The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1877.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 136, 11 June 1877, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1877.

We published on Saturday a resolution passed at the last meeting of the Waste Lands Board, but through want of space were unable to afford that explanation of its purport and meaning without which it must hare been unintelligible to those who are not acquainted with the facts. The Eeserve " is a name that must be familiar to all who have watched the proceedings of the Provincial Council, or who have read' the numerous telegrams . that have been published in connection with it. This reserve the Buller County Council are desirous of laying their hands upon; but it has hitherto been withheld from sale at the particular request of the Hon. E. Eichardson, the late Minister for Public Works, until a complete mineral survey of it was made, which has not yet been done. The Chairman of the County Council, in a well and forcibly written letter to the Hon C. Bowen, dated April 17, urged upon the Government the desirability of throwing this large portion of the County open for sale, and in the course of his letter made use of the following remarks: " Theobstructive and deterrent policy of the Nelson Waste Lands Board, with whom the administration of the lands in this district is vested, in most persistently withholding these lands from occupation, has been justly ragarded as the principal cause of the. present unsatisfactory condition of thi3 district," &c. In reply, Mr Bowen stated that the matter had been laid before the Secretary for Crown Lands who ' fully concurs in the advisability of removing obstructions to such settlement as quickly as possible," and in another letter of a later date ha states that the Secretary ha 3 instructed the Chief Surveyor to select a suitable block and to get it surveyed as soon as possible so that it maybe opened for sale." Now all this was done without consulting the Waste Lauds Board in any way whatever, and the first intimation that they received of what was taking place was the appearance in the Westport Times of the letters from which the foregoing extracts are made. Naturally enough the members of the Boaid feel aggrieved by the treatment they have .received at the hands of the Government, st the request of & late member of which they consented to take up the position now assailed by the Buller County Council who, in attaching the Board, find an ally in the Executi ?e. Had the usual and proper course been adopted, the Government would have placed themselves in communication with the Board, and the whole matter might have been explained, and a remedy provided at once, instead of which Mr Bowen has elected to court popularity at the expense ot the Nelson Waste Lands Board. Either this, or -he was in ignorance of the request made by the late Minister for Public Works, which, however he might easily have ascertained by making application in the right quarter.