Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1899. The Motoa Estate.

Manawatu Herald, 12 December 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1899. The Motoa Estate.

• ♦ The elections are over and have resulted in the people's Ministry being returned by an enormous majority. The residents of Foxton can honestly claim to have had their share in this result, and their wishes in regard to the better settlement of the land around their town deserves the fullest recognition. Everyone will admit that it would very much tend to the advancement of the district if the Motoa Estate was divided up into small farms on the easy terms under the Land Regulations of the colony, as well as the adjoining block to it on the banks of the river. As we do not desire, however, to see any private estate disturbed we need not touch further on this advantage, but as the Motoa estate belongs to the Assets Board whose existence is justified simply as a disposing body of estates acquired from the Bank of New Zealand, we are but doing the colony a service, and our own district a benefit, by contiually urging its being disposed of. We but do the Government bare justice when we remind our readers that the Premier did obtain the opinion of the Land Purchase Commissioners upon this estate, and that their opinion was emphatic against | its purchase. This is quite understandable from the view the Commissioners had to take of the block as a whole, and it was not easy then to conceive how the lowest land on the estate could possibly be dealt with but at a loss. The rise in the flax industry has shown that this low land is of much value, and as the flax industry has been kept in existence for the past eleven years it should be accepted as being almost an established one. The industry is of such great value to the colony and labour that a small risk, such as conserving these lowlying lands for flax growth, deserves the fullest attention from the Government, and should, in our opinion be kept in the hands of the Government and the green flax sold on royalty as is now being done by the Board. The question as to the ownership of this estate is a momentous one to Foxton as at any day it may please the Board to sell it to some person who may have the same idea of " improving " it as the late manager had, and so all the flax may be destroyed and the land laid down in grass. We should thus have the material which gives employ- ! ment to labour destroyed to make room for cattle. The view the Government have been acting on is just contrary to this, as they have been acquiring private estates so that men may replace sheep, and yet on an estate the Premier is interested in as one of a Board the exact opposite may at any moment occur. We call upon all who are interested in the wellfare of the district to awake and move in someway that the position of affairs on this estate may be clearly and promptly laid before the Premier, when we have little doubt our representations will receive his most earnest attention. When the Foxton deputation last saw the Minister of Lands he appreciated our position and thought

the legal difficulties might be removed by a short Act of Parliament* and this is what we should urge, as well as that the estate will not be sold to any private peWon or company. Nothing is gained by talking to one another, the discussion must be public, must be taken up earnestly and energetically, and we must show that piibtie opinion is wholly in faVottf of the movement. There is no question upon which the Mayor-elect could so successfully commence his term of office, and upon which he would be so strongly seconded, and we tf list he wiU act upon our suggestion;, To feommenSe the movement M might convene a meeting of a certain number of the residents who could be formed into a committee to arrange a public meeting and the resolutions that should be proposed, and then the public meeting Could give further directions* Whatever is done should be done quickly as the danger lies in the estate being disposed of before we make our wants properly known.