Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1884. SETTLEMENT OF FOREST LANDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 149, 22 May 1884, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1884. SETTLEMENT OF FOREST LANDS.

♦ On previous occasions we have made referrence to that very promising institution, the Woodville Settlers 1 Association, and the useful and important work it has been doing m that district. Its latest proceedings have been of a more ambitious, though, we venture to say, of a not less useful character than those which characterised the initiatory stages of its career. On Saturday night last, we are informed, a meeting was held under its auspices at whicli a scheme was drafted for presentation to Parliament, should Mr Smith, or some other member be found willing to take it up, embodying the views of the settlers as to the manner m which the sale and settlement of such new blocks of bush land as are coming into the market should be disposed of. The scheme is briefly as follows : — (1) That no bush land m future should be sold for cash, but all on

deferred payments with improvement conditions ; (2) That there should be a certain number of sections — say to comprise half the block — on which bona fide residence should be required, and that these should not m any case be sold by auction, but, if necessary, should be ballotted for ; that these sections should run from 100 to 150 acres m extent; that the other sections should be sold as at present by auction and without the condition of residence, but that many of them should be larger than is at present usual ; that m the case of purely pastoral land, they should run to as high as 640 acres m extent ; finally, that a higher rate of improvement should be exacted on the non-residential than on the residential sections. The scheme as above set forth cannot be otherwise than deserving of attention, sanctioned as it was, we understand, by the unanimous consent of a body of practical men who thoroughly knew what they were talking about. It was pointed out that had, for instance, the Ahuaoturan^a Block, which was put into the market about two years ago been treated as above described, it would by this time have carried a considerable population, and have been, all of it, under procession of conversion into pasturage. Instead of that it was sold m cash sections alternating with deferred payment ones, without the condition of residence, and the result is, that, though there are a few clearings scattered here and there through it, the opening up of it has added as yet m a hardly perceptible degree to the progress and prosperity of the district, and bids fair to add but little for many years to come. It would be a thousand pities if the Maharahara Block, and the beautiful and fertile valley of the Tiraumea, which are now being surveyed for sale should be treated m a similar manner and with similar infinitesimal results. If the project were adopted, one of the speakers remarked, each new block of bush land, as it came into the market, would afford opportunities for the profitable investment of their money to considerable numbers of young men with moderate capital, who are now to be met with on the look-out for pieces of land sufficient to make a comfortable living out of, but who are not to be tempted by a hundred acres or so of forest-clad hills among the Puketoi wilds ; as well as to those town residents who might not at present, at any rate, be prepared to migrate to the bush ; while, at the same time, it would afford to the sons of our bush settlers now attaining manhood, and to all who felt it no hardship to be asked to carve out homes for themselves m the forest, the chance of obtaining the land whereon to do so, freed from the competition of outsiders ; and would at the same time assure to the latter class abundance of employment from their capitalist neighbours. It would make the newly opened block, it was urged, not a fortuitous concourse of sections, but an organized settlement, and shortly a teeming hive of industry. Before the close of the meeting it was decided that the resolutions embodying the scheme should be transmitted to the Mayor of Palmerston, and the Chairman of the Oroua County Council, and that those gentlemen should be requested to ascertain, by submitting tnem to public meetings, called for the purpose, their acceptability or otherwise to the settlers m their respective districts. That, no doubt, has already been done, or will m due course be done ; and we trust that the request of the vVoodville settlers will be complied with. Whatever system of land sales should be adopted, one thing is quite certain, viz., that the present one should be abolished.