ORONGO SETTLEMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5142, 22 June 1927, Page 2

ORONGO SETTLEMENT.

STATE ASSISTS SETTLERS.

REDUCTIONS AND REMISSIONS.

Reductions in valuations, remissions in rent for a period of yekrs, the wiping out of overdue rents, and the remission in some cases of the interest on the current accounts, have been recommneded to the Minister of Lands by members of the Dominion Revaluation Board, Messrs Rogers and J. B. Thompson, as a means of dealing with the problem of the soldier settlers on the fescueinfested sections of Orongo.

The recommendations will undoubtedly be adopted by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, for when he visited Orongo a. few months ago he was fully impressed with the plight of the soldier settlers and promised a thorough and sympathetic investigation by the Dominion Revaluation Board, and also promised thqt he would give effect to whatever the board recommended. The- reductions in the purcha.se prices of the sections average £3 an acre and the valuations are now £5 an acre for the badly infected sections at the northern end and range up to £l7 for the better sections at the southern end. Remissions of rent for five, four, and three years have been recommended for the northern, middle, and southern sections, all rept at present outstanding has been wiped off, and in some cases the interest on the current accounts has been remitted for four years. In some cases where it was desirable and i-" 4sible the size of the sections has been increased by dividing the abandoned farms among the neighbournig set-

tlers. y Generally, the settlers are pleased with the action of the Government. They fully realise the difficulties of the problem from the State’s point of view, and accordingly consider its action generous, but considering the matter from their own viewpoint the remissions and reductions are of little value. Many of them have been unable to pay rent or interest in the past and have had to obtain extended credit from tradespeople ; thus they will not be any better off in the future except in prospects. Those on the southern end of the settlement, where the fescue is less dense and less difficult to control, are of opinion that they can now carry on with a reasonable chance of eventually making a living from their holdings, but those whose farms are more or less surrounded have not given up the hope of eventually finding available farms elsewhere. However, they have been seeking new land for so long without success that the quest seems futile, and they are endeavouring to make the most of their farms in the hope that they will eventually win out.