MOUTOA ESTATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1417, 29 June 1915, Page 3

MOUTOA ESTATE.

(To the Editor). Sir. —l have read with a good deal of interest the correspondence which has taken place in your paper lately about the proposed cutting-up of the Moutoa Estate. While 1 do not agree with Mr Fraser that all the land on the estate suitable for dairying has been disposed of—ior there is still a large area suitable for that purpose—still, sir, it should not be forgotten that the fortunate owners of this rich property could, had they so desired, have destroyed the flax and converted the land into grazing country. How would that have suited Foxton, which depends so much upon the mills on the river bank, which draw their supplies from the Moutoa Estate ? The owners had a right to do this, and it is reasonable to believe that they would have taken as much off the land in this connection as they would from flax. But Foxton would have been in a bad way. I am not a believer in land monopoly, or any other kind of monopoly, but there are two sides to every question.—Yours, etc., Fair Dkal. (To the Editor.) Sir. —ln connection with the Mayor’s statement made to a representative of the Wellington Post in reference to the Moutoa Estate, which you reprinted In last Thursday’s paper, I notice that Mr Fraser is reported as having said “three creameries are now supplied by the settlers on the Moutoa Estate, and many sheep and cattle are grazing there.” The latter part of this sentence is no doubt correct, but I should certainly like to know by what method of reasoning our Mayor arrives at the conclusion that “three creameries are now supplied by the settlers on the Moutoa Estate,” The only creameries in the district are those at Foxton and Marotiri, and there is a butter factory at Shannon, but surely Mr Fraser does not think the public so gullible as to believe his statement that these three factories would not be able to exist were it not for the suppliers from the Moutoa Estate. As far as the Foxton creamery is concerned, all the suppliers, with one exception, are outside the Moutoa Estate, and in the case of the one exception ten or twelve cows at the outside would represent the milk supply from Moutoa Estate grazed stock. At Marotiri the biggest portion of the milk supply comes from settlers on land that was never at any time portion ot the Moutoa Estate, and as far as the Shannon factory is concerned, two small suppliers are all that can be credited to this land. If thd Mayor’s other references in connection with the Moutoa Estate are not any more accurate than his statement about the supply to the creameries, I don’t think they will be of much value for the purpose for which they were no doubt made—to counteract in some measure tbe agitation tor the acquisition and cutting up of this properly. The above statements, I think, entitle me to sign myself Plain Facts,