A GRIEVANCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 8, 14 December 1906, Page 3

A GRIEVANCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l read with interest your leader on Native lands question and other articles of interest to King Country settlers and hope they will help to settle these vexed questions. There is another grievance I would like, through the medium of your columns, to give voice to, viz., Absentees and Non-improvers. A block of land, having an area of 4,300 odd acres, on the Mahoenui-Kawhia road, locally known as the Ratanui block, was ballotted for in August, 1905, and up to the present there has not been £SO worth of improvements done on the northern portion, comprising three-parts of the block. I believe the Crown Lands Ranger has recently inspected the block and it is to be hoped that he will rub it in, in his re•port to headquarters. Admitted that the access is bad, this is a poor excuse. Other settlers are going further back and improving their sections, and if these Ratanui selectors are not prepared to do the same let them surrender, and make room for other men. No doubt there were plenty of applicants at the ballot (as many as fifty for some sections) who were willing to get to work at once. .The family man, if he has children attending school, certainly has a better excuse, but there is no school in the neighbourhood. However, let all the settlers come in and schools will quickly follow ; besides, there is now every probability of _ the itinerant teacher settling this point. The law should be amended, giving the Land Board power to compel improvements to commence within six months, not twelve, and no one to have four years exemption from residence as at present. As I said before, there are plenty of would-be settlers willing to comply with such a law, but when at the ballot their luck seems to be out. To the bona fide man these speculators or land-grabbers are a sore point, as they do no more than the law compels, and when through the hard work and hardships of the genuine men the land has risen in value, they will sell out to good advantage, while in the meantime they retard a district's progress. Hoping I have not trespassed too far on your space. —I am, etc., KIWI.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As the absence of road communication is the greatest drawback to the progress of settlement in the Waitomo, Kawhia and Awakino Counties, and is driving the settlers to the point of throwing up their holdings, and forfeiting the fruits of years of labour and privation, I think that the public should be fully acquainted with the position generally, and more .particularly with the attempts and failures made of late by the local bodies to remedy this lamentable state of affairs. A territory of nearly 70 miles long by about 3° wide, consisting almost entirely of good, useful land (open for settlement during the last fourteen years) and through, or across, which there is not one completed or passable road, is a pitiable exhibition of mismanagement, and the antiquated notions of the central authority as to exploiting a very valuable outlying district. When these lands were surveyed and thrown open for settlement, roads were laid off and shown on the sale plans; there was a loading of up to 4s per acre added to the sale price of the land for the purpose of making the said roads, and one third of the value or rental of the lands disposed of was allocated for road making. Still, after paying rent or interest on the basis of this agreement for many years, the unfortunate settlers have not one road which is even safe to ride over in winter, not

to speak of taking a wheeled vehicle along, and in very many cases the settlers have, themselves, been obliged to cut tracks through the forest, before they could carry or pack in a bag of flour. Is it to be wondered that there exists intense dissatisfaction and a deep feeling of being unjustly treated? This country is a really good one and is settled upon by an exceptionally suitable class of pioneers, who are able and willing to do all that man can do to bring the wilderness into fruitful fields, and with a view of united action, they have lately elected -County Councils, and also formed special rating areas to tax themselves for the purpose of obtaining passable roads. Be it noted that they are already twice taxed for that which is not yet supplied, but in their great need for, and anxiety to obtain proper means of transport, many were willing to submit to further heavy rates if the central authority would assist them in the manner provided by law for loans and subsidies to local bodies. In the Waitomo County, the Council entered into correspondence with the Minister for Public Works and the Roads Department, and were encouraged tc believe that if the Council struck a heavy special rate the Government would do their part by granting a loan and subsidy. Considerable expense and trouble have been gone to, especially in the Mairoa district, on the faith of the official communications, and, after all, we are coolly informed that the Government will do nothing whatever to help us in the way proposed and provided for by law. Under these circumstances the local bodies feel justly indignant, and, together with the settlers generally, are enquiring why they should be cruelly treated, and unjustly taxed that townspeople should have palatial buildings erected for their accommodation and grand exhibitions promoted for the pleasure at the expense of the toiling country bread-winners, who really carry the whole colony upon their backs and get small thanks for it. —I am, etc., D. H. LUSK, Chairman W.C.C.