The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4184, 25 July 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1876.

The questions raised at the general election were of bo absorbing a nature that the inhabitants of each Province paid little heed to the elections elsewhere; otherwise the peculiar spectacle exhibited by Canterbury would have attracted instant notice. There the Constitutional issue, justly regarded by the rest of the Colony as of paramount importance, was reduced to a subordinate place m the political contest, while its lawful position was usurped by the consideration of what treatment should be accorded to the pastoral tenants of Canterbury upon the expiration of their leases in 1880 Al though the Canterbury squatters 'would doubtless, in any case, have worked assiduously for the return of such membeia as would be likely to support their interests m the Assembly, it is possible their labors would have been carried on in secret rather than openly, but for the indiscretion of one of their number—Mr Studholme—who unintentionally let the cat out of the bag by announcing at an election meeting at >V:um;.,tethar the runhoMws deemed they had a pre-emptive right to ih renewal of their lea-leu v, ,ir.n thoy expired in 1880. This startling doctrine was lnswl miou certain occurrences which took place in 18«4. At that Eenod the Canterbury squatters, thenholdinc cen»e» current tiU 1870, taking advantage

of a favorable conjuncture, offered, if the terms of their licenses were extended until 1880, to pay forthwith a higher rent. The proposal was obviously an improper one to accept, because six years had still to elapse before the licenses fell in, and the ever-varying circumstances of the Colony made it impossible to judge what would be the real market value of the runs in 1870. The mess of pottage for which the Province was asked to surrender its future eßtate was, moreover, an exceedingly small one. Last year 4,682,973 acres were held under pastoral licenses, for which the magnificent sum of 1*43,515 was paid by way of rent; so that the Province suffered both by the alienation of its lands for an unduly long term, and by getting an inadequate rent for them. The squatting interest, which is allpowerful in Cantetbury, was, however, triumphant, and the unfair bargain was concluded.

The claim put forward by Mr Stodholme, and promptly backed up by the whole squatting interest, was ostensibly based upon an implied promise made by the Provincial Executive in 1864 that a fresh ten years lease should be given to the present tenants in 1880 as a further equivalent for the opppessive rent above-mentioned which they voluntarily took upon their shoulders, lhe alleged promise does not appear in the statute confirming the agreement ; and " is plain, on the face ©f it, that no Provmcial Executive could bind its successors sixteen years beforehand to renew existing leases of Crown lands for a further term of te\i years. If it could give away leases for twenty-six years in this L aS 2°£> why not for nin ety-nine or 999, and bind the public estate in perpetuity 1 How ?0 ,i? t P ™ vi , ncial Executive holding office in IBb4 tell whether the circumstances of the country in 1880 would be such as to justify the granting of leases of Cftwn lands at all on that date ? Aa it happens, in all human probability, when the year 1880 arrives the entire constitutors of the country will have been changed and Provincial Executives will be no more ; nor is 'it to be supposed for a moment that the administration of the waste lands will remain unaffected by these great mutations. Such a doctrine could not be propounded in a place where a healthy public opinion exists; but the runholding interest is overwhelmingly predominant in Canterbury, and after a few faint remonstrances on the part of the opponents of land monopoly, this promise of the Executive, of which no record is extant, was generally accepted as binding, and the only question left was upon what terms the leases should be renewed. The test of an auction was repudiated. The public were told, in face of experience to the contrary in Otago, that "rings"would be formed and the Government cheated right and left if the pastoral leases were put up to competition; and the only true course to follow was to value the runs and offer them to the present tenants at the price fixed by the valuers. In support of this proposal, it was coolly said that the present holders having picked out the " eyes" of their runs

and purchased them under the extensive pre-emptive rights, both for homesteads and improvements, which the Canterbury runholders possesss, many of the runs had become of little value to any but their present occupiers ; in other words, the laws had been so framed as to give an ' unfair advantage to the runholderp - " . their exercise of the priv''- 1 -" tt *hen as a plea for still *- JT -"S° was to WUs '<* the publ'"" * . - lUrtaeren Coachments upon *■»«» is great danger lest the design of ™? holder s Bhould be accomplished, and 4,700,000 acres of land handed over to them without public competition until 1890, by which time they will have been in possession for nearly thirty year§, and have learnt to regard their runs as freeholds, even if they haye not, in the meanwhile, legally acquired the fee simple of the greater part of this vast tract of country. As it is, the Canterbury runholders, we believe, in addition to the land held under pastoral license occupy about a mUlion and a-half acres of which they have bought the freehold and are constantly adding field to field, la the Assembly just now, the Canterbury members, nearly all of whom are squatters' representatives, are masters of the situation, ypon them depends the fate of the Opposition. Hence, it i* but natural to suppose that they Will improve the occasion by making arrangements on this matter, and what has already been said on thetoiJiein the Assembly shows this to be the case. Nor are their brother squatters likely to stand Carelessly by. The " Scratch me, and 1U scratch you "is a very common kind of bargain. Nevertheless, we sincerely hope the patriotism of the refit of the Assembly will prevent any class legislation. No bargam has been made which can legally or morally bind it to support the olaim which has been put forward, 6r debar it from dealing with the waste lands of Canterbury as it may think best for the public interest; nor is the time suitable for settling the question. Four years have still to elapse before the present leases expire, so that a decision is not urgent; and it would be extreme folly to hastily tie up these lands until 1890 at a period when the constitution is in a transition state, and it is peculiarly desirable that every obstacle should be removed from the path of the Assembly. The present is likewise an inopportune time for assessing the runs, because of the decline in the price of wool, whose threatened continuance must needs be taken into account by the as?essors. Delay is the right policy to pursue, and when circumstances press the Legislature to a conclusion, it should adopt as a cardinal principle the theory laid down by Mr Rolleston—namely, that a grazing tenure only should be granted to the runholders, so that the moment the land is required for settlement it can be taken without political quarrels or complaints of injustice from anyone*