The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 1, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4111, 1 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 1, 1876.

It is pretty plain that a renewal of the attempt to sell large blocks of laud to runholders, which has just been frustrated by the force of public indignation, is contemplated by the Provincial Executive. The Government newspapers and squatters’ friends are busily engaged in extolling the temperate tone of Mr Reid’s speech at the late meeting of the Waste Lands Board, and with an unaccustomed solicitude for the interests of the laboring classes, pathetically deprecate the throwing of multitudes of men out of employment during the winter months. Erstwhile, these vigorously anathematised for their insolence in objects of compassion were “loafers,” and demanding excessive rates of wages. From what cause has this newly-sprung sympathy arisen? Doubtless the Executive are very hard up. They are in a position like that of the owner of a splendid estate, who by a career of extravagance has got embarrassed in his circumstances. The bailiff is knocking at the door, while an enterprising land speculator stands in the room, offering to buy the estate for half its value, cash down. Without an enlightened friend at hand, iirra enough to do an act of cruel kindness, the spendthrift is likely enough to yield to the pressure of the moment, and commit a piece of consummate folly. The Waste Land Board has played the part of the faithful friend to the Executive on the present occasion. It is not, however, as we have before shown, the place

of the Board to accommodate its manage iieut of the waste lands to the pecuniary necessities of tho Executive. if it ca'i oblige the Executive without injury to the public weal, so much the better ; but if not the Executive must go the wall. The Executive have no right to enter upon undertakings which there is even a risk may remain uncompleted unless large blocks of laud arc sold to individuals. The Board has but one duty to perform—to administer the waste lauds in the interest of the community, and not as a means of extricating any Government, whether Provincial or General, from monetary difficulties. The daring assumption that the proper mode of disposing of the pastorallands of the i rovmce is by selling them in large blocks to runholders is utterly opposed to public opinion, which rightly deems these lands to be the means whereby a permanent revenue can be raised in aid of the public burthens. Who, moreover, can define what is pastoral country ? Land which now can only be profitably used for grazing purposes will, in a few years, by the extension of population, be brought under cultivation by the application of artific'al means of fertilisation. Doubtless, land does exist which can never be traversed by the plough ; but it was not stony wastes that the squatters who were in such a hurry to lodge their applications the other day manifested so much eagerness to buy. Had the land for which they applied been of so painfully barreu a nature as is now depicted they would probably have waited with equanimity until the celebrated * Gazette ’ had reached their homes in due course, instead of almost anticipating its publication with their applications and deposits. One speculative gentleman, it appears, had no objection to become the proprietor of 60,000 acres of this worthless country. Had, indeed, the Executive honestly believed that it was absolutely necessaiy to sell an extensive tract of pastoral country, and regretting the need for the sacrifice, have nevertheless determined to make it produce the utmost possible advantage to the Province, they would have given ample notice of their intention throughout Otago and Canterbury, so that numerous bidders might be attracted ; they would have reserved all mineral rights to the Crown, and have cut up the land into moderate-sized blocks—at all events the 23,000 acres from Mr Shennan’s run, at the Taieri, which even Mr M ‘Kerbow’s unflattering report shows might judiciously have been dealt with in this manner. They would have carefully refrained from selecting 13,000 acres on a river frontage, so that its purchaser must necessarily acquire the 17,000 acres of the run remaining at his own price. Instead of pursuing this line of conduct, the Executive made the transaction a hole-and-corner one, which naturally gave rise to suspicions ; and whether those suspicions were well or illfounded, it is certain that, by the action of the Executive, the whole of this land nearly went bodily into the possession of the runholders.

The defenders of this proceeding form two classes—those who are supporting the Executive through thick and thin for political reason?, and a very few squatters with their friends. These gentlemen misread the signs of the times. The groundwork of the popular outcry on this subject does not rest upon partisanship, but on a conviction that land should not be sold in large blocks at all. It was especially impolitic in the present case ; but had the proposed sale been less objectionable in itself, public feeling would still have forbidden its consummation. The new ideas which have been promulgated on the land question are bearing fruit, and are likely to flourish still more vigorously in the future. The meetings held in the country districts show that the people will not readily part with their patrimony—for it is their patrimony, whatever sneers the phrase may excite—and it would be intolerable that bands of speculators should be permitted to take advantage of our political complications and pounce down upon slices of the public estate.