RUNS IN THE TEYIOT DISTRICT.

Evening Star, Issue 4305, 13 December 1876, Page 2

RUNS IN THE TEYIOT DISTRICT.

At the Land Board meeting to-day, the following letter from Messrs Cargill and Anderson was real: We have the homji to rcqnest that we may be informed m what position we stand as lessees of runs No. 199 and 369 in respect of the cancellation of land for sa ■< .ement. Wc may ■ tate that during the last ten years various blocks have been taken up iu these runs by th- Government ai d opened to pub ic selection under the agricultural lease and deferred payment systems amounting in all to about 8,500 acres, with the addition of 2,500 acres on run 369, which the Government determined not to deal with beyond giving a limited quantity to one or two parties now residing on the block. We had «n arbitration with the Government in regard to the first three blocks cancelled, viz., that on run 199, opposite Roxburgh; theoneon Bald Hill Flat, and that surrounding Roxburgh on run 3G9, all of which we elected in terms of the Act to have cancelled section by section, as taken up. The award arrived at was a compensation at the rate of 5s per acre. There is an arbitration now pending on other two of the blocks above mentioned, one on each ion (cancelled under the 16th clause of the Go dllelds Act 1866), which was suspended by the death of one of the arbitrators. It was left in abeyance in hopes of a settlement of the whole question being arrived at between the Government and ourselves. Up to this time we have not received any money by way of compensation foi any of the land alienated, for a large portion of which the Government has been receiving rent, or for the portion sold has received the purchase money. We now find that surveyors are employed on a further portion of Run 369. This and the land before mentioned is all prime winter country, and makes afargrpater difference in the carrying capacity of these runs than the mere grazing capability of the portion taken. We have to complain of haring been kept for years in a state of uncertainty, not only in respect of the manner of dealing with us for the blocks already cancelled, but of the intention of the Government as to taking farther portions, by which we have been prevented from completing our arrangements for carrying out the business of the runs. We have, therefore, to request that you will be good enough to lay the whole matter before the Waste Land Board, with a view to our being placed in a position such as we consider to be due to us aa holders of a very valuable property, any unnecessary jeopardising of which would be as injurious to the public interests as unjust to ns.

Mr Strode mentioned that Mr Cargill had called upon him and expressed his surprise that surveyors should have been put upon land for which he had received no compensation, and he wanted to know in what position he stood. He told Mr Cargill if he had any complaint to make he should write to the Board—hence his letter. He (Mr Strode) had made inquiries into the matter, but the only information he could gather was that the Chief Surveyor had received instructions from the Provincial Government to proceed with the survey, which was being done. Mr Bastings thought it impossible the Board could take up the matter before it was in possession of the details, and moved that the Acting Chief Commissioner should look into the matter, and furnish a statement of it. Mr Strode ; I don’t think the Acting Chief Commissioner can do any more than he has done. Mr Bastings ; The land was set aside by. the Provincial Government, at the request of the inhabitants of the district; and in accordance with a promise made to them, is being dealt with with a view to being taken up under the agricultural lease system. It is being laid off in strips. Mr Strode considered that the matter was one purely between the runholder and the Executive (Government. The Board could not interfere ; their functions related simply to the administration of the waste lands : they had nothing to do with the payment or receipt of money. Mr Ashcroft (who represented Messrs Cargills and Anderson) inquired if the Board had no power to stop the surveyors, pending the settlement of these matters. Mr Strode replied in the negative. The surveyors appeared to have been put there lawfully. Mr Bastings was astonished to hear that no compensation whatever had been paid. As Mr Reid was Provincial Secretary when these matters took place, it was only fair that the consideration of them should be postponed. The matter was accordingly postponed for a week.