The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1888. EDUCATIONAL RESERVES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1753, 30 January 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1888. EDUCATIONAL RESERVES.

the Act of 1885 which renders such "request or recommendation" necessary, and it is very much to be regretted that either the Government clause or Major Steward's Bill was not passed into law. The difficulty m the way is the fear of many members of our old friend " the thin end of the wedge," it being argued that any interference with the powers of control of the Educational authorities will lead Ito the eventual seizing of the Reserves tor colonial purposes. But surely it is quite possible to safeguard any proposed legislation against this, and we sincerely hope that some way will be found next session of dealing with the matter by which, without risk of depriving any institution of its endowments, all lands required for settlement shall be made available therefor.

Unfortunately it only too frequently happens that Bills while passing through the Legislature are, to use a correct through contradictory expression, | "amended" for the worse. An example i of the truth of this statement is to be f und m the omission from the Land Act of last year of the proposed provision with resptct to Education Reserves. A Bill specially dealing with these Reserves, introduced by Major Steward, was practically laid aside so soon as it was ascertained definitely that the matter was provided for m the Government Bill, and there was no subsequent opportunity of proceeding with the former owing to the pressure o' Government business towards the end of the session. But there can be no question that the matter ia one which must be legislated upon, for it is intolerable that the enormous area of land comprised m the Educational Reserves should become a block 10 settlement through being leased only m large holdings as is too often now the case. It appears that the total acreage of these Reserves m the several provincial districts is as follows, viz. : — Olago. 708,375 ; Canterbury, 171,718 ; Auckland, 102.428 ; Wellington, 53.737 ; Hawkes' Bay, 49,674; Taranaki, 21,834; Westland, 18,898; Nelson, 7,434; Matlborougb, 1.088, or a total of no less than 1,135,186 acres. Now these reseives are m a large number of instances situated m the very localities where there is a demand for small leaseholds, and there would be but little outcry for a Land Acquisition Bill or any measure of that kind if they were utilised for thai purpose. But the Education Commissioners, and o'her bodies having control of these Reserves, have no special interest m promoting the cause of settlement, and prefer to hay/* few instead of many tenants to deal with, hence they turn a deaf ear to appeals to sub-djyitje and continue letting m large blocks. They can, jf they choose, bring their estate <9 r £ n y part pf it under ihe operation of sections 23V and ?^o of the Land Act 1875, whicn empower ihie Governor by Order-in-Council to declare that the land shall be subject to the provision^ of th.at Act upon thfir request or recommendation, but witnout that requestor recommcE Nation the Goyetnor is powcrle6s just when it is most desirable that he should be able to exercise power. It was proposed to remedy this by repealing that portion ot