SETTLEMENT OF UREWERA LANDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1558, 1 June 1916, Page 4

SETTLEMENT OF UREWERA LANDS.

At the provincial conference of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, a remit to the effect that the Government he urged to open for settlement aI. once the land preserved to the Natives in the Urewera was unanimously adopted. Mr 0. Keegan said the land comprised an area, of (iO(),(H)() acres, and was first-class country. Twenty years ago prospectors penetrated the country, and were reported to have discovered gold-hearing country, but, owing to trouble with the Natives, the Government declared it a preserve, and those restrictions had not since been removed. The land could be broken at a cost of £4 per acre, which meant approximately an expenditure of £2,500,000, and it would produce about £1,000,000 per year revenue. The only portion of the country cultivated was about 4,000 acres, which had been in the possession of Rua and his followers, and it was producing excellent crops. He asked that it be surveyed and cut up. At present the Government was building a railway on the boundary, and the white settlers in the vicinity were erecting freezing works, which were to cost £IOO,OO0 —two factors which would greatly enhance the value of the area.