DEFERRED-PAYMENT SET TLERS

Dunstan Times, Issue 1050, 2 June 1882, Page 3

DEFERRED-PAYMENT SET TLERS

At a public meeting of deferred-payment selectors, hold in Duielin last Saturday attorno mi a resolution was passed to the effect that the following petition ho circulated throughout Oi ago .for the purpose of receiving the signatures of settlers, and that it l-o then presented to Parliament : The petition of the undersigned deferredpayment selectors and agricultural settlers iu the Provincial District of Otago humbly sheweth:—

L That many of your petitioners have taken up land on deferred-payments under the provisions ot the law io force for the time being in the colony. 2. That many of your petitioners have obtained their land afer competition at anc tiou, and that owing to the length of time over which the payments were spread, overcompeMtion at a time when a species of land fever had seized the entire community, and a too limited area of laud being offered for settlement, they have given prices at auction far beyond the real value of the land. 3. That many of your petitioners now find it impossible to complete the payments which they had, under the pressure of the circnmstancesdetailed, undertaken to make. 4. That when selectors ars in arrear of payment, the Land Act contains provisions of a highly unjust and oppressive character, amounting if put in force to a confiscation of their property and the forfeiture of large sums which they may have paid towards the purchase money. 5. That, in consequence, many of your petitioners have been compelled to effect forced loans to escape such confiscations and forfeiture ; and in order to give security for such forced loans have been driven to pay up in full the remaining unpaid instalments of purchase money. 6. That although these instalments are, under the contract, payable to the Crown only over a senes of years, yet the selectors have received no rebate of interest for thejr immediate payment in one sum, and your petitioners aie therefore now practically paying two interests on the same sum of money—one to th m mortgagees and the other to the Crown, for which latter they have received no consideration.

7. That others of your petitioners have taken up areas varying from 50 to 200arres on the deferred-payment system, and find themselves debarred by the terms of the Land Act from completing their selection up to 320 acres. 8. That others of your petitioners who have acquired the freehold of lands held under deferred ptymeuts, however small the area, are also debarred by the Laud Act, from any further selection. 9. That others of your petitioners have taken up land without opposition during the period within which “The Crown Land Sales Act. 1877,” was in operation.

10. That it was a matter so doubtful whether the said Act really raised the price of deferred-payment land from 30s to (iOa that the Waste Land Board felt compelled to obtain the legal opinion of a Judge of the Supreme Court on the point, who advisee that the terms of the said Act had thad eff.-ct

11. That some of your petitioners took the best legal advice, including that of Robert Stout, Esq., the framer of the said Act, and were advised to the direct contrary.

12 That your petitioners have 'henu inform: d, and verily belie ve, that the said Act was not intended by the Legislature to ivisc the price of deferred-payment land.

13. That many f your petitioners selected laud during the said period under the full impression,■md’belief that an Amending Act. would inniur lately be passed, providing that die true intention of the Legislature should ho,legally carried out, and the price of land /vli'ch had been selected without opposition l-e legally fixed at 30s per acre

14. That accordingly iho s id Act was repealed in 1879, but the repeal was unf -r----tunately not made retrospective. 15' That some of your petitioners have selected land which had remained open a considerable lime at 3l)s per acre, prior to the passing of the said Act, and for which no application had l een received, and yet are liable to pay t'3 per acre, although the price in these very blocks has again been lowered to .'ids per acre ; and some of the land is still unapplied for even at the. reduced price.

IC. That your petitioners find that owing to the uncertainties affecting agricultural pursuits, the occurrence of bad harvests and occasionally cxceiitionallv low prices of pro dnee—the provisions of the present law re qui ing fixed payments annually, on pain of conliscotion and foi feiture, work exceedingly to their disadvantage.

17. Your petitioners beg humbly to say that t hey arc anxious and willing to pay for their land according to the true and fair price and value thereof, but owing to the exceptional circumstances already referred to under which these licenses were acquire I, they are at present bound to pay far beyond that value.

Your petitioners humbly submit that a re-valuation of their lauds by competent and impartial persons, and such a re arrangement of th- terms of payment as will enable them to pay off the principal price at such times as they may be able so to do, would he equitable in itself anil for the h.-st interests of the agricultural settlement of the colony. 19. That your petitioners beg humbly and respectfully to direct the attention of your lioimniaMe House to a Bill prepared by John Aitken Connell to amend the Land Act (a copy of which they have been informed has been sent to each member of your honourable House), which provides, in the opinion of your petitioners, a fair and practical remedy for the grevionces under which your petitioners suffer, and which, if passed into Lw. would, in the opinion of your petitioners, prevent the recurrence of complications alike hurtful to the set lers and the community.

20 That your petitioners approve of all the provisions of the said Bill in so far as the same relate to deferred payment lan-1, excepting that the words “at auction” should be struck out of c arise 34, and that personal residence on pastoral deferred payment land should, in the opinion of your petitioners be retained, ami that the words “ less the amount of the sum of the instalments already pai I, - ’ should bo added to clause 41.

Your petitioners therefore humhly pray that your honourable Hone will take their many grievances into its favourable consideration, and devise such measures for their relief and otherwise, either by passing the said Bill into law, or otherwise, as to your honourable House may seem meet.—And your petitioners will ever pray.