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N. ORAIG.J

65. Do you know Kraiger's settlement? —Yes. 66. It has been said that Oaselberg has been aggregating. Has he got more land than he could make a living off? —No. 67. Caselberg may make a permanent settler and make a living?— Yes, and make a good settler. 68. Do you think it would be a good thing for him to take up other land?— Yes, and I would recommend it. 69. You know the lvarewarewa Settlement : as compared with Hawaenga what is the land like? —It is better land. 70. Do you think a man could make a living oft' 10 or 20 acres.there? —No. 71. When the public works were going on there what use was made of this place.' — 1 do not know thai there has been much use made of it at all. It has been a sort of deadhead all through. After these small village settlements have lieen created they have never been developed in the way it. was intended. 72. The Karewarewa is surrounded by small sections? —Yes. 7.'5. That is not a place where you would expect labourers in a village settlement to be established? — Well, it might have been supposed when settlement started that there would be sufficient work for a working-man to go there and make a home, but experience has proved that it is not so. 74. The only thing to do is to aUow them to join sections together so as to make a living off them ? —Yes, to get revenue out of them. 75. Would you call increasing the areas there aggregation of land in the sense in which it is used I—No,1 —No, not at all. 76. You know the Ruahine district ? —Yes. 77. And the Pemberton Small-farm Settlement? —Yes. 78. It was originally cut up into 70-acre sections? —Yes. 79. Did you think a man could make a living off that land of 70 acres? —No. 80. And do you think it was for the Board to allow these men to join a couple of these sections together? —Yes; that has been done, and the men are making a success of it now. 81. Do you know who the men were who originally took up that land? —No, it was before my time. I know they were simply working-men, and those who are left on the land are good settlers, and a credit to the colony, and doing well 82. It has also been said that at Karewarewa, Kawhatau, and Ruahine the schools haVe suffered because families have gone away: is that due to what you would call aggregation? —It may be due to people who go there on very small holdings thinking they would make a success of it, and after a lot of hardship they had to give it up and remove their families to places where they could get a living. B.'i. A sweeping statement has been made that the closing of the schools and the closing of the butter-factories is due to what is styled this enormous aggregation going on : do you think that is the case? —No, I do not. 84. Do you think the attendance at the schools has gone down because of the increase in the area of sections owing to it being found necessary to add one section to another ?—Yes, because the land is just like water—it has to find a working-level; but if a man has not a sufficient area to live on he has to get out. 85. Photographs have also been shown to the Committee of depleted homesteads and that kind of thing. You said in your evidence that there were a number of whares? —They were the old whares of the early settlers. 86. Would you call them residences on a farm?—l would not call them pig-houses now. 87. You mean, in comparison to what is there now? —Yes. 88. Several cases have been mentioned of aggregation, and the people who have been mentioned in this connection are the Gorringes, Wilsons, and Guthrie Brothers? —Yes. 89. A return has been published in the papers of the large area that is held by the Wilsons? —But there are four distinct families with four distinct businesses. 90. They are not near to each other?— There are two brothers near each other, Charlie and Harry. They are both married men with families, and both have separate farms. 91. Have they ever been connected in business in any way?— Not to my knowledge. 92. You know Campbell's old place that J. G. Wilson has bought?— Yes, that is a different family altogether, and they are miles away. 93. Do you know the sections on the Mangamako-Pemberton Road that formerly belonged to Brewster? —I know the road, but not the sections. I know one of the Wilsons is living there. 94. You know the Te Kapua district? —Yes. 95. Do you know the Wilson who has got land up there! —Yes, D. B. Wilson. 96. Is he a relative of the other Wilsons? —No. 97. Has he got a separate homestead? —Yes. 98. Have the Gorringes aggregated land? —They have bought freehold land. 99. Do you know if all their land is in their own name?—l do not know. 100. How was their land classified when they took it up?— The original holdings were secondclass land, o.r.p. 101. And what area was allowed to be taken up?—l,soo acres each of Crown lands, and their wives also have land. The total area held by these people is something like 6,000 acres between the two Gorringes and their wives. 102. Have they obtained any of that land recently?— They bought that section of Brown's. They have exercised the right <>f purchase in their lease, nnd it is freehold land.

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