SOUTHLAND WASTE LANDS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 277, 26 June 1874, Page 3

SOUTHLAND WASTE LANDS.

The following gentlemen reported lately anent the waste lands of Southland.: Messrs. John E. Cuthberston, John H. Baker, and Walter H. Pearson, Classification Commissioners under S. W. L. A. A. Act, 1873. The ' Star' says their report consists of seven lines, and informs the Executive, the Council, and the public that what follows is a description of the boundaries of the Crown lands in the district formerly constituting the Province of Southland, "which have been classified by us (the gentlemen with the long tail) as ' agricultural' and ' pastoral' respectively, being the whole of the unsold Crown lands within the said district not included in the Hundreds." That is the preamble; the report proper is : —" The "area of land classified as ' agricultural' amounts to 201,211 acres, more or less; and of land classified as ' pastoral,' to 696,000 acres, more or less." This is the sum of the informatiou furnished by the report of the three C. Crs. under S. W. L. A. A. Act, 1873. The appendix to it is certainly more explicit, but, from the minuteness of the details, we judge they are copied from some accurate surveys of the district. It will be seen that not one word is said about coal, which is known to be procurable over a large area; not one word about gold, although a Goldfield on which a number of persons are living and making wages has been worked for years ; not one

word about the vast forests of Southland, the value of which is estimated by others enormously high. Beef, mutton, and corn are the sole ideal riches of the C. Crs. S. W. L. A. A. Act, 1873. There may be other valuable products or minerals available, but it would be too much to have asked the Commissioners to have trenched upon the geological character of the district, unless there are such striking features in it as tend to add to the value of this rich portion of Otago.