CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2002, 29 May 1885, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

GOVERNMENT RESERVES.

To the Editor.

Sir,—Will you allow mo • space, in your paper to make a. few remarks on the general policy of making extensive reserves in bush settlements, and to call attention to the Masterton Borough Reserve in the Mangaone, and the recent action of the Borough Council in relation to road formation on the boundary of that estate? I have resided in this district for more than five years, and as a new arrival in the colony and a pioneer settler in the Mangaone, I have watched the progress of settlement with keen interest, lam amazed at the progress of the settlement during this time, but am obliged to conclude that that progress has been materially hindered by the existence of reserves in the district. These reserves I consider a bane and a nuisance, a bar to settlement, a hindrance to road formation and fencing, a complete damper to new settlements, and the pioneer settlers' abomination. In the South Mangaone, by consulting a map on which the reserves are marked, it will be found there is an Education Reserve of over 1200 acres, one part of which is within a mile of the centre of Eketahuna, Having personally inspected this land, I am in a position to assert that it is of firstclass quality. At one point eastwards, this block joins the .Masterton Borough Reserve of over 700 acres, which stretches away to the Mangaone Valley. As regards the quality of this laud, the favorable report of the deputation who recently visited it will be fresh in the minds of your readers, Travelling still eastward, we soon come to the extensive Education Reserve in the Tawataia Valley. This land is also of first-class quality. Besides these, there are a few odd sections of education and other reserves where there is a bit of land above tlie average quality. Now, had it not been for these tracts of good land being shut up, there might have been a compact settlement not far from Eketahuna, each settler having a good road to his home. ' These reserves, instead of being what they ought to be, by virtue of their being the cream of the land, the centres of settlement, are like deadly upas trees, which the pioneer settler must avoid, at the risk of not being able to fence his paddocks and having to get to his home along almost impassable roads or muddy, bush tracks. Tlus is exactly the position of many settlers in this district. Some have been obliged to take up sections miles away in the bush, and take their families m along muddy tracks, while so much fair land lies so close to Eketahuna. Without arguing tho question whether these reserves might by any method be settled concurrently with the. land sold by the Crown to settlers, the fact is patent that in the Mangaone, while a band of sturdy settlers have been making wonderful progress in clearing, grassing, fencing, and stocking the lands they have purchased, and building comfortable homes thereon, not one single acre of these reserves has yet been cleared. The Masterton Btjroygh Council has been fisked tp contribute" Llq tow'ar|s the expense of partly forming a road along one Hgqndaiyof tl|eir have Reclined to 4° so. Sjeyepvl members qf tlje Qoiihcij sa}4 other landholders];} the 4jsferjct oyght to contribute, Will yqu ajlqw me to go into tljis question'/ AH the surveying that has eyer been done ii) the Mangaone (including the survey of the Masterton reserve) and all the road formation, which now amounts to nearly twenty miK together with some miles in course of partial formation, these all have, and will be paid for, oytof the colonial money-box, Now the proceeds of the sold fqr cash, and two-thirds of the propeeds qf tho lands sold on deferred payment, as they become duo, "go jntq that same box; SQ the purchasers of land contribute considerably to all that has been done, and if stijl in progress in surveying and road faciei, What lias bean, or what ever will be, contributed from the Masterton reserve, or any other reserve, towards these works ? Not one penny ! Ifow, as to future works. By the Land Act, 1877, one-third of the proceeds from lanc|s sold fln deferred paynjent are handed over to IpcaJ bodies, to be expended on roads in the district in which they are raised, The Isnd Board lp intimated its willingness to hand over to the Alfredton Road Board the thirds already paid by holders of deferred payment sections to be benefited by the proposed road along the boundary of the Masterton resorve, towards the construction of that road. Tho trustees of the Masterton estate deoline to pay their share towards it. That, sir, is the way settlement and road formation is hindered in the Porty-Mileßush, Beyondthis there is the question of rates, The settlers who have made the improvements referred to, now pay a considerable sum in rates to make it just possible to get along these roruk and tracks to their homes. All this time the trustees of these reserves look complacently on, while their estates are growing in valuoat tho expense of the bona and muscle and pocket of tho pioneer settler, Even in the case of those reserves wjncli are supposed to be for the W® }IW! W#''' fit the settler himself in tlijs btfah land," wliere land clearing and road makingareso expensive, th e y in'o a mistake. S|)ouk| the future M'ospeyoqs landholder be indemnified for Wing any burden at the expense of the poor struggling pioneer ? Tq return fop a moment, before I close, to the Mastorton reserve. I don't know whether tho gentlemen who inspected it informed the Council that this short length of proposed road is the only possible approach to the greyer qf tl|ejr estate. I can tell t]}em fj})oh )s the Qago, Sq thoii' policy suicida} i|B we]) as* unfair, W, Bayliss. jpilgiwuo, % 27th 1885,