OPENING OF LAND FOR SETTLEMENT ON THE MANIOTOTO PLAIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 259, 20 February 1874, Page 3

OPENING OF LAND FOR SETTLEMENT ON THE MANIOTOTO PLAIN.

The following memorial has been in circulation-during the,week, and has been' already signed by nearly one hundred residents. The memorial will lie at Mr. Busch's .for additional .signatures till Monday the 23rd," when -it will be despatched to Dunedin for presentation :

To his Honor -the Superintendent,. of Otago, Dunedin. - " , The memorial of the undersigned re 7 sidents of the district of Mount Ida, Humbly sheweth: That the Mount Ida district has for the last ten years been dependent upon'"goldmining alone. That the necessaries of life have to be drayed from Dunedin at' a very high cost—ruinously enhancing the price of living throughout the Goldfield. That large quantities of land available | and suitable for settlement are situated in the district, more especially in the centre of [the Maniototo Plains, on the banks of the jTaieri River, and on the. line of „main road : between Naseby and the Kyeburn Hotel. That, to the knowledge o£,your memorial- , ists, a large number of settlers are prepared | to take up land if it is opened. That the power, under the Otago Waste Lands Act of 1872, is in the hands of your* Honor, your Honor's .Executive, and the' Honorable the Provincial Council.

That Mount Ida, steadily returning the largest escorts sent from any other .individual district|. has a right to demand respectfully your favorable consideration. Finally, that a large agricultural settlement on the Maniototo Plain would ihake the very necessary and desirable. step of opening up the interior by a .line of railway from Palmerston—which will be ere long an imperative necessity—a very remuneratiye undertaking. ' Your memorialists are satisfied, that having stated their claim to your Honor, your Honor being aware that that claim is a justone, that up to this date no single acre of land, either agricultural or pastoral, has ever been offered to the district of Maniototo (including the townships of Naseby, Kyeburn, Hamilton, Sowburn, and Upper Taieri, .besides numerous small settlements for goldmining purposes) will not anticipate or encounter any difficulty in recommending to your Executive and the Provincial- Council that blocks of land be opened on deferred payments, .and that.a Hundred be proclaimed in a central situation oh the Maniototo Plain.' ' " ' ■•■-■' '""' ■''■ « - ■- ' - -■

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.