LAND SETTLEMENT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10976, 16 June 1903, Page 4

LAND SETTLEMENT.

The Lands Department is inundated with inquiries from all parts- of the Federal- ' States seeking inforih'atioii about the New, Zealand land Taws, and every Australian mail brings dozens o£ letters from people who evidence a desire to make this colony their future liome. .WitTrin the. paot year or two sons of, Southern ecttlcrs have taken up areas extensively in the Wellington and Taranaki districts, the crying need for land in the Middle Island having forced them to this step. The Southerners" are now beginning to move towards Auckland, and it is predicted that it will not be a gr.eat while before the north of Aucklandundergoes a wonderful transformation, by reason of the unioji of these > Sdnthern settlers, whose' untiring ' energy and pershstcnt determination in ' the work of settlement contrast strongly with the indo'lehcc displayed by many of the Northerners. Having made a' start, the Southern ■ selectors keep 'the pace "going, with the rosuli *haX aJmoefc in ovefcy instance thoy >, ere- in a fairly flourishing state, with brighter prospects in the immediate future. -Sutoh, were the opinions rccpntly expressed .by an official of. the. Lands Department at Wellington. to an interviewer. "Visit-the-parlfl of the North Island where Southern i people havc^taken up selections," eaid the official,- "and you will find that to-day ihe face of the lands in their district bears an entirely different aspect to^wh'at it was a' few^years ago, and it is all owing to their restless determination to push on tho work of settlement' and biiild up comfortable homesteads' for themselves" and those who have to follow in their steps. The pace of settlement, has been unquestionably accelerated by hardy Southerners, anddoiibt- ' less " they • will infuee tho satae spirit of energy into their moie oasy-going Northern neighbors." The official tliinJcs that, the acquisition of- several large estates in Canterbury and Otago would, have the effect of .materially reducing the ■exodus of settlers from those parts to the North Island, as their grievance in respect to insufficient areas of land for' settlement '"being' available are now removed.