LAND SETTLEMENT IN TUAPEKA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4747, 25 April 1900, Page 2

LAND SETTLEMENT IN TUAPEKA.

Some months ago a public meeting was held in Lawrence for the purpose of taking the necessary steps towards calling the attention of the Government to the fact that there is no land to be had in the Tuapeka district for small settlement. Some correspondence, we believe, of a more or less formal nature, took place between the chairman of the meeting in question and the Minister of Lands. Beyond that we are not aware that anything of a practical kind has been done or attempted towards the attainment of this very urgent and desirable purpose. The matter was I also the subject of dissussion at a meeting of the Tuapeka Agricultural Society, but in this, as in the other instance, nothing effective has been done, nor at present seems likely to be done. The subject is one of too much importance, too vital to all the best interests of the district, to be allowed to slumber or pass out of sight. As we have pointed out on more than one previous occasion, there is absolutely in the Tuapeka district no land available for small settlement. It cannot be said, though, that there is no land in the district suitable for such settlement. There is land of the very highest quality held in private hands which, if controlled by Government and placed at the disposal of the public, would supply all the wants of settlement for many years to borne. It is the duty of the Government to do here what it has done so successfully in other parts of the colony. The necessity for such action is quite ss strong here as in any other district, but, of course, unless the matter is taken up and pressed on the attention of the Government by those whose interests are affected, nothing will be done. The prosperity created by the dredging industry has provided many youag men with the means of taking up land and settling permanently down in the district, but, as there is no land available, they cannot do so, and the result will be that they will have to go farther afield in order to make homes for thamselves. It must be obvious to everybody that there can be no expansion or prosperity in the district while such a state of things exists. The dredging and mining industries will not last for ever, and, as a decline sets in on them, which it must do in the natural order of things, the district is bound to suffer. Business men should be specially interested in this questlon,quite as much so as intending settlers, though up to the present they have displayed a strange want of interest in the matter. It should also be said that the agricultural societies throughout the district have not done their duty in the matter. Had they shown more activity the Government, we are fully convinced, would long before this have taken the necessary steps to meet the demands of small settlement. It is to be desired that the question will be again taken up and pressed vigorously forward, and if that is done we are confident the Government will soon see the necessity of meeting the wjsb.es of those who desire to make homes for themselves as producers on the land.