THE Bay of Plenty times.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 370, 29 March 1876, Page 2

THE Bay of Plenty times.

"THE SPIRIT OF THE. TIMES- SHALL TEACH ME SPEED."' KING JOHN, ACT IV.

Wednesday, Makcit 29, 1876

It is high- time that steps -be taken to deal with the land in the- hands of absentees whose whereabouts cannot be ascertained, and with that- of deceased military settlers.- The retardment of settlement in this district- may, in a very large measure, be attributed to the fact that a very considerable portion of good land is not in the market, nor likely to be, unless the screw is ptit on the holders if they can be found. ■ It seems to us that the introduction. of a Bill in Parliament, giving the Government the power to select the names of all persons holding land in the Tauranga District whether ■by Crown Grants, Scrip, or otherwise for military services, would meet the difficulty. A list of such lands should be made out, and advertised for a certain given

iperiod, and failing any claimant comiHg forward in person, or by deputy, then these lands should be treated, in the' same manner., as the ordinary Crown Lands in the -district, and.ad;vortised for -public sale: the amount realised, by th.c sales,, less the roadrates due- on each section, should be kept in a separate account, and the ■money invested- in- Government securities until claimed, or for 'a stated period, say of ten years or so, after which time, the balance of the money s be regarded and treated as Local Land Jtfevenue of the District in which ■such sale took.place.- Some such sys"tein would be-benefitting'.the absentee holders and the' deceased, grantee's relatives, much more than- suffering the- land to remain in. its present uncultivated; waste -state ;■ besides; to our mind, being the only reasonable way apparently of removing the hateful incubus of waste lands hitherto unapproachable. . The land question is a ■solid reality, . which sneers and statistics are not likely to extinguish. The working of our laws affecting land is so technical and so intricate, that: the effect of any single change in the law is what no one can accurately trace. Altogether, "the land question" needs an -amount of threshing out ivhich has not yet begun, ere this and other districts similarly circumstanced will forge ahead in the race of settlement.