sort of climax -which this special settlement business reached the other day, when the Superintendent was petitioned by applicants innumerable, has afforded satisfaction to some/if it caused disappointment to many. Many persons are tinder the impression that they are not required to cultivate the land when acquired for special settlement purposes, and this class very naturally think there is a good opportunity of enriching themselves without cost and labor. This impression it is needless to say is erroneous.. -Persons who get land in this way must remain on the land and improve, it.. Wero this not rendered. imperative, an opening would at once be established for the entrance of speculators, whoso object would be self-enrich-. ment, to the disadvantage of the bond fide settler. The latter works for the general improvement and benefit of the country, and expends his honest labor in the cultivation of his own ground, which will necessarily enhance the value 4oftbat of the speculator; the consequence ; therefore would be that the speculator; without any exertion of his own has his property improved in value, and having obtained it for nothing would demand for! it a higher price than the poor man is able to pay. Besides those who are ignorant of the law touching the Special Settlement "Regulations, there are those who hope to evade it, or obtain certain concessions which amount to the same thing. The land once obtained there are a number of bona vfide settlers anxiously awaiting the opportunity to settle on the Hiako land, and work it for ,their livelihood. These are the men who make ,a country, and this is the stuff upon which depends the future of New Zealand, and which may be great or otherwise according to the manner "id "which 'tlie Government of the country (with reference to its lands especially) is administered. It therefore remains for the Superintendent (who I really believe has the settlement of the waste lands of the Province at heart) to see that they are disposed according to the provisions of the Homestead Act, without any deviation therefrom. I see by an article in the Cross that it k fears pressure will be brought to bear upon the Superintendent to -allow the land to be retained by absentees ; it also bases its fears for the success of special settlement at the Piako, upon the propinquity of the land to Ohinemuri and the Thames, apprehending that the allurements of these goldfields would prove ' antagonistic to the steady settlement of the land. This is an error —natural enough probabably on the part of the Cross, who may not be aware of the fact that there are men on the Thames specially anxious to settle down upon this land, with sufficient capital to work it and "make houses for themselves and families—menwho have beqn waiting absolutely for years in the hope of seeing the upper country of the Thames opened for this very purpose, and for whom the attractions of goldfield speculation have no longer any charm. If the hard working men are treated fairly in this matter, and the manoeuvres of unscrupulous capitalists defeated, as they can be by honest dealing, the benefit io the country hereafter will be a, mighty witness to. the wisdom of such a course, taken when the time is ripe. Settles.