CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2357, 27 July 1886, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

.SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

.'(TothbEmtob.)

Sir.—After the meeting of Saturday . night and tho report furnished by the • Committee.of the Masterlon Mangahao Special Settlement Association I think you will agree with me that the liberal cry of "land for the people," "anxious to ,j>et the lands' .settled &c., &o,",a»'afl political-claptrap. It is said there is goomin everything but I cannot see any in so much-red'tipe except it be that it is available for.-Btianglmg the effort* of working men and would be settlors. I think the present position of the Aseociv fcion ought to.bS a lesson to all would be settlers. It will teach them that if they are men enough to dooidu for themselves, if they dare to' have an opinion of their own, the coils -of red tape will at one* be thrown round them like a lasso tying their hands and paralysing every effort The only thing they are allowed to do is to abide by the'decißion ,of : the powers that be, who seem to be able to sjganos and retreat, alter and amend, afftheir own .sweet will, 'and in defiance of all ends of law and logic. A brief resume of our two years'efforts to get possession of our block will best illustrate what 1 mean. About'.loo members applied for a block of land in the Mangahao, and it was '. wanted, with the express understanding from the. Miriister' of Lands that' only that portion fitted.'for Special Settlement purposes should be' required to bo taken up.no rough'land' should be included. J* The Association wore either allowed to v call for. tenders for the survey, or they wore informed that the Government staff would do the survey atacertain rate.but the amount of survey fees would require to be paid before the work was proceeded with, that is with the utmost liberality tho Government would take payment for . their work, before they commenced it. Some of them being "canny soots" could not see. the beauty of paying before they got the "goods, and considered it better to get a private surveyor, as they would thus be enabltjd to call up the amount «t survey fees by instalments, as the work progressed, instead of having to make an immediate call on the members for ti» whole amount. The contract was advertised, tenders called for and received, the Gtivernmetit.providing planß of the Block and specifications of work to be done, and the manrftr in whioh it was to bo done. The tenders were reiigjgd to the Chief.Surveyor, who rwafroded tho lowest tender* not to be accepted, but in the absence of any reasoa for thi» departure .from tbe..ordjaary course th«, lowest tender was accepted. This (as' the£H Minister for lands was good enough to™ inform the deputation appointed to waii ' upon him with regard.to the affairs of tie Association) hadgot the Chief Surveyors back up, and consequently the whole body must beioiadi to feel the weight of his displeasure. From that time tb« coil of red tape was evidently hdd suspended over the heok of the doomed settlers ready to drop at the first favorable opportunity. The*, unsuspioioui of the hidden danger, tie Oomtnittw I through their Secretary enquired who was to be the Inspector, and oa behalf of tho Association to see that the coatrart was carried out. Thereply.wasthatMr Marchant was the Inspector. Thus the affairs of the Association were takes entirely out of the hands of the Association, and another coil of,r«d tape brought into requisition 'for 'the Association, except though' the Government tor,could not interfere?'with' thSfwrvey or the work, which-was being doae for them. The Inspector seems to have failed to inspect until- a considerable amount of unnecessary work had. been done, and when at last a scheme of. sub-

division wassupplied to the Association by the contractor it was fquud to bo such an utterly absurd one, that, the Association

decided that it could not for & moment be entertained. With the assistance of the Inspector the schdme was revised and forwarded to the contractor, and the Inspector undertook to see that the revised scheme' was properly carried out, if left to deal ■ with the whole matter. The Association'gladly availed themaefreß of that offeriand left the whole thing to be settled by him in accordance with tho revised scheme. They considered by so doing they ahould hive no farther difficulty, but would soon be in a position to e.nter and take possession of the land of Goshen, when to ..their surprise a plati'was furnished exactly similiar to the rejected scheme, or rather with a slight alteration for the worse, in this, that sections which were first shown to be about 100 chainijJp length were further extended, althfljh the specifications clearly • 8% that sgctWns shall he of a length equal to twice the breadth. Wo have ovor 25 sections with alengthof 100 to] 10 cosine, and a breadth of from 13 to 15 chains, one section with a -breadth of about 8 chains : and a depth of 100 chains, another with a frontage of about 10 chains running to'a point at t distance of over lOOohains thus forming a, triangle which would require at one part over a mile of fencing to.enclose eight acres of ground. The members of the Committee were surprised (considering the Inspector had undertaken to have the work carried out properly), that such a plan should have beeu again submitted to them. They could not as sane men accept it, so referred it to the Survey Department, and the answer they received was that they iriust deal with tho matter themselves. A suggestion of MrMarchantswasacfcedupon and a revised plan was submitted ■ by Mt Ellison wbiek would out the bacit portion- off the long sections. This was approved by the Committee and Mr.Marchant notified of the same. You jnny; jodge'thair surprise and indignation when .they w.ere informed that tho Surveyor Generalwould notallbv that alteration but we must either the sections as they are, causa the c|B tractor to sot up to the ■ specifications (which it is quite evident the Government officials themselves were quite unable to do) or hand the "badly formed sections back in one block. This late* I very liberal offer is the latest. We ate merely asked to hand' hack' albonfc 4000 acres to the Government,. who.will very liberally accept the same, with shook L 350 which has been expended on the survey, for while they notify us that they ' are willing to take the land back they say no word about refunding the;money, The Association was originally granted 11,000 acres, but had to reduce it to somewhere about 8500 acres, owing to the rough nature cf the ground, and consequently they had to reduce their membership, and this further reduction of area would necessitate a further reduction of members, while the liberal minded. Government wish evidently'to-lay the double burden on the shoulders of the few remaining members. Thus, instead of providing üb'with suitable', land for special settlement purposes; the Govern- • ment officials wish to palm off upon us •ndw'land which from the evidence of three surveyors, it is impossible"to atttA ! i\M through, and which,, owing to itaP rc.igh nature, has to be laidoiit infections of over one mile and a quarter long. This then, is the result of the patient waitiflff and earnest working of would-be&fcS the Minister's promise is forgottejsU are baffled in every direction by ted¥p* and all, as Mr McCardlehas inforrafidli,' ' because wo dared to tramp on the pores of a sensitive public servant; because we .did not yield to the dictum of -.hig high' dignity, md bow down is? huaSij .;

p i ilßfftWiifei,iaifi<i JUitiU'ai M M», > >i!^-, i v«< vonhipji«Tß of his "wisdom." • Hoping I have not intruded-too much on your valuable 6paca r but that; this'may load some one mote fitted to take' the subject up to do so, as it is quite ovidont ft thorough good measure ia being massacred by red tapo'and petty jealousy, 1 am, etc., A WOULD-BE-SKmEK.