BAND WAITING FOR SETTLEMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1416, 26 June 1915, Page 2

BAND WAITING FOR SETTLEMENT.

If Foxton is to progress then it must be lifted above absolute dependence upon the flaxmilling industry. At present our business people go up and down in sympathy with the rise and fall of hemp. Something more is needed locally to ensure confidence and stability, and that something is closer settlement. Bocal residents realise this as the years go by, and although much stress is laid upon the acquisition of the wharf and linking up the railway these desirable objects are subservient In importance to the cutting up of large holdings hereabouts. The readiness of residents to sign

a petition praying the Government to acquire land for closer settlement, bears evidence that at last they are awakening to the fact that our future prosperity rests on this fundamental point. In this connection the Moutda Estate has been singled out as the most suitable to start on. In our last issue we quoted a statement made by the Mayor to a representative of Evening Post, to the effect that the cutting up of the Moutoa Estate had considerably assisted development. The Mayor stated further that of the gooo acres origiually held practically the whole suitable for dairying had been sold, and that 4000 acres of flax land remained. But a visit along the Moutoa road discloses a wide stretch of fertile country, minus a blade of flax, which could be cut up into a number of dairy (aims. Probably this is outside the Moutoa Estate. Across the river, on the southern side, there is another la:go area ol rich and fertile land suitable for closer settlement. All Ibis laud is easily accessible. The Mayor staled also that there are two large estates surrounding h'oxton, one the na-tive-owned Hlmatangi block, the cutting up of which would greatly assist our advancement,” While attention should be given to this laud by the Government, and we have no doubt the Mayor will assist to this end, it compares very unfavourably with the Moutoa country for closer settlement purposes.