The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 1883. OPENING UP CROWN LANDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1471, 31 August 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 1883. OPENING UP CROWN LANDS.

I We published yesterday the voluminous but very valuable report of a Committee appointed by the Wairarapa East County to consider the question of further opening up the Crown Lands in this County. The County Council is doing good work by calling the attention of the Government to the requirements of this district, and even Cr ■MoCahm.e must blush a little for his hostility to that body, of which ho should be a leading member, when a report like the one to -which we refer is presented in the interests not only of the colony and of the Wairarapa, but of his own particular paradise of Pahiatua, It is well known that Government efforts havo during the past year or two been specially directed towards the settlement of Waste Lands in the Taranaki Province. It is also equally well understood that much of the Crown Land to the North of Masterton is as fit for settlement as the more favored portions of the Northern Province, The County Council I is therefore quite justified in bringing the claims of this district under the notice of the Government, and in pointing out to. MinisteVs that the colony cannot afford to allow good land to remain idle, when settlers are available for working it. The North Wairarapa has been an 'ugly duckling' long enough, and it is quite time that it came out as'a swan,' The demand for meat fer export is even now exceeding the supply, and every effort should be made to make the hundreds of thousands of acres of Crown Lands in this district contribute towards it. The recommendations of tho Committee as to the best methods of disposing of Crown Lands embody no.new idea, but are a reiteration of principles which have frequently been urged upon the Government, and which are slowly but surely proving themselves to be sound in practicce, as well as in theory. The cardinal points in settling new country to the best advantage are three in number: Ist, opening up the lands by good roads prior to sale. 2nd, selling at reasonable upset prices on the deferred payment system, and 3rd, allowing residence on sections to be optional. The Committee indicate in their report the various road lines that should bo opened up through the North Wairarapa Crown Lands, and should the Government display a willingness to meet their views we may expect within the next four or five years to see the population of the Wairarapa increase from its present probable number of 12,000 souls to over 20,000, and its material wealth advance in a like proportion. When Wairarapa North carries a population of 20,000 we may expect to see its landed estate throughout the whole of its area, fetching, not the miserable prices which now "rule, but the substantial rates which obtain in the best districts of the Middle Island.