The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3889, 11 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1875.

Nothing can more clearly demonstrate the confidence that capitalists have in the future of the Colony than the statement of Sir Donald M‘Lean regarding the value of land in the North Island, Six years since he would have been a bold man who purchased landed property there, with the idea of settling on it. But times have changed, and now from one to two pounds an acre is given for what would gladly have been sold at ten shillings even so late as 1872. The Statement of Sir Donald M‘Lean is interesting on many grounds. It shows the working of the system of allowing competition between the Government and private capitalists in the acquirement of land. As the right of the Natives to property in the soil was one of the principles on which settlement in the Colony was based, it is only a corollary that they should have full liberty to place it in the best market they can command ; and therefore it would have been manifestly unfair to have restricted them to a monopolist, whether capitalist or government. There are, no doubt, inconveniences connected with the system, not the least of which is the expense to which the country has been put in securing purchases to individuals, with due regard to justice to Native sellers. In this respect the South has had to pay dearly for Northern bargains. But that difficulty is apparently a thing of the past, and the North has become a field of speculation instead of strife. One to two pounds an acre is a high price, estimated by our Otagon standard, for land even in the Waikato. If landed property there bo of such exceptional value, it becomes a serious consideration whether we are not throwing away our agricultural land here, by retaining the upset price of one pound per acre. This is a question that will at nodistant day have to come under serious discussion. There is, however, one point in these land acquirement statistics deserving of special notice. We need not here discuss the question of property in land ; the illustration w© wish to draw attention to in Sir D. M'Lean’s statement regards tenure. There is a class of persons who look upon freeholds as a necessity, forgetful that the larger area of the Colony is occupied by leaseholders. In the North Island the Government itself has become a leaseholder, and has agreed to rent from the Natives, in round numbers, 2,000,000 acres of land, of which arrangements for 400,000 are completed, and for the remainder it is understood the terms are settled. In Victoria, and when the subject has been discussed in Otago, much has been gfaid in condemnation of

tba State becoming a landlord— of danger of such a system to liberty, and of the impossibility of collecting the rents, with other equally untenable reasons ; but now the Government will be compelled to make the experiment, and, as has been the case with all Provincial Government experience, there can be no doubt the difficulty will prove only imaginary. In Otago, rents of runs and agricultural areas are paid pretty regularly, as well as rents of land devoted to special uses, such as mines, mill sites, and other leaseholds ; nor is there any difficulty in collecting license fees of various kinds. We have no apprehension that the General Government will be less likely than Provincial Executives to gather rents from leaseholders, or that there will be any difficulty in finding tenants for the land they cannot sell. In fact, it will be no matter for surprise should the leasehold property be settled first, as men will have the use of money for cultivation or fencing that would have had to become fixed capital had they first had to buy the land. Great Britain and Ireland afford abundant evidence of the advantage of the leasing system. This is ignored by its opponents on grounds similar to those taken by protectionists in regard to free trade— ,£ It is all very well for an old country, but not applicable to a new one,’ > is their cry. The applicability will now be repeated under their own eyes. It is heedless to speculate upon the beam they will contrive to throw across their field of vision. The money of the land speculators is quite enough to prevent clearsightedness. There ire none so blind as those who will not see.