The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3070, 20 December 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

The question of the sale of auriferous lands is now being agitated in two quarters of the Province. They present very different results. In the one case—-that at the Maerewheuna —a very careful inquiry has been made before the application was entertained, a finished plan was prepared to lay before the Executive by a competent surveyor, and every precaution was adopted by the Executive to guard against alienating land containing gold. In the other case, the Waste Land Board allowed themselves to be hoodwinked into sanctioning a purchase upon a minute of the Executive Council of three years ago. We do not suppose that the Board meant any harm, but their innocence is somewhat astounding. This very land had been notoriously the subject of agitation and petition by (he miners ; it had formed the subject of inquiry by a Committee of the Provincial Council, and a former Secretary of the Goldfields, Mr Buamuaw, had made a memorandum suggesting that it should not be sold. Y'et with all these facts ascertainable, an old Executive minute forms the sanction for the sale. There may be some excuse for newly-appointed members of the Board not having these thingsiu remembrance, but the same excuse will not bold good with regard to those who have sat at the Board for years. At the same time we would ask why should memoi’y have to he depended upon in such matters ? The application to purchase was three years old, and the endorsement .sanctioning the application not far short of it. Surely it is not too much for the public to expect that all that transpires in relation toaparticular section of land should he recordea carefully iu such a manner, that immediate reference can he made to it, and the action taken justified. To this absence of system is owing many of the complications and difficulties in which Executives arc sometimes involved. The Ministry that gave their sanction is forgotten, and (hat under which a sale is effected is condemned, although, as in the case iu question, never having been consulted. they an* entitled to be held free from blame. We think, where the risk' of parting with valuable property is so great as in selling land under the agricultural regulations, too much care cannot he exercised ; and that th« plan of giving public notice of intention to purchase, adopted by Mr Bastings, is a very proper measure. It will, at any rate, prevent the people of the district being taken by surprise, and tend naturally to give confidence to the populations of mining areas that their interests will not be recklessly sacrificed. If henceforth such sales take place, they will have to accuse themselves of inattention to their own best interests. But, in our opinion, public objections to the sale of sections of laud should always be thoroughly investigated. Unfortunately ill-formed jealousies, and ill-formed opinions as to the character of certain lands are often extensively spread, and it is highly desirable that these should be avoided as far as possible, and where they exist, means should be taken to ascertain the truth. The right course was taken iu relation to the application to buy a part of the Maerewheuna Goldfield, and a competent Commission was appointed to investigate and report. Although the applicant himself may foci disappointed iu not being able to buy what he desires to possess, he will be satisiicd that all has

been done tbiii sbould be done in roforeneo to dealing witb tbc public estate, and that bis interest lias been equally consulted as that ot the rest- oi the community.

Those who believe that the land system of England is fixed and permanent, are but imperfectly acquainted with the changes that are taking place in public opinion at Rome. For many years an under-current of thought has been gradually shaping itself on the subject. It has yet assumed a very definite form, and is at present more speculative than practical. Most probably the system of France has had some effect in directing public attention to the subject, but it is tar more probable that the tough discussions in the Colonies concerning the conditions on which land shall be alienated have had much greater. If is plain that the democratic institutions of the Australasian Colonies are inducing changes at Home that would not have taken place for years to come had they not been first tried in (hem. The Colonies are experimental ground on which to ascertain how daring theories work. Rad _it not been for the experience gained in them with regard to the eflect of the ballot system of taking votes, the English electors would not yet have received the boon, and more than probably the disestablishment of the Irish Churchy was hastened by the experience gained of the ecclesiastical equality of the different sects in the Colonies, This is but the beginning of changes. 'Where they _ will end it is difllcult to foresee; but it is evident that sooner or later all institutions conferring exclusive privileges on classes of men are destined to give way. For many years some of the soundest thinkers have perceived the injustice to a family of dealing with landed property in a different manner from personalties. They can see no reason why one son should be entitled to privileges denied to his brother or to his sisters. Ah> doubt, to change the hereditary succession to landed property would ultimately involve the abolition of the aristocracy, and opinions differ widely as to’ whether that would be an advantage or a disadvantage. Such a result is! however, too remote for realisation during the lifetime of this generation. We are not, therefore, concerned in the social changes that may be consequent upon the abolition of the time-honored titles to land. Whatever they may ultimately be. will depend upon the character of the agitation that must take place before the landed proprietors concede one jot of the position that they have so long claimed, and which has been so unhesitatingly conceded to them. The chances are. that, when changes take place, they will assume a character little reckoned upon by the first movers in the matter. It has ever been so, where reforms are initiated and resisted. The very opposition leads to investigation; investigation develops principles ; and ultimately, that which would at first lune involved but little sacrifice, becomes thoroughly and completely altered. The latest form that the Land Reform question has assumed in England was set forth at the Social Science Congress, at Plymouth, this year. In reference to it. the correspondent of the Si/dney Herald says

Under these speeches, as under the multitudinous talk at the recent Social Science Congress at Plymouth, have lain references moic or less covert to the Land Laws as the great question pressing for consideration, and in which many of the smaller questions about labor and capital, and law reform are involved. One party of agitators is for over demanding primary attention for the disestablishment of the English Church, in fact a conference is now sitting at Birmingham with this object; but there is reason to believe that public opinion is being prepared more rapidly for modifications in the tenure of laud than for the “spoiling and denationalising ” of the Church, Sir R. K. Torrens recommends to us “ the Australian system, whose excellent working he has himself witnessed but in a paper on Free-trade in Land, read at Plymouth by Mr Arthur Arnold, the following detailed suggestions are made : “ 1. The devolution of real property in cases of intestacy in the same manner which the law directs in regard to personal property; 2. The abolition of copyhold and customary tenures ; 3. The establishment of a Landed Estate Court, for the disposal of encumbered settled property; 4. A completion of the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom upon a sufficient scale ; /*. A system of registration of title, which shall be compulsory upon the sale of property, the fee upon registration—sufficient to defray all official expenses- -being a per centagc on the purchasemoney ; the same per ceutage for all sums. A certificate of title would be given, free of all costs in respect of any freehold lands, of which the reputed owner could prove undisturbed possession for thirty years. Any title could be registered in the Land Registry office upon evidence of title for thirty years ; the fees being the same as in case of sale, when the registration would bp compulsory ; G. That, preserving intact the power of owners of land to bequeath it undivided or in shares, no gift or bequest, or settlement of life estate iu land, nor any trust establish 3 sucli an estate, tdioulcl hereafter be lawful; the exceptions being iu the case of trusts for the widow or the infant children (until they attain majority) of the testator, or for the benefit of a posthumous child.”