THE TUAPEKA HUNDRED.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 238, 26 September 1873, Page 7

THE TUAPEKA HUNDRED.

Whatever may be the faults of the present Provincial Executive and we have no doubt they have their faultsstill they have many redeeming points. We desire at present to draw attention to erne very important qualification they have exhibited during their short term of office. We .refer to the system inaugurated by thprn of personally inspecting any lands required for settlement, and visiting the various districts, to ascertain for themselves the multifarious requirements of the Province they are expected to govern to the best of their ability. This system Mr. Macaudrew recognised in his election programme years ago ; but it was left for the present Executive to carry into practise. On their recent visit to Lawrence, Dr. Webster, Mr. Shand, and Mr. Bastings, accompanied by Mr. J. T. Thomson, made a personal inspection of the land on Bellamy and Smith's runs proposed to be opened, partly as a hundred, and partly on the deferred payment system, We believe they pronounced a considerable portion of the land surveyed by Mr. Council, under the Beid Government, as utterly unfit for agricultural settlement, and selected instsad some of the fine, undulating country on Mr. Smith's run, on the river side of the present agricultural lease holdings. The survey of this land, we are informed, will be let by contract; and as soon as the boundaries are fixed upon it will be declared open for occupation and sale. Had these gentlemen simply accepted the land previously surveyed, a large portion of the most broken part of Bellamy run would have been included in the hundred, and the-run would have been in a great measure rendered unworkable. If the same inspection had been made by the Beid Government before they attempted to throw open the 17,000 acres, we have. no doubt the great law suit which cost the Government so much money, and which is not yet settled, would have been avoided, and the land which is now to bs allocated as a hundred might by this time have been all under occupation. The Beid Government; depended upon departmental reports, whereas the present Government see for themselves and act upon their own judgment. The two systems, therefore, on being contrasted, show very favorably on the side of the present Government.—' Tuapeka Times.' '