THE GOVERNMENT AND "CLOSE" SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 258, 12 March 1898, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT AND "CLOSE" SETTLEMENT.

We have been begging and cntrcatiDg for several years past that the Government should open the King Country for settlement, but hitherto without avail. We were surprised, therefore, to learn that within the last few weeks the Government have made a beginniug by disposing of the lease of a block of pistoral land within about fifteen miles of Kihikihi The circumstances, however, seemed to us somewhat suspicious, and we thought it necessary to make some inquiries, the result of which we place before our readers. The gentleman who obtained the lease of the land was Mr William Cooper Robinsou, a brother-in-law of the Hon. W. P. Reeves, AgentGeneral. The land consists of 50,300 acres on the west side of the Wa'kato River. The declared policy of the Government is to cut wp pastoral land into as small areas as possible, and we were surprised to find that this large area of land was put up iu one block without any previous attempt being made to see if it would bo taken up in smaller areas. The run is named Poukaui-Maraeroa, and it was cut off from a larger area which has been under purchase by the Government for several years past. Why this piece should have been cut off from the uncompleted portions of the blocK it formed p?-rt of, and promptly put up, is one of the circumstances we cannot explain, and it is the more serious, seeing that many persons have recently been urging the Government in vain to place in the market particular portions of land in the King Country. We learn en inquiry iu the be3t-informcd quarters that the Government paid 3s an acre for part of the land, including survey expenses, and 2s Gd for other portions without survey costs. The whole cost was between £7OOO and £SOOO. It is generally understood that the Government require at least 5 per cent, to make these land purchases pay. But in this ease, instead of asking £4OO per ennum for the land, the Government only asked the modest stun of £4O, or about i per cent. At the sale, however, there was Competition, and the land reached a rental of £225. The run is capable at the present moment, without any improvement, cf carrying from b'OOO to 10,000 sheep. How it was that the laud was put up at such a low price we cannot imagine, and even at the pticc it went at it is a very poor bargain for the Government. Possibly we shall hear something more about this matter when Parliament meets.— N.Z. Herald.