IMPORTANT NATIVE LAND PURCHASE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2609, 3 November 1915, Page 6

IMPORTANT NATIVE LAND PURCHASE

GOVERNMENT FORESTALS RAILWAY INCREMENT. Tlio Native Land Purchase Board lias finally completed the purchase of threo largo blocks between Napier and Gisborne, oil tho route of the proposed railway line. These blocks aro To luita, Awatotara, and Purotangihia, consisting of about 44,710 acres altogether. Tliis area will be gazetted Crown land this week, and will bo then iu the hands of the Crown Lands Board of tho district. These blocks are part of a group known as the WaikareMohaka lands, which havo beou the subject of much litigation and legislation, and have been_ inquired into by more than ono commission. The vexed question of the titles to tho blocks now purchased was finally settled by legislation passed in 19] 4. At meetings of tho assembled owners which were held, an agreement to soil was arrived at, and tho laud is now available for settlement. Tlio purchase of these lands is in furtherance of the policy of tlio Government to purchase Native land oil the line of proposed railways throughout tho Dominion.