OPOTIKI LANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2298, 17 September 1908, Page 2

OPOTIKI LANDS.

THE COMMISSION’S REPORT. (Special to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. The report of the Commission on the Opotiloi lands summarises the position a® follows:—Leased, or under negotiations for lease, 85,312 acres; to be reserved for Maori occupation, 29,686; to be incorporated for lease, 6733; to be leased to the general /public, 8987; vested in the East Coast Trust Lands Commissioner, 12,949 ; not dealt with (a) where title ascertained (estimated) 12,638; (b) papatupu (approximate), 140,000; total, 296,307 acres. The area of lands for which there is title is 156,307 acres. The Maori population of Opotiki county at the last census was 1319. Exclusive, therefore, of papatupu land, the area per head owned by the Maoris is nearly 118 acres. Deducting tli e area under lease or negotiation for lease, and the area available for settlement, there is left for Maori occupation an average of 23 acres per head. When the papatupu lands are investigated the holdings will be greatly increased. “At this advanced stage of the history of New Zealand,” says -the Commissioner, * ’there should not be any such tilings as papatupu .land. If the energies of the Native Land Court and; the resources of the Native Department were directed, more to these virgin districts, and less to the more settled' portions of the North Island, settlement would extend more .rapidly and with greater benefits to the Dominion. The lands are not suitable for close settlement but they will make healthy sheep, country in runs of from 1500 to 5000 acres. ‘The interior is steep and broken, and very high along the coast-. There is some arable land. Most of the watershed ranges between the spurs rise abruptly from the co ist to considerable heights, giving the country an uninviting .and rugged appearance, hut the slopes are warm. The country is fairly dry. It is well timbered, and the soil will carry grass well. In fact this part of the Bay of Plenty has great possibilities a.s a pastoral dTstnct. It is easily .accessible by sea. The coast line is indented with splendid bays and- shipping ports, from almost any of which produce and stoe|c can he shipped during the greater part of the year.”