The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4213, 28 August 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1876.

The Waste Lands Administration Bill must be treated as a temporary measure, intended to tide, over the interval which will:occur between the Abolition of Provincial institutions and the getting of new* <?6nstitational machinery into full working order, when the whole Bubject of the administration of the waste lands can be dealt with in a compre-

hensive manner. This Bill does not introduee any new principle into our land laws. It, however, sweeps away all free laud grants, including those to Volunteers (the rights of Volunteers who have served for three years being saved) and those under the Immigrants Land Act. The repeal of the Immigrants Land Act will not be a subject of regret. It was passed from the best of motives, but the trouble which th. iu migrant entitled to an order under its provisions, has had to undergo before he could obtain it, and the small value of the order when he has got it, have made the Act useless as a means of inducing small capitalists to settle in the Colony. Amongst what may be termed the artificial plans which have been adopted for quickening settlement that which has proved most efficacious is the deferred payment system, and the Bill proposes to continue and establish that system as part of the settled policy of the Colony, which, indeed, it is already become, since most of the Provinces have secured powers* from the Legislature to enable them to set aside blocks of land for sale on deferred payments. The dummyism and kindred evils which have marred the success of the system in Australia have not made their appearance in New Zealand to any appreciable extent; and it would indeed do little credit to our legislation if, with such an extensive experience to guide us, ' effectual barriers were not erected against the occurrence of similar mischief in this Colony. The Waste Lands Administration Bill seems carefully framed in this respect. It enacts that any person of the age of eighteen years or upwards, not being a Government I officer employed in the Land or Survey Department, the owner of a pre-emptive right, or a married woman, may purchase on a ten years' credit either ten acres of suburban land or 200 acres of rural. As a condition precedent to the purchase, the applicant will be required to make a statutory declaration that he is selecting the land bond fide for his exclusive right and benefit, and not directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person whomsoever, and also for the purpose of cultivation; further, that he is not the holder, either in his own name, or in the name of any. other person, and is not beneficially interested in any waste lands of the Crown under the deferred payment system to an extent which, added to the acreage comprised in the application referred to in the declaration, would exceed an area of 200 acres, nor has at any time assigned any interest in land held by him on deferred payments. The penalty for a false declaration is absolute forfeiture of the selector's interest in the land, and all improvements thereon. The conditions annexed to the occupation license are that the selector shall within six months' after the issue of the license go upon the land and personally reside there, the Board being empowered, where,the land is wholly or in great part covered with bush, to extend ih& period from six to eighteen months; that, within tne firot twelve months, one-twentieth of the* land shall be brought into cultivation ; within two years, onetenth ; and within four years, one-fith; while, by the end of the sixth year, substantial improvements of a permanent nature, to the value of one pound for every acre of the land, must, in addition, have been placed upon the holding. These conditions having been complied l with, the selector may, if he pleases, pay up the balance of the purchase money and get' a Crown grant for his land, or he may continue, as before, paying the purchase money by half-yearly instalments; On the other hand, should the conditions l at any time be left unfulfilled, the land will be liable to forfeiture, in which case it will be sold by auction, with its improvements, forthwith, and the proceeds applied first to the liquidation of the unpaid balance of the license fees for the whole term; secondly, to the payment of the expenses incurred in the seizure and sale; thirdly, twenty-five per cent, will be deducted from the surplus, if any, as damages for breach of contract, and the remainder will be handed to the selector. The selector will thus be -tied down pretty strictly, and he will further be required to pay hali as much again for the land as. the cash buyer would have to do. The principle of making the deferred payment selector pay more than the cash buyer is a sound one. lie gets the advantage of credit, and should pay for it. Fifty per cent., however, is perhaps rather too : great an advance upon the ordinary price to demand in every case, irrespective of the quality of the land, especially when the credit-purchaser is; required to comply with severe conditions of residence and cultivation, from which the cash buyer is exempt. The present Waste Land Boards will be left to exercise their functions until the: Ist September, 1877, when they will be succeeded by new Boards, nominated by the Governor, unless in the meantime the Assembly sees fit to alter the provisions of this Bill, assuming that it becomes law in its present Bbape. The proper mode of constituting these Boards, is a large and important question. Hitherto, ;th'e people have had but little voice in the appointment of members of the Waste Land Boards, but the Provincial Governments have had a good deal, and nomination by Provincial Councils or Executives means some* thing very different from nomination by a Government at Wellington. When the Abolition Bill was before the Assembly, and' during the elections, it was distinctly held out by and on behalf of the Ministry ithat the administration of the waste lands should be under local control; and, indeed, it was said that the County Boards would i e entrusted with the work ; but Boards nominated by the Governor, and sitting in : the different land districts, would be a mere pretence at local administration, and would uot deceive the most simple. To what extent the elective clement should -prevail in the Boards is a disputable point; but that it should be found there if the Boards are to secure the confidence of the public iB apparent. Large powers for good or ill already vest in some of these Boards—the Otago Board, to wit—and this Bill will devolve upon them all the delicate task of determining what lands shall be thrown open for deferred payments ; their selections being subject only to the approval of the Governor. We recognise the difficulty, if not the impossibility of deciding just now what the proper constitution of these Boards should bo. That must largely depend upon the character of the local bodies by which the Provincial Governments are replaced. If, for eaumple, it were determined to introduce the elective principle, it might be deemed judicious to leave the choice of the elected member? to the County Boards, instead of appealing to the constituencies direct; and until these County Boards are in existence de facto or de jure, it would be premature to legislate as though they were. Consequently, even if the Waste Lands Administration Bill be pushed through Parliament this session, we regard its provisions as but temporary, and the constitution of the Board, with other matters treated of in it, as questions to be finally settled hereafter.