SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3082, 13 May 1881, Page 2

SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

|To the Editoe of the Daily Telegbaph.] Sir, —I am an inhabitant of the Seventy-mile-Bush, and where I live I am surrounded by a number of special settlement blocks. It is with reference to theae and their present management that I wish to write a few words. Now, sir, it is quite clear that these blocks, as at present managed, are a mistake. They are, as you may know, the only parts of the country where a poor man can hope to obtain a piece of freehold land. In these bocks the poor man has to fell, burn off. and fence, doing all singlehanded, and at the same time provide food and clothing for himself and family for the first four years by some other occupation. Under the present management of these blocks this is simply impossible. The average working man, if married, cannot do this. What is the consequence ? He gets behind in bis payments at the store for necessaries, and mortgages hie land, and finally the land, half cleared, comei into the hands of the storekeeper, and the man, after several years of hard unceasing toil, has to start afresh considerably improved in experience and weakened in strength. This ii not what it should be, and yet it is, unfortunately, too common. The Government, fully appreciating that a peasant proprietary is the backbone of a country, has thrown open these lands, cut them up into small blocks, and at such terms that a poor man may hope to obtain a section. So far so good. But now comes the evil. In its hurry to get the land cultivated, the Government has insisted on residence on the land for a certain time. • This is a mistake. In the first place, it does not necessarily ensure the improvement of the land ; and, secondly, it a man move his family with him he is put to great expense, and if he leave them in the town he is forced to keep up two establish- ! ments, and at the same time is prevented from earning money at his trade. Now the great desiderata, I take it, are that as much ground as possible should be pre- > pared by felling and burning off for grass, and that the land should remain in the hands of the small holders. The only thing whicb, at the present time, these bush lands are fit for is grazing. But, before a man can run cattle, it is necessary for him under the present system, to go to great expenee in fencing, etc. The bush will feed cattle well, in fact there is no more splendid pasture for cattle than the green bush, and this is a fact of which a great many people are entirely ignorant; but if he run cattle there, they are as likely as not to be for ever lost in the ranges. Now the plan I put forward is the following. It is not my own; I an simply the voice of several of the moet intelligent and experienced settlers. Let the settlers form themselves into associations with committees to draw up rules, &c, and let every settler bind himself to obey them. Let a wire fence with gates be round the block, each settler providing it in proportion to the amount of land taken up by him. Then let each settler turn out so many head of cattle, branded, also in proportion to the size of his section. The cattle will fatten well in the bush, which will make as good beef as the best grass will, and by these meaua returns will accrue from the beginning. Let the Government for their part insist, not on residence and fencing, but that a larger extent of land than at present shall be cleared and sown every year. These suggestions will apply, not only to special settlers, but also to all settlers in bush blocks who choose to form companies. Trusting that you will pardon my trespassing so much on your valuable space.—l am, <xc, Veeitas. May 12,1881.