Waimate Plains.

Patea Mail, 14 February 1882, Page 3

Waimate Plains.

(FROM OUR CORUESrONDENT.)

Manaia. Manaia has made great strides since I Inst wrote. Quite a number of shops, stores, and town and suburban dwellings have been erected, and others are either being started or are in a fair way to completion. Of these more anon.

The contractor has started Mr F. R. Jackson’s sale yards, which I understand when completed will bo also used by Messrs Nolan & Co. Tenders arc called for the erection of business promises for Messrs Barker & Hurley opposite the Bank of New Zealand.

Mr Mcßae’s sale of land was not very brisk, but a resident in Manaia secured a section in Opunaki for £2O, and ho has since been offered £SO for it. The site for the Drill Hall has been cleared and ploughed. Captain Gudgeon is still in command of the A.C’s here, but it is likely that a large number of the men will be taken further north shortly to work on the blocks of land to bo offered for sale. Road clearing and forming is to be carried on extensively, and it is generally supposed that native reserves will be defined by roads instead of pegs as is now the case.

Some time ago a meeting of householders was called for the purpose of considering whether or not the site selected for a school when the town was laid out was suitable. It was decided by a majority of those present that the site was too near a public-house, and the drainage from the said public bouse running in the direction of the section was very objectionable. Sections were applied for and offered on the inland aide of the town, and tenders were called for building after the land had been cleared. A second meeting was held last week, at which some forty householders were present, and the arrangements of previous meetings were upset, a majority ruling that the sections originally chosen were the best. Captain Gudgeon kindly told off a party of his men to clear the site, and it is to be hoped no further delay will occur to prevent the building being completed. A school is very much required, as at present some children have to ride all the way to Hawera over distances varying from 6 to 9 miles to attend school.

A number of town, suburban, and country sections have been disposed of latety b}' different agents. Town sections in good positions realize five and six times their original cost. Suburban lots bought at from £lO to £ls have been disposed of at from £2O to £4l within the last fortnight. Farms partly improved are selling at from £lO to £l2 per acre. A number of deferred payment sections have lately changed hands, those who first selected finding that capital is required even to work small holdings. The transfers of many sections have been refused owing to the selectors having failed to carry out the required conditions. Judging from past experience the second selector or person to whom the land is transferred invariably makes the best settler.

No less than six farms from 50 to 200 acres each have been sold during the past fortnight; prices ranging between £lO and £ll per acre. Messrs Nolan and Co., of Hawera, recently sold Mr J. L. Perry's farm near Hawera to Mr Phantom, of Auckland. Mr Perry has, I hear, secured Mr Isaac Bayly’s farm, about two miles from Manaia. The price has not transpired. The natives complain that owing to the second confiscation —as they do not know their boundaries—they are unable to fence their reserves, and 1 hear from Captain Wilson that they are likely to ask for protection against the ranger who has been, appointed to impound stray stock. The natives who have recently returned from Parihaka are the principal movers in the matter. Captain Wilson will report to Government.

Manaia will shortly be declared a Town District. The petition sent in last week to His Excellency, was signed by more than the required number of householders. The management of streets in the town will be better conducted than could be expected from the Koad Board, a body whose .constitution, as suggested in the petition, is less suitable to town improvement, because the members’ interests generally do not lie within the town. A great deal of useful work has been done in the district by the Waimate Koad Board, and tenders are now out for several large jobs under the Board, It is gratifying to see that steps are being taken while the summer lasts to make a start, as some

of the roads—the Manaia Road in paidculur —would he sure to cut up badly if not. attended to before wet weather eels

A racecourse lias been laid off at Oeo by Mr Good, junr., and the resident natives, and sports arc likely to be held there shortly.

Mr William Sutton, of the Otakuho Hotel, has been laid tip for some weeks past, suffering from injuries lo his hip received many years ago, and which have been more or less troublesome at intervals ever since. From last accounts, Mr Sutton was suffering very much. Harvesting operations are going on. The yield per acre of oats and wheat is not generally well spoken of, though some crops are turning out well. The turnip crop is not A 1 in most parts ; and the general opinion prevails that the land wants more knocking about before it will give a good harvest. Grass is very plentiful from one end of the Plains to the other, and there are not wanting indications of what stock carrying qualities they possess ; but it seems a great pity that the land is not half stocked. Why such should be the case I cannot conceive, unless it is that when purchasing land no provision for stocking was made by the purchasers or speculators. Indeed it is now too apparent that many investors on the'Waimate Plains put too much capital into land, and after fencing have not the means of buying cattle. Some of course bought with no other intention than to sell again at advanced prices without doing anything to the land ; and there can be no doubt, notwithstanding the cry that was raised when the first sale of land took place about the high prices given, that investors made no mistake. Indeed I don’t know of a single instance where a section could be purchased at anything like its original cost.