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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3068, 27 April 1881, Page 2

If the Government pursue their policy of withdrawing from the purchase of native lands, the time will come when the Crown Lands having been disposed of, the would-be settler must seek his purchase of a farmstead at the hands of speculators. Absolute free trade in bargaining for native lands, the Govern-! ment standing on one side in favor of private individuals, gives direct encouragement to companies of capitalists to enter upon a field of speculation at the expense of settlement. In allusion to the settlement scheme of the Patetere ring, the Taranaki Herald says :-—" As the Company do not intend to do this out of pure and disinterested motives; we have no doubt that the Government will be called on to do something in road-making to open up this If this is not done, the profits to the Company will not be great; for settlement without roads is known by this time to end in lamentable failure.' If the Government have determined to abandon the colonization of the North Island, there is no doubt they will find that they have-made a political mistake, from which retreat will not be so easy as in 1877. It is utterly impossible tor small settlers- to get direct from the natives small blocks of land. It is generally bought wholesale, and the small man must get his desires satisfied by an arrangement with the speculator."