FEILDING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5172, 19 October 1877, Page 7

FEILDING.

A considerable quantity of Crown land having been sold on deferred payment in the early part of the present year at Kiwitea, a few miles north-east from Feilding, it is interesting to notice the progress the new settlers are making in clearing their farms from the bush. The terms given to settlers on the de-.' ferred payment system on the block were, that 20 per cent, of the purchase-money be paid down, and that 10 per cent, of the bush be felled the first year, and a further instalment of 20 per cent, of the purchase money be paid up every year, after the terms of settlement have been complied with in having 10 per cent, of the land cleared, and a house built on the section, during the first two years. I learn that it is estimated that about 5000 acres of bush has been felled already in Kiwitea ; but this includes land that has been purchased out unconditionally by settlers. There is usually, considerable difficulty during the first year iu getting supplies forwarded to those engaged iu the work of clearing the land, as it takes the butchers and storekeepers one day going with provisions on paokhorses, and ; another day to return to the township.. Every day in the week paokhorses may bo seen leaving Feilding, by way of Manchester-street and

the Makino-road, which has been formed and metalled for the first seven miles from Feilding, and the creeks bridged. This work has been undertaken by the Corporation, and performed by the immigrants located on the Manchester Block. The rural land on this line of mad has been laid off in 40-acre sections, which have been let on seven years leases to immigrants and others at a rental of 2s. 6d. per acre, with a purchasing clause to enable them to secure the freehold at £3' per acre. The land is fertile, with a frontage of four chains for each section to a good macadamised road leading from Feilding to Halcombetown on the one .hand, and to Kiwitea on the other by Mackay’s line. .1 was speaking to an old Canterbury settler the other day, who compared tho chances afforded to settlers introduced to this district to what he had seen in the provincial district of Canterbury, where those employed on road-making had to pay seven shillings a week rent for their cottages, whereas for the same money the immigrant at Feilding acquired the freehold of a town house and section in three year*, and can also obtain higher wages, which enable him to acquire rural land on easy terms. Another old settler remarked how different he found things on his arrival in Wellington in 1842, when people were glad to get bush land at Makava without a road to it, for which they paid £3 per acre, and after clearing it proved to be of little value.

I find all along this Makiuo line of road that some progress is making in felling the bush, especially where the laud is occupied by settlers of some colonial experience, and I notice a small portable engine of six-horse power, and the machinery necessary fop working a small . saw-mill, which is in course of erection about three miles from Fielding on the Makino-road, It is expected that the proprietor will soon be in ■ a position to supply sawn timber to the settlers in the neighborhood. Messrs. Bartholomew and Hanson's saw-mills, on the Kim-bolton-road, are in full work, and send a constant supply of sawn timber by a tramway to the railway station, and also to the Feilding township. Mr. Bull’s saw-mill at the Oroua bridge is again in full operation. A little beyond Bull's saw-mill there is another, which belongs to Messrs. Richter, Mansted, and Co., who are engaged in getting out railway sleepers for their Government contract. In addition to all these operations in sawn timber it is expected that Feilding and Holcombe will be able to supply Marton, Wanganui, and other northern settlements with firewood, as soon as the railway is opened through, and then the .matai timber, that is now being burned off the land as an incumbrance, will be turned to profitable account. Mr. W. E. Chamberlain, who is erecting a first-class steam flour-mill near the railway station here, expects to have it in working order by the time the railway is Rangitikei, from which locality he expects to draw a large quantity of his wheat, grown by the farmers in that fertile agricultural district. As, this mill is situated at the outlet by the Kimbolton-road for the produce of the Kiwitea Settlement, and will be central for the whole of the Manchester Block, Mr. Chamberlain’s choice of a site for his mill is Judicious, and will prove a boon to the district.