THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FBIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 949, 11 August 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FBIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

In other matters than those we referred to yesterday, the manner in which the business of the Waste Lands Board is conducted is causing great public dissatisfaction. There is so much uncertainty attached to the proceedings of this body, as to cause not only great individual inconvenience and loss to persons desirous of obtaining land, but injury to the public interest generally. The Waste Lands Act necessarily places a good deal of discretionary power in the hands of the Board, and the public has a right to expect that this power shall be wisely exercised, and be regulated by some general principle. But an amount of vacillation has been displayed by the Board on several important matters which is anything but complimentary to it. Every possible facility should be afforded to bona fide settlers to purchase or otherwise acquire land. The Waste Lands Act was devised for this end, and its administrators should thoroughly understand the objects intended to be served, and endeavor to give the completest effect to the provisions and spirit of the Act. But whether from inadvertence, or from the want of practical ability of most of the members, the Board either directly of itself or through the instrumentality of its subordinates is continually throwing obstacles in the way of settlement. The mystery and doubt which envelopes the purchase of waste land is of itself a powerful deterrent to intending purchasers. Anyone wishing to take up land has the utmost difficulty in obtaining information. He has to take enormous trouble to ascertain what land is and what is not open for sale. He may be told that sections so and so in block so and so are open for sale. He fossicks through the Gazette and finds the proclamation to that effect, but if he institute an enquiry a3 to the situation or character of the land, he is met on the threshold with an absolute absence of authoritative information on these points. For anything he can find out to the contrary, unless he happen to have special local knowledge, " section 100 block 10" may be in the moon. No description is given in the Gazette notice, and most frequently no notice whatever of the intended sale of land is given through the only channel by which publicity can be secured. Land is put up for sale, withdrawn again, thrown open for lease, and put up again for sale without the public knowing anything about it. Some few industrious persons who make it their business may ascertain the facts of the case and benefit accordingly, but to the mass of the population the acts and proceedings of the Waste Lands Board are concealed and incomprehensible. Surely the first duty of the Board is to popularise the Land Act, and to administer it in the simplest and most open manner, so that any one wishing to purchase may accomplish his intention with the least possible trouble and delay. But this duty has not been fulfilled. Tn the Grey district this unsatisfactory state of things has been most especially felt. At the present moment very few persons who may wish to buy have any idea of the land that is open for sale. One day certain blocks are announced to be open under certain conditions. Persons make application in the prescribed form, they have every reason to expect the fulfilment of the transaction, and at the last moment they are perhaps told that the Board has determined to dispose of the land in another mode, or not dispose of it at all This has occurred over and over again in this district. We have an example of this uncertain tinkering manner of conducting business in the action of the Board at its last sitting. The County Gazette, of Tuesday (the very day the Board held its sitting), contains amongst other notices an announcement that, "by order of the Wast 9 Lands Board," and "in accordance with the provisions of section 43 of 1 The Westland Waste Lands Act, 1810,' " the land afterwards described is open for sale, viz. :— "Block LXII. (Suburban). Grey District. Situate south of and adjoining the town of Greymouth: Bounded on the northward by the Town Belt, Shakespeare street, and Railway and Road Reserve, and by Marlborough street ; on the westward by Karoro Lake and the beach ; on the southward by a line eighty (80) chains long, in continuation of the southern boundary of Reserve No. 50 (in red) ; and on the eastward by a line parallel to the eastern boundary of Reserve No. 50 (in red). Exclusive of necessary reserves, existing agricultural leases, and subject to gold workings." The Board meets on the same day, and on the representation, not of its proper officers but of a private individual, rescinds a portion of the decision previously arrived at, and excludes a certain part of the block from sale. Now, this is a most objectionable kind of proceeding. The Board miyhfc to have made the fullest enquiry as to whether the sale of the block would interfere with mining interests, and having decided upon a particular course of action followed it out. We know the Board has a right to amend its resolutions as the public interest may render de-

sirable ; but' it is surely never intended that the Board is to issue formal proclamations, and withdraw them the same day, on the mere representations of anyone who may choose to object. It is possible that the Board is justified in withdrawing this particular block ; but if it is, it- should not have had to depend upon accidental information. The sudden course taken in this instance can only mean that the original intention to sell was as hastily arrived at as the withdrawal. What we complain of, and what the public complain of, is the unreliableness of the Board's action, and the want of information generally which encumbers the whole subject ot land sales.