THE Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1999, 1 October 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1869.

Official documents are not very frequently come-at-able by the larger portion of our readers, and if they were, the reading of them would be too elaborate a task for those whoso time is for the most part occupied with every-day requirements. It is not pleasant, however, to be wholly unac--quainted with the contents of papers to which the politicians of the day are continually referring as the groundwork of some Act of Parliament, and

we therefore propose to give a brief analysis of the Report of the Commissioners on the Administration of Crown Lands in Otago, as it is represented to be the basis on which the Otago Hundreds Regulations Bill was formed. In pursuance of this plan we shall avoid comment, and content ourselves with giving a bare but impartial outline of the statements and arguments, leaving our readers to draw their own conclusions —at least for the present. Complaints of mal-administration of the Land Laws are stated to have been made by two classes of settlers in the Province, viz. ;—First, settlers in pa its of the Province declared into Hundreds ; and, second, the inhabitants of the goldfields. Under the head of “ Want of Laud “ in the Old Hundreds,” the complaints of the first class are considered. They were ; Want of commonage, through the Provincial Government selling land at ten shillings an acre within Hundreds; and that the Government had entered into certain covenants with runholders which prevented the extension of old Hundreds or the declaration of new ones.

With respect to the sale of land at 10s an acre, the Commissioners, after stating the clause in the Waste Lands Acts, authorising the sale of land by auction, within Hundreds that had been open for selection and sale for the full period of seven years, summarize the arguments for and against such sale. They refer to the ordinary reasons on both sides, as stated in evidence by Major Richardson, Mr Rkid, His Honor the Superintendent, and Mr Redmaynp, and add, “ other rea- “ sons, adduced to show that the sales were injurious.” To the revenue, —because the, lands sold, bring near the coast and centres of population, were rapidly increasing in value, and, if retained, would have realised a much larger amount. To the small settlers,—as these could only gradually acquire the means of adding, bit y bit, to their farms ; and the lands were gone before they could acquire such means. To the increase of population,— because capitalists being tempted by the low price to buy up the land, none is left for immigrants who arrive gradually. To freeholders generally—because the low price of this Government land has reduced the value of their own lands. To the Province —because the injury done to a large body of small settlers, by depriving them of one of the main elements of their success —keeping cattle on common land —must affect the whole community; and because the sa'e of large blocks to capitalists must diminish the future tax-bearing power of the State, as the land will be in the hands of a small instead of a large population. Against these the Commissioners balance the following suggestions as arguments that may be urged against the Hundred system : That it encourages persons’of insufficient means to engage in farming, to their own ultimate embarrassment or ruin ; that it leads to slovenly and unskilful farming; that it tends to the deterioration of breeds of cattle, and affords temptations to cattle stealing and other offences. Moreover, it is asserted, with apparent truth, that the sales in question produced a considerable revenue when it was much wanted by the Province, when its powers of borrowing had been exhausted, aud its funds derivable from other sources were diminished. That it enabled the Government to carry out public works of the highest utility, roads, bridges, &c., which could not otherwise have been executed. That these works gave employment to hundreds, aud. of course, added to the general prosperity, and must have conduced to the real settlement of the country. That the purchase and occupation of large blocks by capitalists has also given employment to many of the small proprietors, particularly in the northern parts of the Province, and thereby enabled them to carry on their own farms successfully. That these sales are shown by returns to have included many purchases of small blocks, and that an increase of 782 holdings has been made in the two years from 1867 to 1860. And, lastly, that there is at this moment no less an amount than 415,651 acres of land unsold within existing Hundreds. On these grounds the Commissioners do not think the policy of the sales calls “ for any particular animadver- “ sion,” especially as in the “ present “ instance ” the lands were sold after deliberate decision by the Provincial Council, “and in exercise of a power “ given after much discussion by the “Legislature of the Colony.” The Commissioners express therefore neither “ approbation nor condemnation ” of the sale.