Special Settlements.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1809, 19 March 1886, Page 3

Special Settlements.

To the Editor of the Standard.

Sin,—My opinion having been asked touch, mg the likelihood of these special settlements progressing, 1 need only ssy that no power will stop men taking up cheap land upon reasonable terms. I therefore wish snccess to the Qreytown Special Settlement. The one gnat objection to the Forty-Mile Bush is that there is no market for labour there, like there is in the Lower Valley. A mao can better afford to pay a good price for a section of land in the Lower Valley, than a low price for a section in the Forty-Mile Bnsb. These Special Settlement sections are not suitable tor married men with large families. I suppose by the time the sections in the Forty-Mile-Bnsb are cleared and the roads made to them, the land will eost L 6 to L 8 an acre. Any person taking up s 100 sere section of land in one of these Special Settlements must be prepared to find Ll7 10s yearly for the first four years, so as to clear and sow down the fifth of the land. It will cost that, if the timber is at all heavy- and within 6 years be must have spent another LIOO (LI an acre) in substantial improvements. This is Ll6 18s Id a year also—or say L 34 a year for neeesaary improvements Then there is the land to be paid for as well, call it L4O a year. That is what ■ non-resident shontd prepare himself to pay. nnless be sends one of his sons npon tbe land to do tbe work. All be would have to find then wonld be the sons food. clothing, and expenses, which would come I suppose to LI a week, (inelnding tools and grass seed). 1 shall refer any single young men desirous of joining a Special Settlement to Mr St Georg*. I have already referred one or two applicanta to Mr Gardener, tbe Secretary of the Carterton Special Settlement. I sincerely wish these settlements every success, and I trust there will be no jealousy between them. Tbm an plenty of men about the stations who wonld do much better, and be bettei men, by putting their names down as members of these associations, and makiug homes lor themselves, than by knocking their money down at the public houses. There need be no difficulty whatever in Mr St George filling up his list, bat married men with luulits had better keep clear of tbe bash. I am, Ac., Coleman Phillips. Dry River, March 16,1886.