Correspondence.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3427, 5 February 1890, Page 2

Correspondence.

Discouraging Settlement. TO THE EDITOR. Sir—Kindly allow me to place before your readers the manner in' which the Lands Department encourage settlement iu • the Forty Mile Bush, Bome twelve months since there row ajarge block of land surveyed and thrown open to the public which was rapidly taken. up under various systems. The block referred to has frontages to what is known as the Dreyers Rock road on the one side, Bartons line on another and the Mangamahoe road on tho other side. The Government have expended about two thousand pounds in opening up bridle traoks on tho Dreyers rock and Mangamahoe road lines to afford access to the block. This land has been taken up in comparatively small- sections ranging from 200 to 640 acres (with one exception, second class land) by bonafide settlers, most of whom already reside on their land, and have felled an aggregate of something like two thousand acres of bush. This speaks well for the district. Now sir, what I wish to ask in this, what reason oan be assigned by tho department for keeping largo tracts of land immediately alongside this one locked from the public ? Land that is admirably adapted for small holdings,some of which have magnificent frontages to roads, upon nhieh public money has already been expended. Day alter day, week after week, month after month, applications for this land to the Lands Office have been met with the unvarying reply," Sir, I have the' honour to inform you that tho land in question is not open for selection." Thit is the answor sent from the office; no explanation given k no hope hold out that it ever will be open, or otherwise. That is the way to promoto settlement with a vengeauco. Of course tho natural result is that would-be Bottlers become disheartened and leavo the district, in many instances the country, and go to the Argentine Republic, or New South Wales, where land can be liad for money. That eucli a thing should oxiat within six miles of a railway station, on the main trunk line, seeins' inoredable, in faot it is criminal on tho part of those who are responsible for its existence, and a disgrace to the community that sanctions it by their silonco and apathy. Hoping that you will have the goodness to publish this-I am, &c., Rusticus,

Upper Taueru. (From an Occasional Corroapondont) You, as well as your numerous readers, will bo rather surprised at hearing from mo from this quarter, but finding a total want of active life and stiririg existenoo in sleepy Gladstone, I got so regularly disgusted with tho uneventful jog-trot every day sort of existence, that I determined to look for pastures new and fields fresh, Of my peregrinations and what I experienced and saw on them, I will inform you some other time. For the present let it suffice that the Glendonald Btation of the Upper Taueru was the final end of my journey. Glendonald, belonging to Messrs Hood and Walker, is though not very large in territorial extont, one of the very few properties in Now Zealand that has been improved to his utmost capacities. Almost every inch of agricultural ground on the estate has boen utilised aud the owners have been and are still furnishing employment to a goodly numberofmen round about,as well as to such as might wend their way to this district in search of employment, The owners of far bigger stations then theirs might very woll take an example by them, and thus by improving their properties as muoh as possible might furnish employment for the voting population of the colony and derive more benefit themselves from their vast estates, Wero they to do so tho ropeatod clamour re tho unemployed would effectually bo stopped; but I am rather doubtful, whether tho New Zealaud squatter is* not [ rather too fond of the bawbees he has earned in tho palmy days to spend tbora on the substantial improvement of his possessions. Nor is it only agricultural improvement that is noticeable iu Glendonald. Messrs Hood and Walker , are also one of the few squatter firms who appear to havo successfully combated with tho difficulty of the rabbit nuisance. For although the run if not quito free from the visitations of bunny still tho animals are daily becoming scarcer and that to suoh au extent as to make their total extermination an event of a not very distant period, In faot of the runs that I have passed that of Glendonaldappeared lome tho most free from rabbits. Harvesting round about hero is in full swing and though the orepß are very pood in the Wairarapa there is but little to do for extra hands, as the farmers mostly use binders arid will not engage men till suclj time as they are ready for oar% iu, The corps in GJowlonald are very well headed but rather light in patches. I have seon some gloriouß crops on my way here about Te Ore Ore and more particularly noticed one belonging to Mr Carman, which was both good sized and very well headed. The weather is keeping pretty fair here and well suited for harvesting, In I faot have had only one broken day last week, / ...