The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADOVCATE FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920. ENTERPRISE AND PROGRESS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3397, 30 January 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADOVCATE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920. ENTERPRISE AND PROGRESS.

With which is incorppratuv “The Taihape Post and Waimarino Newsn.”

From the nature of initial indications of increasing settlement at this end of the Rangitikei County, Tar‘ hape townspeople have every reason to be satisfied with the prospect. Good metal roads are being made through! the Ruanui district, right on to COl- - and now another loan of £60,000 is going to be spent in putting good 3 metailed highways lfrom Taihape through Pungataua and Pukcokehml over the river ‘to Mangaohane. junctioning with the main road to Napier.‘ From thence the rnetalling is to ‘return along the Napier-Moawhango Road back to Taihape, giving the choice of two highways -to the East Coast, and‘ giving good roads to hundreds of miles of good farm lands. In addition toi this the Ngaruakehu block, of overl three thousand acres, has been cut up into convenient-sized farms, and is to be sold, in Taihape, on Tuesday, 17th February. A further.‘t'hi'rty -thousand acres of virgin land, in the Owhaoko block, is now being surveyed ‘by Messrs Wall and Boglc, for subdivision and settlement. What an example is being set the Government in connection with the huge block of -this Owhaoko land,| which the gener6'us nla;t‘ives handed. ‘over gratuitiously to the country on. L which to make homes for any returned soldier who cared to take it up. We i read of the State purchase of privart'ely"owned back country, for soldier settle-I lment, but here the State has some-‘ where about fifty thousands of acres, i which could be given 't‘o soldiers with‘ ionly reading charges to pay, the land“; icost the Government not one farthing. and yet, despite the fact that a} bridge over the Rangi-iikei was promised the Maori donors of {the land, prilvate, long-sufi"ering settlers are themselves raising a loan to erect that i very bridge that was promised to the ‘natives. Settlers hereabout _have taken, or have decided to take upon themselves a liabilit.y_of some two hundred thousand pounds To open up rich producing lands; to increase set-. tlement and bring about more production, and still more produc- , tion, as against private effiort, 2 as against" the enterprise -of a. splendid | farming community, we defy any per- ’ son ‘to show where the State has spent i one penny over these hundreds of miles I of reading that are an urgent necessity ‘to progress of settlement and produc}tion. If Mr Boyd, the owner of some lthirty thousand acres of the Owha_oko country, can purchase the land, and then pay surveyors for subdividing I and laying out roads, why are Members Of the Government hesitatin-g‘? Why do they not get ‘to work on their fifty thousand acres in the same block , which they took from the Maoris hereabout for nothing? If Mr Boyd can find surveyors anxious for such work, it is silly to argue that‘ the Government (fan find only a “shortage” in this connection. We wish Mr, Massey would cease using that word “shortage” as an excuse for Government and profiteering shortages of good I faith and honesty of purpose. The only shortage to prevent opening up of the Owaoko ‘block to soldier settlement, now that private settlers are _ taking upon themselves the necessary - bridge building, -is the shortage of , desire ‘amongst Members of Cabinet. ; There is, perhaps, very little of the - Owhaoko block that is suitable for - small holdings; if that is so, let it be I sufbdivided in'l'o large holdings, but in

any case it should not be said against the Government that thc__y cannot Smtle land that cost. them nothing while private settlers are buying the land and paying for it being subdivided, This district. lost an excellent settler in the late .\lr Ledwm'd, but it is meeting with the best. that could happexi from those he left on eaflth; they are subdividing the land. Is it not disquieting fudge to go on stating that land not yet properly loaded is not fit for settlement? We commend that area of the Owhaoko block, that was given ‘to the Government by the natives, to the notice of the Taihape Chamber of Commerce, to Mr R. W. Smith, MLP, and to. Mr W. S. Glenn, M.P. As good metal toads, with ample bridging of the Rangitikei River, should warrant their fullest use, we hope that the opportuni'ly for progress mentioned will be taken, and that all who can render assistance will strive strenuously ‘to get the Govern-men-t‘ to make some move towards opening and settling their freely-acquired land in the Owhaoko block.