SETTLING THK LAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 6405, 5 January 1888, Page 2

SETTLING THK LAND.

Tiie presence of a large number of natives who have brought to town a considerable quantity of wool at once brings to mind tbe future that must be in store) for the Wanganut up-river diitriot, The primitive conditions under which the nntives carry on their farming are well known, and H, under conditions such as these they can succeed in creating wealth, increasing their flooke, and to a certain extent profitably using tbe ground they own, there surely must be aa opening for the greater intelligence and more Approved farming of the European. The settlement of the land that cab only be reached by the Wanganui River is a subject of the very greatest importance to this district, and therefore it ahonld never be lost sight of, Tbe natives do little more than skirt the banks of tbe river, and utilise the clearings olose to their settlements, but inwards there are known to be thousands of acres which only require the labour of a few years to make them profitable for occupation by the grazier, and agnoulturaliit. When in offioe the late Minister of Lands saw the field there was here for settlement and as fast m the land ia the vicinity could be acquired it waß cut np and offered to the publio with fair success; But the purcbaie of lands hu stopped, and we believe we are right in saying that one of the best blocks on the Wangsnui River, whioh is partly purchMed.though within an ace of being bonght right out, is still nnseoured, A Native Land Pnrohase Commissioner has been kept here for monthß doing nothing because the preaent Government have stopped purchasing land in this | district. It is no imaginary evil that the district labors under in the suspeniiou of settlement. If the interior is to be opened up it can only be done iv a systematic manner, and when a Ministry goes into office with loud pretensions of anxiety to settle people on the land aDd so induce the return of prosperity, it hardly carries out its promises by completely stopping all purchases, and neglectiug the most important work that can be carried out in a new colony. The reversal of the Liberal land policy was a grevions error on the part of the House lant session, but, whatever the system by which the land is to be nettled, we have a right to demand that the work should be gone on with, and that a district so well suited for settlement as this should not be deliberately shunted in the way it in being treated at present. v