THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1881.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 29 July 1881, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1881.

The determination ol the County Council to compel the holders of unpurchased town and suburban sections to lake out business licer ses is likely to meet witb strong opposition, nor can it be said Ihat the opposition is without a show of justice. Under the conditions upon which R6e7tQtt was setljedrbefo^ purchase a section be was required to erect thereon a building of the value of £50. But little regard was in general bad to the character of the building so run up, and providing that it had four walls and a roof, whether it cost £50 or £10, the necessary certificate was allowed, and not improperly so, to issue, and the occupant became entitled to bis Crown grant npon payment of the upset price. Persons were permitted to hold sections under bnsiness licenses, but that form of occupancy, however long, con* ferred no title to purchase, tbe provision as to a building being inserted with the one object of preventing the land from falling into the' bunds of speculators and monopolists, and was no doubt a yery necessary and prudent condition. It was, bowever, in many cases ingeniously avoided, for many instances occurred where buildings were erected on wheels, and having conferred the right to purchase one section, were rolled on to another allotment, and made to do a ; similar service there, and so on over a dumber of sections. Most of the sections ' so purchased where wholly unim* proved, not even a tree or a stump having been removed, and in tbat condi tion many of them remain to this day. But numbers of persons took up sections for gardens, and continued for years to take out business licenses for them, until it was thought that the abolition of Provincialism put an end to the exaction, more particularly so as under the County sysiem the occupiers were called upon to pay rates for the sections. These sections have been cleared and fitted for cultivation at a cost of probably little less than £100 each, and now tbe County Council seeks to revive this phase of Provincialism in order to place tbe holders under an additional grinding pros cess. We do not hesitate to assert tbat the action is wholly unwarranted. Tbe circumstances under which tbe Provincial regulation was brought into force have pas r ed away entirely ; the land is in the possession of persons who occupy it beneficially, and tbe proper and most equitable way to reach them, if it is advisable to interfere with tbem at all, is to pray the Waste Lands Board to put the land up to auctions, witb tbe improye* ments, and so enable tbe holders to purchase. It does certainly appeer a most arbitary act for the Council lo at ! this hour dig up a long buried Provincial regulation, and endeavor to apply it to a condition of things wholly at variance with' tbe spirit of the act and of every« thing like fair play. We recommend the persons interested to lay the complaint in the form of "a short memorial before the representatives of the districi.