SALE OF AURIFEROUS LANDS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 239, 9 June 1874, Page 7

SALE OF AURIFEROUS LANDS.

rni oil doirf.v vf ■ PYe from ; tKe;fill re--s-porfe of.: the! debate on the. aoovesubfeet,' which : 'took place oq the.2Bth dltd-ai] id j O' nufiferdus:opiniop that the auriferous, as well asthe noh-attriferOtis, lands in this dhrovinoei ’should ■’be iHOnitOd : froth ths. Pfoyp,]in .eqchi and .on ; sfcdi’ termjs .aflySwiUuenahldr. persons.qf, ( kU classes (if so deposed hto acquire the freehold of pprfeiens jth§re<?l*'! pJn thei.QQursei oh hid remarks the honorable member gave some statistics. He dustry was £1,707,487.; while the total annual Mlpp,pf,,the l ipaf.tpral For the year ending-,March let,/the valuobhth.f gold obtained was orei£Fer”bf, iqdusfei;iefl, or only per cent, ‘if* the dtlier* two' were takeh together. The, area set aside for gold. seeking ■£wbb 6,*11v,368 hcreai whild atea tinder crons, &c., was only 372,-398-acres. The honourable member then? that the beat • .vrayto prevent thes utter destruction of the land . by. those-Whb;workedV.it<foii'‘gbMrw&< f lio,' give Mhemi the freehold otthhdaud, ahd to'giVe them rin 1 interest id'jpreservihgt .The J gold-tield ; ih. -tlustry iwasin a’langhiahihg stated and this 1 state yel><thmgabould! only-{»ialtered by giving capi-; j -talista this knowledge that they were investing . their money, on their owti property. i-i ~ MpiWebd supported, the.mofeion, 'end-proposed . the following addition, V And -that this Council . requestiHia Honoroiuring.'thp next.’session of the Assembly .tasdamend ;thedWasfcerlahdirAct r iß to giyp.effeofe.t9 ’* j Beid ; said«i*» they Jiad: .to deal W«bj‘ec|ioftptt the narfefij;the miners' v y Kfe** iKd did' bob , fehe.h,Qnor A flomobf the f 'thejrcyrtiajfo beijpre^aj^pul^tipflfu^coippctition, w -Riven underothe ‘ Was not scanty those whp ..wished \ HSith^. available for the of works,,jnplayie.pf.locking it •up in-the |rat py rejbse cJ. thp land;.. At the present' time, 'persons wnb wished to.ianharkfiih

mining enterprises werejjn,, a tar better position thai) tney in 'iherriidtion carried Out If. the lease's : we,re •too Hhort; iribrease them'; and als<s give "security •to capital/m'' caVejthVlease before tJie 1 'mmewis wbrJceJiiut/ botiindto oppose w fS * •Vta"' l '•'■•' '••Mr M*OWpnan opposed the m'dtioVT .„i *i ' -"'TOe'Honfee'tben ,'" , ]; ' l w • twine ITouße resumine at" oclcck, • j >• Mr Kinross said bethought tta ? honourable, ' 1 tnia'ojieafciori' •tnefelyfrhm '■»' •tb'nn best •rushing away \il .thHl * and 'that gola -field,* would remove nil ob'Alncl«fti : at present in'the «d miners obtaining homesteads' in. the vicinity 'of their •' gold-'wdi-kings.' 1 * 'oppose, the motion. 'V > •Mr l)e liatour said i*W» obvious thai if the of aurift>rous'grounfl wjere rocognise4 $y oncis get poesfc;jio>v of jtboi»uriferouß-biuds ;»bui it>p!# vairy jtfouhtfq'Uwhether ithey would put th 6 land ?to .JheVatt.advantage.»*rlf thoysold tboreland*, would 4pjm .away'all theinmihimt .pbpulation.' The whole difficulty of getiingjtrt'of those lands auriferous, but scarcely so to jajpaya\jlft extent, pjgbt beobviated by adapting modirTed of free-eele^tiop, all over the "rrpyjnee, i.IJg denied ,tbgre waß any jealousy . Jibe miners of .the frgriqulturists.? /the ''•whole'aimpl; the miners in his extensive district "Wjis jto obtain'..land for agricultutal purposes in ' with tt)eir. mining, occupations,;' but , 4h,eir requests %r _agricnltaral/land w.ere ;un- • i^eded/by.theCouncil ___./ .\.\ , ..;. "'KfrTt. Clarke Said that he was quite aa much In favour.of the resolution as the honorable memberwho had moved, it, if he thought it was prac-

ticable. If pJV'the agribtiltur?»l panels that bad been destroyed bytninefsTiaoVbeen put together, it would hot make* "a good-sized- farm. „ The, htaorable 'member- then" proceeded fo give iti : stances' where the miners had worked 'without destroying thVland. It would beqnjte .impossible' to c£rry the resolution out,' even if the CouiTeil s carried'Hi. 'As a, matterof revenue, it would be ruinous to tfellthe auriferous land. Tt would be much better to have this matterplaccd before the country. The Honorable member then enteredfinte.a;general-defence of the roiiiers-j . touched on the immigration cjuestiort; alluded to the amount, spent by England'on wars ;-' cornered the relative merits of soldiers and' min'ets ; dwelt on the folly of'allowing calm thought to be ruffled by personal feeling in tne v discussion 6f matters -before the Ho'use; and then stated the fact thai in' the district he came from, thousands of acres of forest tffces gfew out of the solid rock, as going to prove that, the miners did not'injure the land. j -Wbethef the motion-was carried' or thrown out, he did not think" it Would have any, effect on the General-Assembly; - The'bonorable' member sat down'amid applause. Mr t>. F. Cl TfVowhe motion, and did'not think that'the,statistics produced by the mover give any reason why the resolution should be carried.'. The employment of so many merf'Tih public: works, and the litigation with respect to the pollution of water had ati effect in making the gofd-fields languish.,., The'salp of land would a,bad. effect].on .mining,' and, would" also prevent "He was' ento tWsale of any land. said .that the discovery of ihe honorable member for-Arrowtown, that they could plant their potatoes, in schist rock; was a valuable one, "arid one •bkely'to enhance the im-. portance of the gold-fields in the eyes of hPhornble.fltemhersiV The .miners were generally snpppsed toibe an errat'c class, and the honorable member for.Arrowtown in his speech appeared to bo.in sympathy.with them, He didflpt think that tne time had come when we should attempt to carry bnt such.a radical change in bur gold-mining laws, In.Victoria,' the knotty point was how to deal,with' the question,of-mining on private propprfy; and here it was proposed to make all the mines private' property. ; He thought there was a great harmony amongst the/three great interests—pastoral, agricultural and gold-mining—-

and that one depended, to a certain extent, oh the other. - He would oppose the motion. m : 1 'MrYljyaW,iwislied >the> question 1 to.be,;ad : journed until Monday, as. he wished to cdk&ult some statistics* and ,in or-der, that the question m;ght be thoroughly ventilated. «M"piM;*Derbi(f'secoiided' the ™M(snlfor),adj journment v: a8 f he wished; to investigate, the imi portant discovery that the Best trees could be! grown on solid rocks.—(Laughter.) tived. ' .- <?_ : . j mo'tionj was' then! ntitand negatived. •" /iv '"-- | Mr J. C. Brown saift'lt was evident that the mmrer!<if> thes r«s^lution,h^.some pj>h,er motive, than" * Therd was one very important-part with reference tothe sale,of auri?er,pus land. If the motion was .';gre ; at deal 'of revenue would; 1 be lost to the Province?'-* There was nofloiibtthat-fehej object hmdjg,-fpnjt|jluded jtp the aurjferqus andnon-| •auriferous lands, and the\mover would" not ibe the last to-tSw'advSntsge'of -itfif it was passed.: The honorable memberthen alluded to the im-j migration s^Btein fci and,the necessity fof prc-j vention of of-large .blooks of land.| When the end of piir•borrowing"p'owers came,; we should have to resort to direct taxation, and! the sooner this principle was recognised the ' He had afc amendment, ,to sooner oi;.slater, wpuld- meet, withthe approval of the House—"ln the opinion of 'this- House,'the'only way to provide for :iie:prqper:add-pi36fitable:ocoupatiQU of mineral, aEricultyraJ, ,and pastoral lands, is by leasing instead of'selling them. 2nd. That, in order toj.pifcyidei.forjjhe deficiency in revenue caused by this, an income and laud tax be imposed. 3rd. That a be presented to HJs jffonoi; the. Superintendent, requesting him td''urge s the Colonial '6overiiment ■ to introduce th^-necessary Bills in the Colonial Parliament to carry out tbp-foregoing; resolutions."—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) ..,,.,,,.. Mr Stout said'that a statement had that night been made with reference to a former debate, in which-he'referred to i the:." iunea'rnfed increment" of the land. The honorable member, then proceeded to quote from John Stuart Mill on the subject, to show that',the basis of the principle of the State bein« the landlord was asserted. If time of the CotSnc.il he could show that the principle was not only used ! in England but in other parts of Europe. Other writers beside Mill had argued in favour of the principle,.. The question of population and the , area'W agricultural land had long before been brought, »p prpmmently before the people, of this I Province, and other Provinces too. Where the land had heen menopolised in large blocks it remained unimproved, and if the same rate of sa'e of agricultural land were maintained in this Province there would be no more agricultural land in twenty years. Then we should have as much population as we could bear, and the land-owners would gradually become an aristocracy. ■ He feared itwaßtob late to adopt the system of leasing the land here—(no, no)—for the people had teen too much educated to look upon the laud as a of paying current expenditure/ it wisi impossible here to conserve our lands if all districts were clamorous for public works. All our public works must come out of loan, and the htere3t and sinking fund must come out of direct taxation, or this view of the matter must he dropped, 'and we must look upon it as one of revenue*. what was proposed, thero' was hiethod of conserving ,the land. The parting with the freehold on the' gold -fields was not the mere parting with auriferous lands, but new discoveries and prospecting were pievented. We must reserve this tight on the gold: fields, and this could not possibly be done if the freehold of the land be parted with. -.The goldmining interest would be destroyed' by such a course. The question which might at first look theoretical, was. in reality a pressing practical question. There was more reason for reserving the mineral lands than the agricultural and pas; toral lands. Let them look at what had happened in a small way in this Province by the sale'of coal producing lands. This was simply giving to private individuals a monopoly of the capital of the country to work or waste as they thpughti fit., When the honourable member moved this motion, he to a certain extent, and with the reservation that had been made, canied the present land question to its legitimate couits bitter end. In discussing this amendment, he. hoped honourable members would*discuss it'in a proper Bpirit. He believed firmly that if this system of leasing lands had beenadopted in this Province, they would not haye_had,the bitter struggles between the different" interests that they had had, and other difficulties Would not have arisen. If this had been adopted in the past we should have had- a yearly increasing, in place of a yearly decreasing, revenue, and in place of requiring .taxation, we should have beeu able to do without it, for when the leases fell in, their value would be increased. Every railway that was constructed would have increased the value of the land so much that the State would have been benefited. It had been said-that if the leasing were adopted the tenants wmild not take so much trouble, and that there would not be such good farming. Let them look . at what was the case in the Lothians in Scotland, where the tenants were the best farmeis, There, and in England, where they had not the advantages of Crown tenants, the land was improved I year after year. The best proof in a matter of this kind was an appeal to facts, and • the landlords in.England had not farmed their lands so well as had their tenants, who received no compensation for their improvements at all. If. the leasing system were adopted here, there might be "a small compensation for, improvements all6wed, and then each shipload of immigrants who ckme here would directly benefit the State. To' prevent the danger that. threatened, they should insist upon a Land Tax and an Income Tax.—(Applause.) The amendmeut was put and negatived on a division, the result being : Ayes, 14: Bastings, J. C. Brown (teller), 0. F. C. Browne, Daniel, Fish, Hazlett, Ireland, Kinross, Lumsden, MacKellar, Reeves (teller), ; Stout, Sumpter, Wood. Noes, 17: Allan, H. Clark, Davie (teller), De Lautour,, Haggitt, Henderson, M 'Dermid, M*olashan, M'Kenzie, M'Lean (teller), M'Ncil, Reid, Pioberts, Hogers, Sbarid, Webster, Wood. Pair : Aye, R. Clarke ; No, W. H. Reynolds. W* De Lautour said that he had advocate.! a

I system of restricted free selection Imeedbh'THr Bradshaw's Bill introduced last session, -that was. on the Victorian Act of 1869, which had wprked well, and he would like to see suchUttf-Act adopted here. Mr M'Dermid opposed the motion, and shortly explained his reasons. The principle upon which he proposed to carry out the land laws of the CbJlTny wjß'r¥ fdopte^and^rriedf out by the Maoris 200 years before; white people^ 'came here.—(N6V) 1 " Unley the~ia"nd was^possessed by individuals there would never be any " unearned increment." They all got a share of the unearned increment, and the honourable member who moved the motion had some-of the- ; " unearned increment' of his land in his pocketi at the present time.—(Laughter.) People would | not labour except for themselves. Mr M'Leaa -spoke- in .reply,- and -asked■• what, j prosperity the'principle of tb> State kiepimj i session of the land had produced' in (Miina and i the East ? He also alluded to the fact that Aniej rica had not tried to retain one acre of land, j The House then divided on the original motion, I which was negatived, the division being-.as, j lows : .j Ayes, 4 : Fish, M'Lean (teller), Rogers, Webster (teller.) J Noes, 23: Allan, Bastings, J. C. Brown (teller), [ G. F. 0. Browne, Daniel, Davie, ~pfi Lautpur, >: Hazlett, Ireland, Kinross, Lurnsden'(teller). ;! M'Dermid, M'Glashan, MacKeUar.'-M'Kenzie, ;| Reeves, Roberts, Shand, Sjout, Sumpter, Wil- . sou, Wood. f -Mr F|sh said that he wished to explain why he bad voted as ha did vote on this "occasion, k In t order to force a division to be recorded he voted I with the Ayes, though his sympathies were eul tirely'with the Noes.'