Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 9. 1889. NEW TOWNSHIPS.

Manawatu Herald, 9 April 1889, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 9. 1889. NEW TOWNSHIPS.

The Chairman of the Horowhenua County Council has given notice of a resolution he intendsmoving at tho next meeting of his Council, to the effect that previous to new townships being sold, the plans should be submitted to the County for their approval. The question, if it is discussed, should be one of much interest, but we have doubted there being ■> discussion as we do not suppose the objection to the proposal is likely to arise in tho Council, and that the matter will be fought elsewhere. There is nothing so likely to sharpen up a public body, whose duties lie in opening up large blocks of land, than the question of finding money to make the various roads laid off for frontages for valueless bits of land, called townships, for purposes of sale to the unwary. In this colony the system appears to be to endeavour to force townships wherever a level piece of land seems to the speculator a handy spot to subdivide, without much reference to its position as a depot, or even as a sig- i for & junction of roads. The laud is nicely represented on paper, a name is given to it, and an auction of it held. A few purchase allotments, the larger number remaining unsold for a considerable time. Now comes the tug of war, between the hapless purchaser of a qu irter of an acre, situated half a mile down a street, covered with the virgin forest, and the Road Board within which the township lies. The town allotment man correctly imagines that he ought to have access to his property, whilst the wardens are striving to put a road through, which will be of general use to all the ratepayers. Thus the battle commences, and for years rages, the townsmen getting at times the better of the settlers, and at other times the reverse. All this worry, with very often, alas, very bitter feeling, having been c.msed by tho foolishness of the general public in allowing the owner of the block ot land to put into his pocket the money that should have been spent in giving his pur hasers entrant to their land Every township laid off in quarter of an acrt; allotments, requires moi'e roading than forty times the quanti y of rural land, and the prices obtained for these allotments never realise this proportion. The ai'gument then is reduced to a question of proportion, and if great difficulty is experienced in making roads through rural lands, how is it possib e to make them at all through town lands, an equal rate being levied. The proportion we have given will naturally vary, according to circumstances, but for the sake of an estimate we have taken the block of land sold at Horo-

whenua late y. We found that the quarter acres allotments represented about sixty acres of land and the roads forming their boundaries equa led 276 chains. Thtetag allotuionts were valued at thirty^fciunds an acre. The rural lands, in mocks of one hundred acres, had a frojjl

tage of twenty chains, thus avfil aging ten chains of road each. Nfflffl if we are anywhere near correct 1 «p the proportion, if the rural land is worth £3 an acre, the town and should have been estimated at £120 an acre, or, as it is now, the inhabitants of Levin will be always battling with the Board for an expenditure of thirty times more rates than they will pay. With such a fact staring them in the face, it is not surprising that the local bodios interested should be striving to have this question placed on a more satisfactory footing, and we commend the action of the Chairman in bringing it up before his Council.