PROCLAMATION OF NEW HUNDREDS.

Evening Star, Issue 4300, 7 December 1876, Page 4

PROCLAMATION OF NEW HUNDREDS.

At yesterday's meetiHg of the Waste Land Board, the following report on the proposed new Hundreds by the Chief Surveyor was read:—

The most available land for settlement is situate on Runs Nos, 111, 1758, and 123. On Ron 111 there is one "block of 22,000 acres on the east bank of Mataura River, Consisting of well-grassed, flats and terrace land 6f an altitude above sea level of from 300 ft. to 700 ft. There are places where the soil is thin and gravelly, but generally it is very,well adapted for cultivation. Taken as a whole, it is the most block of Crown lands in Otago for settlement. There is no forest oh the land, but brown coal abounds, and the Southern Trunk Railway at Gore and Waikaka is within a few miles by good natural roads. On run 175b there is a terrace flat of fully 7,000 acres lying between the two branches of the Waikaka river and immediately south of the Educational Endowment Reserve. This flat and its extension into the endowment has often been looked at with a view to settlement, and it would have been included in the Hundreds of previous years but for' the fact of a very considerable diggings existing there. The importance of these—the Waikaka diggings—is now considerably diminished, and in surveying the agricultural land on the 7,000 acre flat, care wjllbe taken to mark off ample reserves for any workings in existence. This land is also entirely a grassy plain and destitute of forest, but excellent brown coal is mined in the vicinity, and the access from all sides is easy. Altitude, from 450 to SOOffc above sea level.

On Run No. 123 there are about 11,000 acres on the east bank of the Clutha River and around Tuapeka Mouth, and running back on the spurs to the boundary of Tuapeka Hundred, of which it naturally forms a part. The soil is good, and more than half the area could be easily ploughed. The balance is either too steep —or else covered with manuka scrub—for easy cultivation. The Government have been asked several times to open this country, but it was postponed from time to time. There is plenty of firewood on the ground; the saw-mill at Tuapeka Mouth is Eandy ; a good dray-track' runs through the eountry between Tnapeka Mouth and Lawrence ; and there is no doubt but, if a portion of this country is opened on the deferred payment system, that it will very soon all be settled on. Altitude above sea level from 400 to 850 ft. The proposals are : OnEunNo. 11l 22,000 acres. „ No. 175b ... ... 7,000 „ „ No. 123 11,000 „ Total... ... 40,000 acres.