Wellington-Manawatu Railway.

Manawatu Herald, 12 October 1895, Page 2

Wellington-Manawatu Railway.

*■ — • : * Me J. G. Wilson asked the Minister of Public Works on Wednesday if he will exercise his powers under clause 13 of the Contract (D 7. 1882), entered into between Her Majesty the Queen and the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company, and give the company notice to reduce their freight rate on sheep to that at present in force upon the Wellington and Masterton railway. The Premier replied that he did not think it would be wise to force the' company as they might retaliate and withdraw concessions with were at present granted, but he would con*, fer with the company and see if he could get a concession. He bad expected that the company would have seen their way to adopt the present sheep rate, but they had not done so.

preamble was as follows : — Referring to Plan No. 85, recently issued by the Commissioner of the Wellington Land District, offering for sale sixtythree sections, containing 12,127 acres of land, in the Settlements of " Somerville," " Hunterville," Nos. I, 2, and 8, and " Palmerston North Knights of Labour/ will he inform the House,— (i.) Whether there Was any special reason for so general ati abandonment and forfeiture of sections in these blocks ? - The reply was " No, not general." (2) Whether he is aware that there is a large number (said to be Sixty) of those remaining as selectors ikho p&ye no intention of becoming iona 0e settlers ? \ This Minister was not so aware, in tact he mentioned that out of 168 leased issued 92 had been returned iigntd. (8) Whether he now recognises that these special settlements largely consist of speculators, willing to risk the small initiatory expense on the chance of drawing a first-class section and than selling out, but who, if unsuccessful, abandon the land after blocking settlement for some years,. as in the cases in point ? It was possible there were a few speculators, and it was known some were trying to ♦' string out" the proceedings. (4) Whether it is not now apparent to him that it is useless and wasteful to incur so great an expense in surveying such country into blocks of about 200 acre?, with all the . enormous cost for roads and bridges necessitated thereby ; and does he now recognise that close settlement of such rough country cannot be beneficially effected, and that flc'tllers are not able to make a living on so small blocks of such land? The Minister appears to have scored again as he pointed out that people making applications have to pay Is 8d per acre for survey fees. There was also no waste incurred In cutting up the land as out of the 156 forfeited sections 78 had already been taken up. j (5) Will he amend his land regulations to prevent the iuture blocking of genuine settlement by the present general " dummying " of land, as shown in the above cases, and by the very unsatisfactory disclosures at the recent investigations held both in Palmerston North and atMarton? The Minister did not believe there was any general " dummying " and the Land Board had dealt satisfactorily with what cases bad cropped- up and he did not believe there would be much more. \ i