Pohangina Notes

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 72, 6 December 1892, Page 2

Pohangina Notes

. ' ' •"• »•' •'■ ■ — . f FKOM OUB OWN COHBBSPOSIMBNT. | Twenty four members /(out of 33) of the Pohangina Farm Homestead Association met at Colyton on Saturday, December 3, to consider the Government sur-. Teyors' report of their block. \ Mr D. Hughey took the chair an4confirmed the minutes of the last meeting after baing passed. . I Correspondence was then read from the Commissioner of Lands relating to the meeting/and a plan produced from the Land Office showing the 19 sections schemed out, also a letter sayiiig that the Government Surveyor .'considered the I balance of the block (1800) ndfit for ' Farm Homestead settlement, and a suggestion from the Commissioner' that a committee be appointed to inspect the unsuryeyed portion 'before; the surveyors went into it, to see if it would be suitable for the" association. An extract from the report of Mr P. R. Earle was read. " The land is of fair quality from hilly to broken, comprising light loamy soil with loose stones scattered . over the .surface, papa rock, and soft sandstone with shell rock cropping out towards Coal Creek. The timber consists of rimu, tawhera, red birch, miro, and a few totaras north of Table Flat, and cedar may be found east* ward of sections 5 and 8. The undergrowth consists of horopitu, rangiora, mahoe, and mako iriako. The access to sections is by Table Flat and Umutoi road. •••'•■ This scheme exhausts the country available for settlement . between the Oroua and Coal Creek. The highest point reached is at the back of the section 20, Block IV., about 2600 feet above sea level. Even if the country were not too broken beyond the limit I have assigned to the settlement, my experience of the last winter here would compel me to strongly advise not approaching nearer to the main range of the Ruahine." This block is situate to the north of the Salisbury, and is itself bounded by the Oroua, which divides it from the Umutoi Farm Homestead Association, the eastern boundary is only about 114 chains from the formed road running past Apiti, as that it is the most easy of access of all the Pohangina Valley Associations. The 19 sections laid off are fronting Table Flat road, and judging by the appearance of the road line, must be nearly level in the front. The block is connected with the Salisbury by the Umutoi road which again runs into the Apiti-Norswood road, the main road throughout the country. A recreation reserve of 41 acres is laid off in about the centre, also a school reserve of 16 acres, and a Pohangina education reserye of 550 acres and another of about 300 acres t '. • Several present were 'acquainted with the country, and the proposal that the Commissioner be requested to survey the broken portion into 320 acre sections was oarried unanimously ; the proposal was made by Mr R. Lankshear, and seconded by Mr Currie, and ran thus— 11 As there are only 19 sections schemed out for the Pohangina Association, the Commissioner be requested to cut up the balancejinto 320 acre sections, and to take sumcient from the reserves to give a section to each and also to allow the sections drawn for in the name of the Crown-, in the Salisbury, to be ballotted for at the same time as the Pohangina drawing There will thus be 19. sections of 200 acres each already surveyed, 5 sections of 320 acres contained in the balance of misurveyed land, 2 sections of 200 acres to be taken from the reserves, and 5 sections in Salisbury drawn in name of the Crown. In all 81 sections, and also that the 820 acres sections be classed as second $*** land, so that those who hayeaewnd bold*

ing, and would come < within the limit of 820 acres if a 200 acre section was drawn can still be eligible for drawing 320 acres. 1 am informed by the. Secretary of the Wabßamu Harbor Board Association, (which haddrawfi for its sections on Saturday November 26th at Colyton), that there i« a deßciency of £17 odd in the money received for instalments; The •tuount cannot be paid to the Wanganui Harbour Board until the mistake is rectified, therefore if any member knows " : 6t any error by which it has occurred, he ' is requested to communicate with the • Secretary F. W. Whibley at Ashnrst.