The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1886. VILLAGE SETTLEMENT AT WAIMATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1424, 4 December 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1886. VILLAGE SETTLEMENT AT WAIMATE.

While we are waiting to see whether the Government really mean to do anything towards providing facilities for village settlement in the immediate neighborhood of Ashburton, it is u t '• esting to note what is going on in this direction elsewhere. On Monday evening, we observe, Mr March, the Commissioner charged with this business in Canterbury, met, according to the local paper, about 150 men at Waimate who expressed their readiness, nay eagerness, to take up sections o f land under Village Settlement conditions, but unfortunately it appears that the block now open for that purpose is altogether «Mailable, besides being only of sufficient area (some 60 acres) to provide for about a tenth of the would-be settlers. The land in question adjoins the Racecourse and is frequently under water, being liable to flood whenever there is a fresh m the Waimate creek, and Mr March freely admitted its unsuitability but told the meeting that those -who took up the land would have to take the risk with it. Remarking upon the matter, the Timaru Herald saj s: “Mr March admitted that spots of higher ground might be picked out as sites for building on, but he added that the settlers’ improve ments would be liable to be swept away at any time by a fresh. Such was the bright picture painted by the Government agent, and he then proceeded to say that he would take applications for the sections. In answer io a question as to whether the Government would cut a drain to prevent flooding, he said that he did not think so. Here then is a short view of the situation ; The Government, but especially the Minister for Lands, is anxious to promote special settlement. The idea has been thrust into notice on all possible occasions. It has been talked of ad nauseam both in and out of Parliament. The laborers and small men must be located on convenient

pitches of excellent land contiguous to markets and to large farms on which occasional employment can be had. We are told that by these means the colony will secure a thriving peasantry, who, in the next generation if not in this, will develop into yeomen. The experiment is to be tried at Waimate, and so land is picked out for the purpose, and the Government agent comes on to the spot and says—‘Such are the beneficent aims of the State, and I am therefore directed to offer you these sections. It is true that the land is very bad, and that you run a great risk of being flooded out, and that the Government will take no steps to prevent that misfortune. But that is your lookout. You go to work with your eyes open, and therefore know what to expect. You can either take the land or leave it, but I tell you again that the Government wants special settlement, and this is one of the efforts in that direction.* That is exactly how the matter stands; and now, we ask what a hall be said of the authorities who are guilty of such consumate folly and such palpable contradictions ?” We know for a fact that the unsuitobleness of the land

for settlement was pointed out before Mr March visited Waimate, and it woull, we think, have been wise bad it been withdrawn from olTer under Village Settlement conditions, and offered for lease fur grazing purposes without the condition of residence attached, but at the same time we think our Timaru contemporary is unnecessarily severe upon the aulhoriiies. For the fact is that there is absolutely no other Crown land near Waimate available, and in ff-ring this sixty-acre block in five-acre sections the department throws open the only bit of land remaining in its possession. It was a case of Hobson’s choice —that or none. The case, however, brings into prominence two facts, viz—first that there is a great demand for land for Village Settlement at Waimate, and second, that Settlement cannot proceed because the Crown has no suitable land, it might be said no land at all to offer. The obvious sequitur, therefore, is that steps should be taken by the Crown to acquire the necessary land, and this we know could be done on exceedingly easy terms. It is to be hoped that on his approaching visit to this provincial district Mr Ballance will endeavor in some way to put matters in train with a view to providing for Village Settlement at Waimate, Ashburton, and other suitable centres.