LAND SALES.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 853, 30 March 1903, Page 2

LAND SALES.

(To the Editor of the Times,

Sir,—lt may seem a mattor for congratulation that so much land as is now advertised should be available for settlement, but with respect to some of the blocks the matter has a very different appearance, and particularly so in respect to some of tho Motu sections. Some time ago a Government expert reported that these lands carried marketable timber to the amount of 48,000 feet to the acre. This timber should be w'orth as it stands at least 6s per 100 feet, equal to £l2 per acre, without including the value of the land itself.

The Government now propose to dispose of this land at the rate of about 25s an acre, timber and all. This may seem an act of great liberality on the part of the Government, unless it is remembered that this land is not the private property of Ministers, but is part of an estate in which every citizen of New Zealand owns a share. If the alienation of these blocks is persisted in the effect will be that the lands will pass into the bands of private persons (of whom the present writer intends if possible to be one) who are not so ignorant as tho Government appears to be of their value. Having obtained a hold of the land the mode of procedure will be to apply to the Land Board for exemption from the improvement conditions of the lease until the timber can be got out. The Board cannot well refuse permission, as other blocks are now held under exemption in this district on the plea that the land carries valuable timber which would be destroyed by carrying out tho conditions of the lease. Much of the timber on this side of the Motu river could be got to a market now profitably (Mr Hursthouse’s estimate of cost of transport is simply absurd) if there was a road to the Motu from Poututu instead of the enlarged pig track which is now the only means of transit. But the outlet for tho timber on the blocks now advertised is not Gisborne but Opotiki. The distance to that port is only about half as great, and the Ohira road will probably be through in a year or two, for this road lies in the electorate of a strenuous member of the Opposition who sees to it that moneys voted for public works in his district are expended to the last shilling, and are not the pitiful shams which appear year after year as road votes on this side of the range.

The sole good point about this proposed sacrifice of public property is that it will do away with the last vestige of an excuse for wasting any money on an extension of the railway beyond Te Karaka.—l am, drc. Mom,