PRICES OF LAND IN AUSTRALIA AND OTHER COLONIES.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 7, 20 September 1843, Page 3

PRICES OF LAND IN AUSTRALIA AND OTHER COLONIES.

(From the Sydney Herald.) On looking through the last “General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners,” printed by order of the House of Commons in August last, we find fresh reason to condemn the injustice and absurd impolicy of the high minimum price of land in these colonies. “ As regards Australia,” say the Commissioners, “ the measure was introduced by your lordship into Parliament dnring the present session, and has recently passed into a law. By this Act, it is provided that no part of the public land shall ever be alienated, except by sale; that all lands shall be exposed once, at least, to public competition, at an upset price of not less than £i per acre ; and

that the portions of ordinary country lands which, having been so offered, may remain unsold, shall afterwards be purchasable at the same price at which they had been put up and not bought. It is also enacted that the upset price, once established in any of these colonies, is not to be reduced except by Act of Parliament ” This is the great radical grievance which the blundering legislation of Downing Street, has brought upon the colonists of Australia, And what is a still more grievous consideration, not only were the colonists iiot cbnsulted, but the very Acff which thus iujures them expressly forbids their local legislature to interfere in any way with tlie subject. If they are dissatisfied, if their local knowledge convinces them that the measure is practically erroneous and mischievous, they are not to have even the poor consolation of saying so ; but must suffer in mute submission, like slaves beneath the lash. Not so in Canada. There, the right to dispose of the public lands is vested in the colo - nial legislature ; and the Report of the Commissioners informs us* that ‘‘ while such has been the provision ftiade by Parliament for regulating sales of land in Australia, an Act for the samepurpbse in Canada was passed by the legislature of the United Province, in their first session. According to this law, the public lands are to be sold at a price, to be from time to time fixed and ascertained by the authority of the Governor. The Governor may also grant a right of purchase, by private contract, to persons interested in acquiring particular portions of land ; and he is empowered to bestow free grants of not more than fifty acres upon actual settlers.” Now, as to the actual price of land in Canada, a subsequent part of the report states, that in Eastern Canada, the late

Governor General had fixed the juice of land over the greater part of the country, mt 4s. currency* or 3s. Id, sterling, per ifcre ; and in the county of Ottawa, and $n a district on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, at 6s* currency, or 4s. 9d. sterling, per acre. In Western Canada, where-, up to the passing of the late Act, land continued to be sold by auction, the upset price of Government lands was generally Bs. currency per acre ; while that of clergy reserves, the choicest par cels of the territory, averaged 12*. Gd. currency per acre. During the past year there were sold in Eastern Canada, 45,890 aeres, at an average price of ss. per acre; and in Western Canada, 14,697 acres, at an average price of 7s. lOd, per acre.

In New Brunswick the price of land is even lower than in Canada. It is there sold by auction, the upset price being only 2s. per acre. The quantity sold last year, or the year before last, was 29,416 acres, which realized the average price ot 2s. sd, per acre. In Nova Scotia it is lower still. The public lands are there sold by auction, under the authority of an Act of the local legislature, which prescribes that the upset price shall never be lower than one shilling per acre. In that year there were sold 11,355 acres, at the average price of 2s. 6d. per acre. In Newfoundland, also, the mode of sale is by auction : the npsei price being 2s. per acre. In the West Indies, where the soil is richly productive, the report says, the mode of sale established is that of auction, and the upset price, if any sales occurred would be not less than £1 per acre. An exeeption to this latter rule has been allowed in the case of the Bahamas, uoon the representation of the local authorities, and the price there has been reduced to 12s. per acre. In Ceylon, the land of spices, the auction system also prevails, the upset price being, what ours used to be, ss. per acre. The quantity sold in the year was 78,687 acres, the greater part of which was knocked down at the upset price, although some went as high as 17s. 6J. per acre. The Commissioners observe, that “a great disposition has manifested itself on the part of Europeans with capital to purchase lands in this colony, chiefly for the cultivation of coffee, and to some extent of sugar. A large proportion of the surface of this valuable island still remains at the disposaPof the Crown, and we have accordingly recommended that

the Governor should be called upon to report whether any objection exists tq at once raising the price to £l per acre.” How can emigration be expected to flow from Great Britain to Australia, when, besides the greater distance, and the gteater expense of the passage; as compared with British America, the price of Crown land is never to be lower than twenty shillings per acre : while in Canada it is about five shillings, in New Brunswick and Newfoundland two shillings, and in Nova Scotia one shilling ? To suppose that capitalists will come to the

antipodes to phrehnsa land at a pound an acre, when crossing the A tlantic they can purchase it at a fourth or a tenth of that price, is to stippoSe them destitute of common sense. And for the Govern ment to dream of ever realizing a considerable revenue by the sale of its wild lands at a price so preposterously above its value, is, to dream of a miracle. At present the Governor hassthe conve nient plea for the poverty of his land fund, that it is all owing to the depression of the times ; but for our part, we are satisfied that when the depression shall have passed away—a consummation which the twenty shilling minimum will seriously retard; His Excellency will find no revival of the land mania, and no augmentation of this branch of the public income. The prohibitory clause of Lord Stanley’s Act, notwithstanding, the Crown Land question must form one of the earliest subjects of enquiry with our new legislature.