NGAROMA SETTLER FORFEITS HOLDING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 278, 14 February 1928, Page 9

NGAROMA SETTLER FORFEITS HOLDING

CROWN FORECLOSES FAILURE ON BUSH SICK LAND “I hereby give you notice that the Land Board of the Auckland Land District has declared all your right and title to, and interest in, the above holding, can- ! celled, and the land forfeit to the Crown for non-compliance with the provisions of the Land Act/* Graham, Commissioner of Crown Lands. rpHIS is the notice that was served | on Mr. R. E. Goddard a settler on the bush-sick land of Ngaroma Settlement, who has placed his case : before The Sun in a letter under date j February 10. “I am writing to you to seo if you would be kind enough, through the medium of your paper, to present my case as a soldier settler who has lost heavily at Ngaroma,” he says. “In the Press, the Minister of Lands, Mr. McLeod, seems sympathy itself for us settlers whom the Lands Department settled on bush-sick country. Apparently Mr. McLeod has one policy for the Press and another that he actually dishes out to the settlers. However, these are the facts. lam prepared to go into the witness-box at the Siipreme Court and swear to them on oath, and meet Mr. McLeod and all his officials on level terms there. '“All I want is justice, which I think I am entitled to under the law of the country I fought and suffered for. The Lands Department purchased this section for me in 1919. It was left by my brother, who was killed at the war. He drew it in a ballot in 1912. He did most of the improvements on the place, but as he left with the eighth reinforcements he had not time to try the country out He did not know about the sickness before he left, nor did I. FROM COWS TO SHEEP “The section was only 195 acres, and partly flat and partly hilly, with some swamp land, wbrich I partly drained. I decided to go in for dairying. The first year I milked 20 cows, and they averaged about 100!b butterfat a cow. The second year the returns were 301 b butter-fat. As I was getting into debt through trying to milk, and my cows were all going off through the sickness, I had to sell the lot. The next year I tried breeding ewes. I bought 150 breeding ewes, and put the rams with them. I had 70 per cent, lambs, 105 in number. I ploughed land, and put in rape for lambs The lambs did fairly well for a while, but then began to go off. “In January there were 70 of the lambs dead, also 30 ewes. The remainder of the lambs I had to get carted out, as they were too far gone to walk. The next year I bought 90 ewes at Taihape. I had over 100 per cent, lambs. As these began to die in November, I had to sell the ewes and lambs together at 34s for the two, the market value then being £2 5s for a ewe and lamb. “I again stocked with ewes. I made a turnover out of these, as I sold them in August. The Lands Department took all the money, and then sent me in a bill for interest, as I was working under a bill of sale to the Lands Department, which In my opinion is the worst thing invented since Captain Cook first landed on the shores of New Zealand. OUT TO WORK “I had to get some ready money to live on, so I had to go out to work to get it, as the Lands Department always had, and still has, the impression that all settlers want to live on is plenty of fresh air and promises. As I was away working, the Lands Department informed me that T was neglecting my place, and foreclosed "on me, quite contrary to the statement of the Minister of Lands that his department was making every effort to help che settlers. “I have fared the same as my neighbour, also a wounded returned soldier. He forfeited his section in the belief that the Lands Department was fixing him up on another section. He sold absolutely everything he had to try and square up the losses in his stock through bush-sickness. When he had done this, the Commissioner of Crown Lands sent him a form requiring him to swear before a J.P. whether he was ever likely to be left any money under a will at any Lime in the future, so that he could square off the deficiency to the Lands Department, quite ignoring the fact that he. had lost all his private money along with 15 years of hard work. After he had signed this paper the department failed to fix him on another place. He is now an inmate of the Waikato Hospital at Hamilton, a broken man. All this is because those who first made the mistake of settling settlers on this sick country had not the backbone to face their mistakes. “I am now appealing to the public to judge my case on its merits, and get me a square deal. There is not one man in the Lands Department or the Agricultural Department who can come out and farm this land successfully. Why, then, should the Lands Department want the unfortunate settlers to rectify blunders on land which, it has been proved, it cannot farm itifelf?”