THE Cromwell Argus. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 1870.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 1, Issue 43, 7 September 1870, Page 4

THE Cromwell Argus. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 1870.

Thekb are two classes of persons making enquiries in this province from time to time. Each is equally earnest. The one is composed of the unsuccessful among us, who wish to know of their friends who can “ lay them on to good gold,” that they may be able to make a “ rise,” as it is called, and to get out of the province, or out of New Zealand altogether, as soon as possible. A run of ill luck has put them out of heart, and almost out of hope. Former successes are forgotten, or are remembered only to embitter present disappointment. The questions now are to all their acquaintances, Where is the fortunate patch to be found 1 Where is the golden paddock 1 Who shall show them where to strike the load that shall be the key to the needed treasure 1 Upon the success of the reply or thealternative hinges their relation to this country. There is another class of questioners altogether different from the former, or they agree only in the earnestness of their address. These are the successful members of the community, and their aim is to settle here. And they want to know how to do this: how to apply the savings of honest servitude, of sober toil, or of the successful results of a mining enterprise, to a small freehold, and convert it into a homo; to build, plant, fence, and cultivate ; to raise pigs and poultry, butter, oats, and potatoes ; to gather round them the fruits of their own industry; and to make this their adopted country, their abiding home. Cases of this sort are becoming more common every day. But who is to give the answer ? Where is the oracle that is to speak for their guidance 1 ? As to the for-1 mer class, though science has done so much for the miner, no one of all the skilled gold-seekers in the province can peg off a claim for his friend, with the certainty that it will not turn out a “duffer.” But ought there to be any uncertainty in procuring a freehold, by a class, too, of all others the i most needed in a new country? With a' good amount to his credit in the Bank, no man finds any difficulty in obtaining a horse, a house, or a share in a sluicing claim. But none can tell him how to obtain the “ fee simple” of a hundred acres at once and without hampering delays: and yet nothing is so abundant. We are well supplied with native flax, broad lakes, and bracing air, but our “ public estate,” as it is called, counts by millions on millions of acres. A person who is prepared to fulfil all the conditions of a bona fide occupier should be able to obtain from the legitimate trustees of the Crown a specified quantity for his own use, as soon as he offers himself as a purchaser. And where this is not the case, there is something fundamentally wrong. The homestead laws in the United States are so simple, so inexpensive, and so accessible to all, that no temptation can allure the home population in large numbers to those shores where the land laws and regulations, and the difficulties of purchase are so various and so numerous that they are perfectly insurmountable to plain men. Our Mayor has been in correspondence with Mr Fraser, respecting the available land at the Hawea Lake, and that gentleman has pressed the matter upon the attention of the Secretary for Lands and Works ; but there is little prospect of any immediate result. Those who might become useful and successful occupiers have been waiting for something definite to guide them here, till their means are wasting ; instead of being producers, and consumers, and sharers of our public 1

burdens 1 , ,they ; will soon lie looking beyond New Zealand, fox something not to be found here. The Land Office should respond to the first applicant as directly and promptly as if the demand were for bad whisky, or gin : in these matters there is no delay.- And it is but too common to see those savings which, well husbanded, might, have led on to brighter prospects and better days, squandered in dissipation and “ riotous living.” If maps could be furnished to our Town Clerks in the upcountry districts, and applications received, sites chosen, deposits paid, and land-seek-ers put in the way of provisional occupation at once, the vital parts of the/'Otfulation would bo retained in our midsvl would employ their savings whef§* they gathered them, and bo centres of industry and sources of revenue.