WORLD'S LARGEST TOWNSHIPS

Chronicle (Levin), 8 November 1947, Page 3

WORLD'S LARGEST TOWNSHIPS

It may not be generally known that the two largest township areas in the world are those of the townships of Carnarvon and Sandon, in the Manawatu County. This interesting fact has the following explanation:— During the Maori wars and afterwards a great deal of script was issued to soldiers for serving in the army. The script could be used for payment for land, and a practice had grown up for speculators to buy this script very cheaply from those who did not want to secure land for themselves. As a consequence, the Government of the day found that large areas of the best land were being disposed . of without bringing in any revenue to the public purse. To prevent this, legislation was passed prohibiting the use of script in securing land within a township area. Knowing that a large block of splendid country lay in the Manawatu, which was. then unsurveyed, it was decided to mark out preliminary boundaries encircling all the good land and declare it to .constitute two townships; which were named after Lord Sandon and Lord Carnarvon, two members of the Colonial Land Company in England. The land embraced in these two townships extends from the mouth of the Rangitikei round all the rich country to Kopane, and as far as Kiwitea, back round Sandon to the sea, but the exact boundaries of the individual "township" are not known except that they junctien at Mt. stewart.