SMALL FARM SETTLEMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5291, 11 March 1878, Page 2

SMALL FARM SETTLEMENTS.

TO THE EDITOR OE THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. : Sib,—ln a recent-issh? of .your journal I observe the letter of Mr. H; W'. Farnall on the Katikati settlement.' Of this settlement I ' knew nothing except' the information contained in his letter ; but it is a pity he did not seek more correct information regarding the other settlements of which he writes,, before rushing into print on the subject. I shall only speak of the Mauriceville, and Eketahuna settlements, in the Seventy-Mile Bush. Mr. Farnall says : “The Katikati settlers all paid £5 per adult towards their passages to the colony, whereas the others were introduced free.” ' This is not correct. The Scandinavian settlers in the Seventy-Mile B«sl^are all liable 1 to pay half their passage-money,' Some of them have paid, and those'who have not stand chargeable witli it to the Government, along with the price of their land. There are 89 sections in Mauriceville, and 21 in Eketahuna, and on these there are more than 70 families. ' Most of them have; had' a ;Hard struggle during the last five years, and will have the same for,-years: (k> come ; but all are getting' some returns now,: and consider the worst to he past. The land.is igood, and there is a considerable number of cattle in the settlements, and horses too.' All have made considerable progress in the work of falling and clearing, and several sections have the greater part of them cleared. When I consider the heavy bush bn the land here, and that the settlers have Aad to work for Thread for theii families and improve their, land at the same time, I am not surprised that they have done; so; little, but rather that they have done so much, and deny the assertion of Mr, Farnall,. that these settlements have been “ practical failures,” or failures at all. As regards the £6165 ss. 6d., expended by,the Government on these settlemeats,-.it) is-probable that this is the money expended in surveying the blocks :and forming roads, through them. During-the last year about £2500 has been spent in forming five and three-quarter miles of road through the Mauriceville settlement; but this road is not for the exclusive benefit of Mauriceville. As soon as it is:-finished it will form a part of the main trunk line to th? North, as it is upwards of four miles shorter by this road than by the road ■ now in use, which runs to the eastward of the settlement.—l am, &c., ; L. Johnstone, ', Mauriceville, March 8. , , -