LAND MONOPOLY.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 98, 26 May 1876, Page 6

LAND MONOPOLY.

-observe the Waste Lands Board,; lncftwithsta.-nding the memo, from the! to the Board, has re-i •solved to adhere to its former decision •of forbido^Hig -tire sale of land, and the; Provincial tioVetnttient appear to have adopted > the -only course, which in jus-! lice was open to it, viz., that of allow-! ing the lessees to regain possession ofj the cancelled portions of iheir runs.j Probably a considerable proportion oi' '.Lie outside public has been unable quite zo make up its mind whether to ap-; prove of the acriot of the Board or. not.! "There appears to be some force in what 3Mr Dustings said, that "if these lands•on the mountains were put up to sale by : auction in reasonable blocks, there was a largo number of settlers in the country •quite prepared to buy if you gave them some iow-lying land as well." The question appears to be, whether this ■land, "if it be sold, might not have been -sold ia a manner more beneficial to the; 'country, if nmX to the provincial ex-' chequer, thatt 3n *fee way proposed. It; appears that in the session of 1873, the! Provincial Council resolved upon the ; ■sale of 00,000 acres of hilly land under! -clause 150 of the Utago Waste Lahds^ Act, 1872, which 'clause empowers the : Council and Superintendent to sell by; public auction land of *i mountainous | description) contained in a pastoral' lease, on obtaining the runholders' coti■sent to the sale. Instead of acting in strict accordance with this resolution! •of the Council, the Executive adopted such a course as would have enabled •certain run holder* to purchase the iVee. hold of large portions of their runs without any competition. The Superintendent maintains, that by so doing the Government would have , got a better price for the land than if the land Lad been offered for sale at auction at ten shillings an acre, under clause .150 ofthe ; Act. The question, however, still remains; whether the land tniglit tiot have been sold in a mariner more satisfactory than 'allowing a few individuals to obtain the freehold of such a jF-rge extent of- country. ■ Perhaps, however, |he only result of selling by auction at ten shillings an acre would

have been, that the land would have been bought tip by a i'ew large capitalists for a less am'ouht" than "the 'lessees'! of. the runs were: prepared to offer. With respect,, however,. ;to this matter, it seems to me a clear d«fect in the Land Act of 1872, that under clause 42, the Board should be allowed to exercise a political function, a.nr| be empowpred to decide whether certain land shall or shall not he sold, on. account of the sale being, merely in the opinion of the Board, prejudicial to the public" interest.. Ijt is the people to. whom the land belongs, and it is for the people to say wjuifc land shall or shall not be sold. The Waste Lands Board does hot represent the people. The people are represented hy. the Provincial Council, and the law should be that not ah acre of land in the country shall be sold until the people, through their'representative^, has approved of or decided a sale. Perhaps the strongest! objection to the proposed sale of this 60,000 acres is, that the Executive acted on their ownrespon-' sibility '.without the express direction of. the, Council., . Had our Provincial Council met as usual thisyear, all this turmoil might .have., been avoided. Doubtless land. : monopoly is to be: strongly guarded against. Upon the amount of people we can get to settle on the land;; depends to a great axtftnt the prosperity of the Colony, both in the immediate and more distant future. Much , happier results may be anticipated, both as regards the financial prosperity of the country and the character of the population, by the land becoming the property of many, than^ by its being monopolised by a few. It. remains, however, to be seen, whether the stoppage of this particular sale will have any beneficial effect towards staying land monopoly, or whether the effect of it will only be to postpone for a short time the period when the runholders or large capitalists will become the owners of a large portion ot the land comprised in the present pastoral leases. Bearing in mind the proclivities the Premier has formerly exhibited in favor of the pastoral tenants, and the impecuniosit} r of the General Governmentj it seems probable that most disastrous consequences will result from the stewardship of the wastelands being withdrawn from the Superintendent and Council, and handed over to the General Government. Under the new regime, it will require most strict legislation, and most active conduct on the part of the -people, to prevent a large portion of the country being almost immediately monopol'sed by runholders and large capitalists.