AUCKLAND NORTE.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 168, 21 October 1892, Page 2

AUCKLAND NORTE.

ME R. THOMPSON INTERVIEWED Mr R. Thompson, M.H.B. for Marsden, returned home from his sessional duties on Wednesday last, and since then he has given to the • Northern Advocate ’ an interesting account of Parliamentary doings in relation to various matters in which the district* north of Auckland are particularly interested, THE BAND ACT. Speaking of the new Land Act which comes into force on the Ist November, Mr Thompson said it was chiefly a consolidation of the land laws. The four leading features of the Act were these : (1) The cash purchase system under which the freehold could not be obtained until 30s an acre in improvements was spent upon the land, and that amount would have to he spent within seven years. (2) The occupation license, under which system the freehold or Crown grant could not be obtained until ths expiry of ten years. (3) Tho lease in perpetuity for 999 years at a rental of four per cent on the upset price, (4) No one can lease from the Government more land than will carry more than 10,004 sheep This last clause is aimed at the big monetary companies, who at present hold vast territories under lease from the Government in the South, and when these leases fall in this clause will have tho effect of bursting up these huge holdings. LAND PURCHASE. The Bill giving the Government power to purchase private estates to the extent of £50,000 a year has become law, hut its operation, Mr Thompson thinks, will he confined chiefly to the South Island, where owing to the scarcity of Crown lands the young men have to come up to the North Island to obtain land to settle upon The Southern members viewed this state of affairs with some alarm, as if it continued the South Island would lose some of its members and the North Island would get more. NORTHERN ROADS. The Government were informed by their surveyors that a line of road from Mangakahia was not practicable, having to pass through very broken country, and they have decided to open the district from the Kaihu Valley in the south and from Kawakawa in the north, A good line of road has been found from Kawakawa, and that road is to be pushed on. An additional £3OO has been added to the vote for this road, and this will he a means of extending the road through the Purua district. The district is in Mr Houston’s electorate. £6OO was voted for the Puhipuhi Road, hut out of that vote has to he deducted the" cost of grassing the burnt forest' The balance will be available for the road. It was found impossible to deal with the leasing of the grassed portions of the Puhipuhi Forest as the land was a State Forest, but a clause was put in the new Act, which comes into force in November, enabling the Waste Lands Board to deal with it. Mr Thompson advised the Government not to interfere with tho people running cattle in the forest, as he considered the cattle would do more good than harm in preventing the grass from growing rank. Mr Thompson attaches great importance to the vote for the bridge over the Mongonui River (WaikiekD district), a* it will open up the road for cattle from Kaipara, and enable the settlers there to drive to the Whangarei market.