Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, FEB. 29. 1896. The Motoa Estate.

Manawatu Herald, 29 February 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, FEB. 29. 1896. The Motoa Estate.

• I The deputation appointed by the ! Borough Council had an interview with the Honourable, the Minister for Lands re the Motoa Estate, as we reported in our last issue. By some people, who pretend to know something about the Motoa Estate,

a good deal of nonsense is talked, some denouncing il an absurdity to urge its subdivision into small farina. Ithose who talk in this manner do sd from not understanding the proposal of those who have urged this course being taken by the Government. Because a portion of the Motoa Es> tate floods it by no means follows that it all does so, and as a fact it all does not flood. Mr Hennessy, who moved the resolution in the Borough Council, did not do so without doe consideration t nor without fully understanding the position, and the deputation &ye to be congratulated on having, apparently, successfully explained their views to the Minister. The matter, to our mind, which the Mayor and Oouriciliors Walsh and Hennessy had to lay before the Government was a most simple one, and should have been, to the Governmen, a most satisfactory one, as it showed how a property belonging to the old Bank of New Zealand Estates Company could be advantageously disposed of at the figure the Company placed upon it. The estate oomprisea some eight thousand acres, and reserving some two thousand acres as a flax reserve it can be shown that good homestead sites of some fifty acres can be Bet apart on land free from floods and there could be one hundred acres of swamp land, liable to floods, added to the farm, but not adjacent to the homestead. A man who could get such a farm at an average of five shillings ad acre must be hard to please if he is not ready to take the risk and loss of a flood over his low land. Such are the facts, and, in despite of a few persons who have publicly spoken in disparagement of the efforts of the Mayor and Councillors, we are quite sure when the Govern men t call for applications the numbers will exceed by tenfold the farms for occupation. If the subdivision is carried out there would be forty farms of one hundred and fifty acres, each containing twothirds in area of some of the richest land in New Zealand.

It has been said, but only by those who have not given the matter Much thought " who is going to build their house in the swamp to be drowned out ?" Nobody will ; we have shown that a secure homestead of one third of the area of the holding is proposed to be set aside on land beyond flood mark. " Oh, but when a flood comes the poor man who has land in the swamp will be ruined, because he must sell his fctock at a ruinous price," has alao been urged as a reason why the Mayor and Counoillors are exceedingly foolish in urging the Government to take the step suggested. Again we say the person or persons saying this are exceedingly foolish, as we have examples to the contrary all round the swamp. In the first place there is the Messrs Robinson's holding at Wirokino, though held for years, and frequently flooded, they have shown no disposition to part with it. " They are big men " will then be urged ; very well, we will instance the property of His Worship the Mayor. The greater part of the hundred acres Mr Nye originally took up in the swamp has been frequently and badly flooded yet he still retains it. Then again we oall to mind the holdings of Messrs Purcell and MaoPherson, both about one hundred acres, and Mr MacPheraon has only ajmall portion of land above flood mark. Still they hold on to the land they have held olose on thirty years. Bound the river by Moutoa we have those old settlers who occupied the same sections in the year 1867, and still find them there, viz., Messrs Smith, Edwards, Garter, Howe, Saunders, and Turley. The two latter settlers have twice not had an inch of land not covered by water. One Moutoa settler sold out of bush land he had had cleared and grassed as he found it impossible to fatten stock upon it so quickly and well as he could upon the swamp land. For endeavouring to get such land placed at the disposal of those seeking land, the Mayor and Councillors Hennessy and Walsh deserve the best thanks of the settlers, and the idle talk of the foolish should be quickly repressed. The Minister has promised that the next Commissioner shall be accompanied by Mr Nye. This means that the Commissioner will be shown the whole block most thoroughly and he will also be shown the properties of the settlers we have mentioned so that he can guage the value of such small holdings. Our only other wish is that the Minister will promptly move in the matter.