The Motoa Estate.

Manawatu Herald, 14 February 1903, Page 2

The Motoa Estate.

We had the pleasure of an interview with Mr John Stevens, one of the partners in the purchase of the Motoa Estate, yesterday, and learnt from him some of the intentions of the firm, First, Messrs Stevens, Austin and Easton have decided on the immediate subdivision of 6000 acres of the block into suitably sized dairy farms. Mr Laing Meaaon .has been directed to start the survey .at bis earliest convenience.

The 6000 acres may be roughly stated to be the whole of the estate lying to the north of a line run across the estate from Mr James Robinson’s residence. This block comprises all the high land and nearly all the richest grazing country, and includes the Manager’s house, woolshed and other buildings. , .It is wisely contemplated, so. to, subdivide the property that each farm shall comprise so many acres of land free from floods as a homestead, with a larger area in the lower portion. Thus a flood, when it does come, though a big one has only been known once in ten years, will only incommode but not entail .loss, upon the-,occupier. It is proposed to sell the land upon terms, so much down, so much in soniLuy months time, and the balance to remain, if so desired, for a term, at a low rats of interest. The owners have grasped the position and a careful subdivision will cause a rush for the farms.' Td Foxton the settlement of this block means much and all will wish the. plucky purchasers a good return on their speculation.

in the Grenadier Guards were allowed to hold unofficial court-mar-tials upon young officers on social and military charges, almost invariably inflicting floggings of a cruel and degrading type. The matter was brought to Lord Roberts’ notice by the relatives of several victims. Lord Roberts placed Colonel D. A. Kinloch, 0.8., commanding the First Battalion, on halfpay, and directed General Oliphanfc to protect, officers who revealed flogging scandals. It is asserted by Admiral Cochrane that bis nephew was virtually compelled to resign his commission to escape persecution by his superiors.

A Siberian Horror.

Much that has been written about the horrors of convict life in Siberia has proved to be exaggerated, Mr Harry de Windt, who knows more about the Siberian convict settlements than probably any other Englishman, has declared more than . once that, were he sentenced to a term of penal servitude, he would infinitely prefere to serve it in Siberia than in England. But there is more than one dark corner of the Czar’s great prison land where unhappy men and women, exiled for so-called offences against the Government of their country, are doomed to drag out an existence which is little better than a hell on j earth. And of these the darkest, the dreariest, the most hopeless is Sredni-Kolmysk, most remote of all the Arctic settlements of Siberia. In the December number of the Strand* Magazine Mr de Windt gives an account of his recent visit to this lifeless, forsaken corner of the earth, “ where God is high, and the Czar ■is far away.” It is a dismal picture that he paints of the life led by the handful of political exiles undergoing sentence there. A double row of log huts,, plastered with mud and lit by windows of ice, forms the main street. A score of other dwellings, even more squalid than, thereat, are scattered round within an area of half a mile, and these I complete the settlement. “At first I sight,” says Mr de Windt, “the! place looked like a settlement, deserted by trappers, or some village cleared of every living soul | by some deadly sickness—anything i but the abode of human beings.” j Amidst these desolate surroundings a dozen or so political exiles lead a lifje of dire physical distress and - maddening monotony. Their food at the time of Mr de Windt’s visit consisted of putrid fish, weak tea, and gritty black bread. Their huts were filthy and dilapidated — | miserable dens. The majority were so poorly clad that in winter time they were unable to leave the cheer- j less shelter of their wretched huts.: Add to these physical privations the I total inertia of the reasoning faculties, and the awful silence of the place, it is easy to believe the ; travellers tragic account of the ; prevalence of insanity among the ! exiles. With three exceptions, he ; says, there wa§ not a perfect sane | man or woman amongst all the exiles whom he saw at Sredni-Kolmysk. j “ A couple of years usually makes them shaky,” an official told him, “and the strongest-minded generally becomes childish when: they have been here five or six years.” Officials exiles and natives alike are liable to a dreadful form of hysteria, which if the patient js compelled to stay on in Sredni-Kolmysk, as the exiles are, generally developes into hopeless insanity. “ The attacks,” says M. de Windt, “is usually unexpected . A person hitherto perfectly oalm and collected will suddenly commence to shout, sing and dance without warning, and at the most inopportune moment, and from time . to time the mind of the patient becomes permanently deranged.” The writer quotes several pathetic cases of brilliant intellects, which under the deadly chill of exile at Sredni - Kolmysk, have become clouded and and he voices in the strongest terms the piteous appeal of these unfortunates for deliverance from an existence which is worse than death.