SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2373, 14 August 1886, Page 2

SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

TO THE EDITOtt, ■I Bee in your issue of, Thursday a suggestion from an anxious momberof the Mangahao Special Settlement AssooiaHon, and I think; undur the circum-. stances, the auggestiou is a good one that the Association lay thoir.'grievance before Mr Beetham, and request him to ondeavqur to get justice from the "powers that be."' While tliere wasi any. praipect of.the members of thoAßßooiation getting fair play through their own offorts, Ifor one would ntt bo inclined to troublo our representative, but, when promises madeare' being ruthlessly broken'and we working men are being robbed of bur time and monev, .all our efforts to get a settlement of tho difficulty seeming more hopeless every day, then.l consider it is time that Bomeone who can roach the ear of justice, and who will endeavor to see the wrongs righted, should be requested to take the matter in hand. There'are .member* in MasterM who have already loßt Half as .muchaß tho land is-worth whilo waiting to get possession, and all they want iB that the Hon. Minister for Lands will not depart from his promise and require them to take land totally unfit for special settlement purposes. . If the whole matter wore laid before Mr Beotham,. we would at least have a decided'answer, and we would then know what the Government intends to do.. At present we have only two alternatives, either to take the sections, aa they are surveyed, or hand the objectionable parts Back. Neither of these alternatives would be at all reasonable. The first is unsuitable both in form and quality, •for instead of being, as the Government ■specification requirfls, twice, thti breadth in length", it is over seven times'the breadth hi length. Then, notwithstanding, the Minister of Lands- distinctly said the,! Association would hot be required to take any but good land, fit for cultivation, this is so rough that the surveyors' find it impossible to got roads any; nearer than three miles from each other. Then in the second alternative, while the Government are agreeable to take the objectionable part back, they say nothing about the £4OO expended on the survey by the Aaiociation. The latest rumour is that -ty Government are willing to allow so much of the expense of survey aa will suit their purpose, but there is no official notice if such is tho case. It is time the .question was settled, "and I believe the suggestion of your correspondent, if acted upon, together with a thorough change in the managing or mismanaging committer would soon lead to a termination of the present difficulty. .1,am,.&0,, , ■ '_ Anxious Member No. 2.