DISSAPPOINTED IMMIGRANTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7999, 20 March 1906, Page 5

DISSAPPOINTED IMMIGRANTS.

WHAT THE NEW-COMER WANTS. THE LAND AVAILABLE. The immigrant who arrives in New Zealand with the intention of taking up land, wants an improved section, if the experience of Mr Tregear, Secretary ofjthe Labour Department, goes for anything. Some of them, he said, would like a farm in Lambtoi Quay at a baok country price! He mentioned the case of an artisan who arrived with his wife and child in Wellington from England. "Ihafc man travelled from Bluff to Auokland iu search of land, and failed to find a place or work that would suit him. After spending the £SO he possessed iu this way he called at the Labour Office, and asked Mr Tregear to use his influence in the direction of getting him a position as steward on one of the Home-going boats in order that he might gat back to his native country. Mr Tregear offered to send him to' the North Island Main Trunli Line, but he oould not go there, he said, because'his wife was too ill. He looks upon a town without gas lamps as a village not yet elevated from the later stages of barbarism. "Whatcould you do with a man like that?" Mr Tregear asked. The Ruapehu .had arrived the previous day, and one of the offioers of the Department said about a dozen carpenters who arrived by her i bad been assisted to get employment. One man had called in to make enquiries about land, and he was referred to the Diatriot Office of the Lands Department. All people enquiring about land are dealt with in the same way. SEARCHING FOR LAND. And this led our reporter to the head office of the Lands Department in search of particulars about the available area of Crown lands open for selection, its quality and suitability for settlement, what demands immigrants had made, if any, and to what extent their needs had been supplied. Mr O'Neill, the Chief Clerk, was asked to consider our reporter a bona fide applioant for a Government section with a capital of £SO, and a sublime ignorance of the country and its land policy. He

produced the Infest circular issued by tbe Department showing a total area of 2,423,129 acres of Crown Land's open for selection ou tha (1) cash purchase system, (2 1 * occupation with right of purchase, (3) or lease in perpatuifcy. The circular informs intending applicants that they should apply to the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the district in which the land is situated. Of the total area mentioned 843,479 acres are in the Auoklaud district, 118,344 in Taranaki, 303,842 in Nelson, 135 in Marlborough, 878,303 in We9tlaud, 85,670 in Otago, 64,610 in Southland, and 45,0,19 in Wellington. By far the greater portion of the la'.or is unsurveyed rural laud under the Bush and Swamp Crown Laurie Settlement Act. 1903, the 1 exact area so de--scribed being 29,608 acres. There are 2,296 acres of surveyed rural land (in ten seations), 40 acre 3 of surveyed ruial land under the Bush and Swamp Crown Lands Aot (one section), 11,443 acres of small grazing runs (five runs), 36 acres of village land (fourteen sections), 89 aores of native township lands (135 sections), 1,470 aures of lease-in-perpetuity under the Laud for Settlements Aot (,20 sections), and 38 acres of reserves for lease (38 sections), also in the Wellington land district. SECTIONS AVAILABLE.

A reference to the Crown Lands Guide giv63 more detailed information as to the class of land available for selection in Wellington. Speak- - ing generally it is of the rough, hilly, timbered class of country. There is a 300 acre section at Kaitawa, Horowhenua, for instance, loaded with £267 worth of improvements, and another of 515 aores in the same district loaded with £3OO worth of improvements awaiting a 1 selector. Both are situated about five miles from the Waikanae Kailway Station, and the cash price is £375 and £643, respectively. There are sections of a similar character and area in the Pabiatua, Patea, Rangitikei. Maurioeville and Hutt Counties. One thing oan be said for the Department's offloers, and that is that they are rofreshiugly candid in their descriptions of these properties. One reads such as this:— "The section comprises steep hilly country; the soil is of a poor, clayey nature, resting on rotten rock formation"; "the roads are frequently bluoked for dray traffic by slips in the winter months," "ihe soil is of a poor, rocky nature," "the elevation ranges from 1500 feet to 2,000 feet above sea level;" "the country generally is very rough and broken, the ridges being etieep and narrow, with steep and precipitous gullies ia places," eto, etc. As a site for a home, these rural sections are no doubt as attractive as the descriptions quoted. OTHER LANDS. On March 26th the Tawaha Settlement—2,329 aores situated on the Ruamahuuga River, about eight miles from Peatherston, and recently acquired from Mr C. R. Bid-wjll_-will be disposed of by ballot on the lease-in-perpetuity system. The whole area has been sub divided into 16 dairy farms and seven ordinary farms varying in area from 50 to 275 aores. Under the Land for Settlements Act there are eleven suburban allotments, varying in area from five aores to 72 acres, in the Hutt County open for selection under lease-in-perpetuity. The rent ranges from £3 to £l3 half-yearly. Of ordinary farms are eight in tbe Hutt County, varying in area from 20 aores to 300 aores, the half-yearly rental under the lease-in-perpetuity tenure being from £ls to £7O, according to area. Having taken note of the fact that a dairy farm of 150 acres in the Linton Settlenent, Orua Couny, is open for lease, and leaving out of account township sections, and various small reserves, tbe foregoing list exhausts the available Crown lands open for sel&otion in this and district.

In Hawke's Bay the Grown lands scheduled in the guide consist mainly of sections of trifling area, and af ew big pastoral runs of a mountainous character. In Taranaki the land Offered is chiefly seoondclasa heavy bush country, and second class light bußh country, with reserves for lease, and a parcel of ten dairying sections varying in area from nine aores to 26 acres near New Plymouth.—Evening Post.