A GOVERNMENT "DEAL."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 206, 9 December 1910, Page 5

A GOVERNMENT "DEAL."

CLOSER SETTLEMENT IN VICTORIA.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Melbourne, December 8.

The commission appointed to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the purchase of land in the Cohuna district by the Closer Settlement Board examined Mr. El wood Mead, chairman of the Water Supply Commission. Mr. Mead said he recommended the Government to purchase land at Cohuna prior to this, and before anything was done by the Government towards securing land in the district he consulted with Mr. Anderson, engineer in the employ of the Water Commission, and a farmer named Kemp, and suggested that they should buy the blocks He then left on a trip to Europe, telling others that if the Government did buy the block he would like to farm part. He made no secret of the matter that he wanted part of the land for two friends in America, and the rest for himself, in order to demonstrate its value for irrigation. He admitted that it 'was not desirable that an officer of the State should traffic in land. He advised Anderson to purchase the land because he iwdshed to get the fanners antagonistic to irrigation out of the district. He was not aware then that Mr. Anderson was connected with the sale of the land to the Government.

Mr. Brown, Attorney-General, examined, stated that as the result of enquiries he found that Mr. Anderson nad bought the land as an investment, but that it was not proposed to extend irrigation to the district. He did not know that Mead was interested in the land. A letter from Mead to Anderson, dated March last, iwas read, informing him that the Settlement Board had decided to make a call for the lands at C-ohuna which the Board had previously declined, and advising Anderson to offer his land to the Board.