SOUTHLAND WASTE LAND BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 3556, 16 July 1874, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOUTHLAND WASTE LAND BOARD.

(From the Southland Times.)

The monthly meeting of the Waste Land Board took place at noon on Thursday, 9th instant, when there were present the Chief Commissioner and Messrs Baker, Dundas, M‘Arthur, and Mitchell.

Mr Harvey, solicitor, applied on behalf of Mr G. M. Bell for the unsold land, 830 acres, more or less, in the township of Gore, Matauva district.

The Chief Commissioner pointed out that the application was inadmissible, inasmuch as the land in question had been reserved as a township in the year 1856, and that after the separation of Southland from Otago the site had been selected by himself and Dr Menzies.

Mr Harvey preferred to think that the township was in reality suppositional, and that it had never been declared a township according to the forms required by law. Mr Mitchell thought the application preposterous, and that it would be out of the question to grant it. Mr Baker suggested that the application should be refused on the ground that the locality had been declared a township, and also that to grant it would injuriously affect the sale of the adjoining lands. The application was eventually ordered to stand over till the next meeting of the Board.

Mr T. Brown’s application for a steam sawmill license in the Woody Knoll Bush, Winton, was again brought up for consideration. Mr Wade appeared for the applicant. The Chief Commissioner explained that when in Dunedin, not long ago, he, in the pi»fence of his Honor the Superintendent and the applicant, had agreed to withdraw from the Board while Mr Brown’s '‘application was being considered, inasmuch as Mr Brown had got it into his head that his (the Chief Commissioner’s) personal feelings were inimical to Mr Brown’s interests, in so far as they are connected with the present application. His Honor approved of the proposal then made by the Chief Commissioner, who now leave to withdraw, in accordance therewith. Mr Baker then asked if the chairman pro tern of the Board possessed a deliberative as well as a casting vote. Mr M‘Arthur did not think so, as in that clause of the Regulations dealing with the appointment and functions of a temporary chairman, mention was made of a casting vote, but there was no allusion whatever to a deliberative one. Had it been intended that the chairman should exercise both a deliberative and a casting vote, they would both have been specifically mentioned in the Regulations. Mr Mitchell then moved, and Mr M‘Arthur seconded that Mr Baker should take the chair.

Mr Baker declined, beause it seemed that the chairman did not possess a deliberative as well as a casting vote. Mr Dundas was then asked to preside. He replied that, as the application had not been explained on the present occasion, and as he had been absent from the previous meetings at which it had been brought up, he was with the question at issue.

Mr Baker stated that as Mr M‘Arthur and Mr Mitchell (unless they had lately changed their opinions) were both in favor of the application being granted, and as Mr Dundas, as chairman, would possess only a casting vote, it was mockery to vote the latter to chair. If Mr Dundas took the chair, he (Mr Baker) would protest against the proceeding as a mere farce, and withdraw from the meeting. Mr Dundas then declined to take the chair, which the Chief Commissioner then resumed \ and it was afterwards agreed to postpone the matter till eleven o’clock next day, and to obtain by telegraph in the meantime the opinion of the Provincial Solicitor as to whether a chairman of the Southland Waste Land Board did or did not possess both a deliberative and a casting vote.

The Inspector of Surveys (Mr Bakei') tabled a claim by Mr .Richardson, district surveyor, for LlO Is for a topographical survey of land on the Waimea stream. It was resolved that the item be sanctioned, and that the Provincial Government be recommended

to pay the same. Another claim by Mr Richardson for L 3 18s, for the survey of a reserve on the Waimea Plains in 1868, was refused.

At the adjourned meeting of the Waste Lands Board on Friday, the 10th inst., there were present Mr Dundas (in the chair), and Messrs McArthur, Baker, and Mitchell.

A telegram was read from Mr Stout, the Provincial Solicitor, who gave it as his opinion that a chairman of the Southland Waste Lands Boai'd possessed both a deliberative and & casting vote.

The consideration of Mr Thomas Brown’s application was then resumed. Mr Wade, who was present on behalf of the applicant, recapitulated the dealings of the Board with reference to the application, and concluded by quoting the Board’s minute of the 18th of May, granting the application on the condition that the applicant should cut no railway sleepers or timber for export —a condition which was a virtual refusal of the application, which was asked for the avowed purpose of cutting railway sleepers and timber for exportation. Mr Wade would respectfully request the chairman to read and reconsider the report of the Inspector of Forests, written in obedience to a resolution passed by the Board on the sth of August, 1873, instructing that officer to report as to the advisability of granting a license to cut sleepers in the Woody Knoll bush. The report in question was then read. It stated that the Woody Knoll bush consisted of full-grown trees, some of which were beginning to decay ; that it possessed no, or comparatively little, young timber; that it was the next thing to being inaccessible to settlers; and that unless it was utilised by sawmills for such purposes as the cutting of railway sleepers it would virtually become so much splendid timber wasted.

Mr Baker was distinctly of opinion that the bush was not inaccessible to settlers, and there was no other bush, within a distance of twenty-five miles, from which settlers could procure timber for fencing. The principal object of the. applicant was to cut all the totara and black pine in the bush for railway sleepers, aud to grant a license for such a purpose would be to ignore the interests of the settlers who had bought land in the neighborhood on the faith that the bush should be preserved for their benefit.

Mr Mitchell pointed out that railway works which connect the district in question with the vast forests of Long wood and Seaward Bush were either in actual or contemplated course of construction, and by these lines, and from those forests, the settlers could be cheaply and expeditiously supplied with timber, and consequently they could not suffer by the application being granted. Besides, the application would be the means of utilising a vast quantity of full-grown splendid timber, which, if not so used, would be utterly wasted, the bush being practically inaccessible to settlers.

The Chairman thought it would be a serious matter for settlers to be necessitated to have their timber brought forty or fifty miles by railway. Mr Baker said that the whole question was—whether or not the application, if granted, would be detrimental to the settlers ?

Mr Mitchell said it was very well to conserve the forests, as it were, for posterity, bat here was a large stretch of splendid, and, if anything, over mature timber, which if not utilised now would be dead and decayed by the time posterity required it. It could not be utilised by settlers with the limited means at their command ; it required a wealthy organisation, such as a steam sawmill, to utilise it. The only end which would be served by rejecting Mr Brown’s application would be the condemning of so much splendid timber to inutility and decay. He would therefore move, “ That Mr Brown’s application be granted, in terms of the Timber Regulations now in force, and in accordance with the suggestions contained thereauent in the Inspector of Forests report on the Woody Knoll Bush, Winton.” The motion was seconded by Mr M‘Arthur, Mr Baker moved as an amendment —That Mr Brown’s application be refused on the ground that this was the principal bush, for a distance of at least twenty-five miles, from which settlers could obtain totara or black pine for fencing purposes, and the opening of this bush to sawmfilers for the purpose of cutting sleepers, or for sending timber out of the district will, as the Woody Knoll Bush is of limited size, be a serious hardship to settled who have taken up their land on the faith that this bush would be preserved for their use.

The amendment was lost on the voices, its mover being the only member who voted for it.

Mr Mitchell’s motion was then put and lost, Messrs Mitchell and M‘Arthur voting for it, and Mr Baker and the chairman against it, the latter exercising a deliberative and a casting voice.

It was then proposed by the chairman, seconded by Mr Mitchell, and carried—Mr Bakei alone dissenting, but Messrs M‘Arthur and Mitchell merely acceping the motion as a compromise—That Mr Brown’s application be granted to the extent-of 340 acres, subject to the restriction that he cannot be permitted to send timber out of the district of Southland, as extended.

Mr Wade could not say that his principal would agree to the terms of

the application as granted; but he (Mr Wade) would respectfully I’eqnest the Board to state a case for his Honor the Judge of the Supreme Court, asking him to decide as to whether a chairman of the Southland Waste Land Board did or did not possess both a deliberative and a casting vote. This was agreed to, and the Board was adjourned.