REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CROWN LAND GRIEVANCES.

Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 92, 15 October 1844, Page 4

REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CROWN LAND GRIEVANCES.

( Concluded from our last.) , Your Committee perceive throughout this cotrespondence, a desire on the part of most of those functionaries to keep the squatters on their present precarious tenure ; very few of them beino; favourable to the proposition made for their consideration, viz., to assimilate licenses or leases in a greater degree than they are at present assimilated. They appear also to have a wish to retain, and even to extend, their present arbitrary and extraordinary powers, and the only view with which they seem to recommeud any concession being made to the squatter is, to improve the value of the Crown lands, from which they evidently contemplate the government will eventually gain the advantage. With reference to the returns, your Committee have to express their regret that the explanatory note which accompanied them, besides being fallacious in prnciple, as will be presently 6hown, should contain no reference to the assessment levied on every head of stock depastured beyond the boundaries. So far from the assertion being correct that the fifty-six largest squatters depasture very nearly eighteen times as much stock for the same money as the fifty-six smallest squatters, it will be found that in the extreme case taken, and upon which the calculations are founded, the largest squatters pay nearly seven times as much as the smallest. The comparative amount which each class contributes to the public funds may be stated thus, — i Fifty-six large squattersAssessment on 1,216,659 sheep, at Id. per head per annum .. £5,068 Fifty-six license fees at £lO .... 560 £5,628 Fifty-six small squatters— And the amount of 68,003 sheep, at Id. per head per annum .. £283 Fifty-six license fees, at £lO .. 560 £843 So that while the fifty-six smallest squatters contribute only £843 to the public revenue, the fifty-six largest pay £5,628 annually. But the principle assumed in the note is vitally fallacious ; it is assumed that the large stockholders only pay for one

license, whereas it appears by reference to the returns, annually published in the Government Gazette, that many of them take out from two to nine licenses in one district. It is also assumed that the persons who appear as the smallest holders of stock in the return are squatters in the same sense as the large stockholders ; whereas, although obliged, to,have a license, they are not properly squatters at all. By this term your Committee only understand to be meant those who drive flocks and herds into the wilderness, to make a livelihood by taking the grass which would otherwise be annually was ted. The small stockholders named in the return subsist not as graziers, but as carriers, labourers, storekeepers, or followers of other occupations supported by the stockholders around them. To those not acquainted with the parties this may be made manifest by taking a specimen from the returns : Clarence River district. H. Gisbett, 50 head of cattle, Wellington district, James Collett, 4 head of cattle, and 242 sheep, Lachlan district, 5 settlers, from 45 to 60 head of cattle each. Murrumbeidge district, 2 settlers, from 20 to 40 head of cattle each. Murray district, G. Morrison, 40 head of cattle, Gipps Land district, William Scott, 4 head of cattle. None of these parties, nor many others, with about the same quantity of stock, could possibly live by their stock, still less pay assessment and license upon its I profits. Take the last case put, that of William Scott, and according to the principle assumed in Mis Excellency's note, this man pays two pounds ten shillings per head to the revenue ; that is, mote than the value of the stock in the market. It is scarcely reasonable to bring such cases into calculation for the purpose of ascertaining what should be paid by bona fide graziers.