HUNDREDS COMMISSION REPORT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 154, 19 January 1871, Page 7

HUNDREDS COMMISSION REPORT.

CHOOKSTOH" OR TAPANUI HUNDRED

The Commissioners fully concur with the evidence as to the desirability of this Hundred being proclaimed. It contains a very large proportion of available agricultural land, and bush for building and other purposes is plentiful within the Hundred and in the vicinity. But the Commissioners would suggest that the ITeriot Burn should be substituted for the boundary on the north-west as shown on the plan, the burn being a well-defined natural feature. This opinion of the Commissioners is lully borne out by the evidence, and their own personal inspection.

BEAUMONT HUNDRED.

The Commissioners beg to report that the evidence is very conflicting as to the capabilities of the land within the limits of this Hundred ; but in their opinion, based on actual observation, not more than one-sixth, or at most one-fifth, of the whole 10,900 acres, can be classed as available agricultural land, and therefore the proposed Hundred, as a whole, does not come within the requirements of the Act.

The Commissioners, however, fully concur with the evidence as to the necessity for throwing open more land for settlement in this district, although there is still about 3000 acres in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Hundred still open for selection ; and in order to comply with the requirements of the Act as to the proportion of available agricultural land, they are able to report that a small Hundred, containing about 2500 acres, including the township at Beaumont Ferry, may be proclaimed in that locality. Another stna'l Hundred within the proposed limits might be proclaimed at the eastern end, in the vicinity of Tuapeka; but as it would have to include lands embracing nearly all the available agricultural country in this locality, and already alienated under the Goldfields Act, it is the opinion of the Commissioners that it is not desirable to proclaim a Hundred under these circumstances.

Before the concluding this Keport, the Commissioners feel bound to direct attention to the suggestion generally expressed in the evidence, that while it is very desirable to throw open more land, even to double the extent of the.

proposed Hundred, in the district referred to, it would be irore in accordance with the wishes of the district if the land in question be placed under the provisions of the Goldfields Act, rather than under the Hundreds system. This, however, is a nnitUT ou which the Commissioners do not feel called upon to express any opinion.

The Commissioners' report on the Beaumont Hundred has a most absurd bearing in the face of the fact that the Reid Government has thrown open 17,360 acres, including not only the proposed Hundred, but 7000 or 8000 acres more.