WELLINGTON NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4576, 22 February 1893, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS.

fFEOM OUB OWN COBBEBPONDENT.I WELLINGTON, Feb. 21. THE CHEVIOT ESTATE. The Minister for Lands, who is making his way down to Cheviot to study that property attentively, takes every, opportunity, as you have been advised, of expressing emphatic opinion on the subjeot of that great purchase. I may mention that Mr M'Keszie's experience in dealing- with lands of many kinds qualifies him well for the work of stock and their management, and the lands required for their pasture. The Minister knew these things before he entered political life. This he has shown to many people, who have in latter days dealt with him. Amusing stories are told of the surprise (not always agreeable) Ehown by men who thought an M.H.E. could not be much of a hand at a stock bargain, at the practical knowledge and experienced shrewdness of the said M.H.R. He takes with him to Cheviot all this knowledge and shrewdness, and by the time he gets to Christ church he will know all that requires to be known about the land, its stock-carrying capacity, the extent for agriculture and the kind of agriculture suitable. Cheviot consists of some fine flats and valleys, as all who have seen the conntry tell me, and of downs fairly good in places, and in places poor; "a clay that's putty in the wet and bricks in hot weather." That was the pretty way of putting it. These downs are, in most places, ploughable. Then there are hills, not high and precipitous, but good, smooth, well-lying sheep country, that will never be anything ehe. The problem is, how to work this country so as to make it pay at the cost price, ao far from the railway line, and without a good harbour for taking advantage of the sea carriage. Many old farmerß I have spoken to declare that the thing cannot be done. They say that the land will require capital to make into farms, such of it as can be so made ; that the distance from a railway will not permit of profitable cultivation ; that the farmers of New Zealand are not making money fast enough to enable them to go into a thing of this kind ; that the tendency of the time is for farms to be bought up by the larger men; that the farms on G-lenmark sold some years ago are falling back into the vendor's handß. This you will recognise as the cautious view of steady-going old-fashioned men, whose caution is their strong point. The Minister, on the other > hand, who is fully alive to all these warning voices, represents the newer and more hopeful theory of agricultural life, which recognises asitsfirstrule the necessity of counteracting the absorbing tendencies of great holders. When he haß seen and studied the property he will be able to speak on the subject with more definite ideas. I should not be surprised to hear him advocate the extension of the railway line for the purpose of over* turning the strong argument of distance. I only surmise as much from having heard him admit and regret the distance from carriage facilities. THE PBEMIEB. At the banquet to the rifle champion last night, the Minister for Defence referred to the Premier's health iv the following words :— "I feel sure that whatever differences of opinion there may be among the people of the Colony, they will all be pleased to know that there is a bright prospect of the Premier being able to take his place at the head of this nation fur some time to come." The hopes of the Premier's family and of his colleagues are founded on the absence of pain, the departure of insomnia, and the increase of weight, all of which have been pronounced at Wanganui. Since his arrival in his own house he haß behaved with all the wild delight of a schoolboy getting home from school. I need not, of course, add chat the Colony will endorse everything that Mr Seddon has said.