SOUTHERN SETTLEMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1929, Page 3

SOUT HERN SETTLEMENT.

1 (To the Editor.) Dear Sir, Many will undoubtedly read with interest and congratulate the very line stand made by Messrs Gibbs and Clayton at the last meeting off the Land Board in connection with the transfer of the estate of the late John Mcßride to persons who already own large areas of land. The point raised by Mr Clayton,— that the recent proposal to spend £2d,000, to open up land for settlement, would be mininsised if this transfer was allowed to go through, was an important one. The expenditure of sums of public money would not make available any land as fertile as that now under discussion. Anyone acquainted with that district must realise and see the great danger of so much good land getting into the hands of a few. Nolap Bros., already, hold nearly 40 miles of the Arawata Valley which alone is capable of producing as much butter-fat as the Kok-atahi-Koiterangi district; the Maori and Waita Valley, the Haast beach 5 miles; and many large and small areas of freehold and leasehold lands running into many thousands off acres. Large holdings are only too apparent to those who know the district. If exact figures of were published the public would be astonished. And all the while we wonder why the South remains -so stagnant when each census shows a falling population. I am, etc. “ONLOOKER,” Makarora, December 3rd.