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Waikato Times, Volume 2641, Issue 2641, 15 June 1889, Page 2

A cosii'ANV has been formed in Napinr for the purpose of taking over two runs in Sunday Island in the Kermadeo Group, which they propose to out into allotments of fifty acres each, lhe company has been advertising in the Hawke's Bay papers for applicants for these sections, offering them rent free, for a term of twenty-oue years and agreeing to allow their tenants half the value of the improvements made during the term of occupancy. " Rent free," however, appears to us to be a misnomer, for the company requires a tenth part of the gioss annual returns, and that all sales of produce, &c, be made through an agent approved by them. Then, ajjaiu, they can well afford to pay their tenants half the value of their improvements, seeing that under the terms made between the company and the Government, they (the company) will be allowed full value for all improvements made. The following is extracted from the Napier Telegraph, with the views expressed therein we cordially agree : — "It is understood that the spirited proprietors of sections 6 and 7, Sunday Island, were induced to form themselves into a sort of a colonisation society in order to relieve New Zealand of those who find the struggle for existence too much for them. It seems rather an absurd idea to suppose that the settlers of Sunday Island will be any better off than they would have been hart they remained here, while the amount they will be required to give to the Association for the privilege of banishment will far exceed anything they would be called on to pay the Government if they took up land in New Zealand. The Association, it is true, says it will require no rent from the settlers, but at the same time the agreement they will have to sign before saying good-bye to civilisation hands over

to the Association oue-tenth of the net proceeds of nil they produce on the land. This is nothing less than a terrible pries to pay for the occupation of land that can never be converted into freehold, and on which half the value of the improvements must be left behind at the end of the lease. We have no hesitation in saying that if the Government offered land on the same terms as the Association has done it would be scouted from one eud of New Zealand to the other. And yet we are told that people are to be found who, feeling the pressure of the times, arc glad to go to the Kennadocs. and take up bits of sectiouaon a bit of a rugged volcanic island six hundred miles away from all that makes life endurable. If those people would voluntarily do in New Zealand what they will be forced to do on Sunday Island, they would not feel the pressure of the times, nor succumb in the struggle for existence."