A VOICE FROM THE PUKETOIS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4326, 24 January 1893, Page 2

A VOICE FROM THE PUKETOIS.

(From Our Own Correspondent,)

J _ Humbugging oan be tbe only name I given to the treatment of tho select tors of the Canterbury settlement in' the Puketois, known bs tho" Coonoor l SpeoialSettlement," Tbeßomenmade I a track themselves laiit year at a oost t of over forty pounds, and then had to . pack over a very bad road, indeed, several horses camo to grief in the work, but the packer stuok to hlß' I work manfully in order to assist the I settlers. It would bo diffioult to say bow often these selectors have, at j great expemejourneyed to Wellington t to interview Ministers, mombers of I the House, and the autocrat of the Lands and Survey Department, ! Promises have been made over and j over again to give them access, and they have been told in the gruffest \ manner that they have "picked the eyes out of the country." They are to be charged six shillings m aore on the land for reading, and in place of getting a road to meet their requirements via the Waewaepas, at a distance of about twenty-one miles from Pahiatua or Woodville, to woro told that their best road a distance of thirty-one miles" to Pahiatua or forty to Woodville, This is the road that was to be mddo for them. After further weary journeys to Wellington, a promise was made to make a 6ft traok over tho Waewaepas, and a start has just been made with seven men to make seven miles of truck. Theße settlers want their stores_ and fencing goods before the winter sets in, and in expecting that tho promised work would be pushed on, have goods to tbe extent of twenty or more tons about to be landed, and the road is in no fit Blato for packing over, Infact the track is not one whit better than in mid-winter, becauso tbe bush has not been felled to let it get dry. It is not to bo wondemd at that theso men grumble and are just about weary of the hum«. bugging, when you find that it has Cost some of them about six pounds an aore to get a hundred acres felled and a home made for the family, i With all theso facts before ono it is not to be wondered at'that bush selectors us a rule bavo added a paragraph to their litany; " From Commissioners bred on the open plains good Lord deliver us."