REPORT

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 202, 10 January 1873, Page 4

REPORT

The Report of the Otago Waste..Lands Administration Inquiry Committee, laid before the H ouse of Representatives, -is especially interesting just now, and shows clearly that the action taken lately. with regard to large land sales, (at two days notice), by Mr. Donald Reid and others, has been taken with the direct knowledge they had of the opinion of the country, an d ' of the very careful report, of which this is the condensed summary :

The " Committee appointed to inquiie into the administration of the Ofcao-o Waste Lands Board of the said Province have the honor to report that .they have arrived at the following Resolutions : Ist., That the sale is not in contravention of the Land Laws in force within the Province. • . •

2nd. That the-Provincial Government, before proceeding to sell, obtained the sanction of the Provincial Council to the sale of 50,000 acres, in terms of : the following resolution:—"That, with a view to place the Government in a position to provide revenue to meet the expenditure of the votes" in the appropriation of the present Session, this Council- resolves to authorize the Government to dispose of 50,000 acres of land; in one or more blocks; provided that no block of. v an, area ' of less than 10,000 acres shall be sold under-this resolution, nor shall any block be sold known to be payably auriferous." " ; : " '3rd. That a fair price was obtained for the land. .-•••-■

4th'. That, the block in question' does not appear'tc be'of a auriferous character, and, so far, the. sale" was not in contravention of the resolution of' the Council.

ofch. That the evidence before the Committee as to the area of agricultural land within the block is very conflicting—, tlie report of the Geodesical and Inspecting Surveyor of the Province being, "that for - agricultural settlement the land is wholly unsuitable ;" while other witnesses variously estimate tlie aroa from 1060 up 10,000 acres oflandntfor agricultural pur-, poses.

6th. That as.to the policy of disposing of land in largo- blocks, the' Committee are clearly of opinion -that it is not to the interest of ■■ tlie Province 'or Colony that sales should be allowed to take place as iu the present instance; and that upon any sale of land, of whatever description, tiie opportmiity;.;should be given to' the whole public of- competing. 7th. That no land comprising within it any considerable extent suitable for agricilture or likely to prove auriferous should be sold in large blocks. Bth. That it was generally admitted by the several witnesses that lands unlit for agricultural purposes are the most likely to be-auriferous ; and the Committee' are of opinion that, in disposing of" large blocks of pastoral country, the Crown should reserve to itself the right to authorise mining on such .blocks, subject to reasonable- condition s for - compensation. Thomas Luther Shepheed,- " Chairman. Wellington, 22nd August, 1872. If an expensive and exhaustive inquiry, —of which, what ■we have given is the result arrived at only—is to be riddenrough shod over by the Provincial Council, either the Assembly or the Council, is superfluous—which ? may safely be left to the country.