AGEICULTTTBAL SETTLEMENT.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 214, 9 February 1866, Page 3

AGEICULTTTBAL SETTLEMENT.

(From the Wdkatvp Mail.) The facilities for settling on the agricultural lands of the goldfields are becoming more appreciated as they become known. Several applications we understand are being made for the new leases. A review of the past year shows that the farming interest has despite want of roads been successful. It has also been able to contend against several other difficulties beside this one. The potato crop did not pay, and a large amount of it has been destroyed and thrown away, but it has been made use of in some instances for cleansing the ground. Then the cost of fencing and breaking up ground was heavy, yet those who grew oats have after all done well. But the chief difficulty consisted in the small size of the farms or cultivation allotments. At the commencement many farmers got into debt, but it is gratifying to state that, notwithstanding the obstacles mentioned, they now find themselves free from nearly all liabilities, "' their grounds fenced in and heavily cropped. It is not to be supposed that all these achievements were gained by the sale of crops grown on five or ten acre flats. Some did a little carting or packing, others kept cows, [poultry, pigs, <fee, but it is sufficient for our purposes to show that farming will pay even though on a small scale, when pursued persistently. "We have the practical proofs before us, and many a man has settled down permanently and abandoned the vicissitudes attached to a gold diggers career. Many are no longer dwellers in tents, but living in homsteads and creating a valuable yeomanry class. There is room in the district for many more, and as good, if not a better, market than most farmers have in places that do not posess the advantages of a permanent and valuable goldfied close at hand. With these prospects before them, men inclined to a rural life have now increased advantages offered to them by the Government. Land can be leased without trouble in blocks of fifty acres at the nominal rent of 2s. 6d. per acre. The soil is excellent and the climate a magnificent one for the growth of cereals. The survey fees are reduced to Is. an acre, they have been equal to ss. per acre hitherto. "With these arrangements we hope to see homesteads springing up on all the rich lands that surround the Wakatip goldfields, and beiore many years to be enabled to rejoice in the presence of a well-to-do-yeomanry population.