AN IMPORTANT DEPARTURE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4152, 30 June 1892, Page 2

AN IMPORTANT DEPARTURE.

flisjt)()s/^p/fli/s/i[a/i(/s. Meetings. are being held in the Forty-mile Bush and in the Wairarapa, with a view to. obtaining signatures to petitions in favour of a new departure in the method of disposing Of bushlandsof the Crown.' Some 100,000 acres have recently been, aoquired by Special Settlement Associations In the Forty-mile Bush, and the settlers 1 contend ibat they would have a much greater chance of success if .Government, before disposing ol ariyblooks, would dear, fell, burn, and Burface'-sow them in order that tbey might be immediately available, adding interest 'on the boat of so doing to the rehfe already oharged. The

petitioners claim that in this way employment would be found for the unemployed, and the work could be done muoh more effectively and economically in thiswhotaale manner than by individual effort, The first to move are the Pahiatua Farm Homestead IjJssofliatjd'ns-Nos. 1,2,3, and l representing $M acre 1 ?, 'M the Maaterton'Reform anc| Rising Ban Knights of Labour AESpomtione, whose adjoining" lands comprise 29,000 acres all of which settlements could.bo'cleared andburned as one, The Masterton Associations decided to move on, Monday, night—the other's had already heldmeetings—and at the request of a deputation Mr Hodg. ihaij'' takenr tbp'cmattejrwup. Several members are in favjjur of the proposal, and pressure will be brought to bear to BecVeite'adoption bytne' ; Government, The request of the petitioners,is as follows!-(!) That I

*K« Government be empowered!to procure the"n!CS?J-fo? •«!.undertake the work' of felling, burqiog;. wd grassing the wholo of the b'e qcpumed'i bj Hbe--abqv*iflqTss associations "as Bjjqil as ptppe, (2) Tliat'the' principal fnqpey so'.expended shall be a oliarge on the land, repayable by instalments, extending oyer a period of years, by the various occupiers, and that the interest on the principal so'employed shall beidjcil to and made payable wjtli the anntjal rent for tlie'oocup'atiori ofe'aoh s'ebii'bn, aocordlng'tothe'wea fobs jielflby the occupier, The proposal,'is not altogether new, The system was for i many years strongly advooated by Ihe late Mr Henry Bunny, both asa Provincial administrator and as a member of tue HousWwf, : :■ ;