THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1905. PROPOSED KAWHIA RAILWAY.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 206, 28 April 1905, Page 2

THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1905. PROPOSED KAWHIA RAILWAY.

Several letters on the above subject have appeared in our columns lately, and in this issue the President of the Kawhia Chamber of Commerce convenes tlT be held in the Settler Office on Friday, May stb, at p.m., to consider wbat steps

should be taken to further the movement. That a railway is required goes without saying, and that it would pay from the very first is also an assured fact. With our natural resources and magnificent harbour it is criminal not to endeavour te obtain the construction of a railway without delay. About four times the cost of making a road to the main line would complete a railway, whilst the benefits derived by the colony if the railway was constructed would be incalculable—especpecially to that portion scornfully alluded to as the “ King Country.” The distance from the Main Trunk Line to Kawhia, where there ia water deep i for a vessel drawing 25ft. to cross the bar, is little more than 20 miles, and from reports of some Government officials wo learn that the line would not encounter any serious engineering difficulties. Kawhia is undoubtedly the key of the whole of the Waikato and the King Country, and we believe tb|t the time is ripe to impress this truth upon the people who would be benefitted most, to prove it conclusively to the Government, and to prepare such a strong case to present to the authorities that they can not refuse to proceed with the construction of this railway at once. . To thia end the meeting is convened, and we would urge upon all the necessity of attending, so as to give the project such a start that it cannot be stopped until a railway to Kawhia ia an accomplished fact.

BUSH RESERVES

The policy of the. Lands Department “ for ways that are dark and tricks that are vain ” is that of the Heathen Chinee. Some time ago there was a virtuous howl from the single taxers and land naLunalisers about the holding of lands for the unearned incre* ment which arises therefrom, and we agree to a small extent with the cry. The Lands Department has also been administrating the laws, not legally but io that direction, by endeavouring to force the Lease in Perpetuity on the majority of settlers south of Kawhia. white pretending to give them the option of the three tenures which the Land Act states shall be done, all of which endeavours put one in mind of a person groping in the dark for matches : He knows they are somewhere about but cannot put his Land on them. The theory of land settlement is about as similar to that as can b n , as far is this Department is poncarned. The main principles that the land is for the people, which is the State, that the unearned increment belongs to the people, which is also the State, and all the other theories akin 1 to land fo-ettlement have been swallowed

Whole and thus become jumbled i p A species of mon fed indigestion baa been the result, and the product is an hallucination that the Land Board? are the State, and therefore the people and the on ear nesli no rentent is io bn the property of the Land Board. In looking at plan No. 746 a striking ex ample of this policy is obvious. There the land is gridirened and reserved to such an extent that out of 12,046 acres abuut 3400 acres are reserved I More than a quarter of the whole, and tor what ? Nobody knows, but it appears mainly to handicap the unfortunate settier who adjoins the block as he will have $o do his own fencing. On one section there are between four and five miles of fencing to do and this section is surrounded entirely by either road?, scenic reserves or bush reserves ; doubtless there are pains and penalties attached to the settler burning bis own bush, which might set fire to some of the noxious weeds that the State (which means the people, which means the Land Board) are tryibg II conserve tor the future oatrooting of the neigh boa ring settler, who is not either the State, or of the State seemingly. The reason these reserves are made is ndt for the timber on them, because that product is by no means suitable for sawmilling purposes. They are simply reserved for a year or two till there is a little more land hunger, and then they will be put on the market at a figure probably treble the upset price of the surrounding land. The settlers of Kiritehere and Marakopa have petitioned that these sections, or some of them, be dealt with, but with/ the usual result— Taihoa 1