The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1884. Land Purchasing

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 1, 3 January 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3 , 1884. Land Purchasing

« At the beginning of a new year it will not be considered out of place for us to make a few remarks on the progress this settlement ought to make within the next twelve months, and the means which should be brought to bear towards that most desirable end. We have at present an industrious and well-to-do population, which in the natural course is somewhat rapidly increasing in numbers. In an old and settled country this is all that is needed to secure that rate of advancement which meets all the requirements of the place. With us it is different. We require our numbers to be increased by the influx of new settlers on the land. Progress is slow where the population does not increase fast. A rapid increase of population means a rapid increase of progress and prosperity. The main difficulty which obtains in many other parts of the colony — that of want of steady employment for labor does not exist here — there is abundance of work, and good wages for good men. For men of capital, however limited, there are plenty of good blocks of land open for purchase and settlement on the most liberal conditions; the land itself is of a quality second to none in the colony for fertility ; wood and water ahounds in every part, the roads are excellent, and reaching far into the heart of the country, and are being steadily extended. The rates and taxes are no higher than in other parts of the colony. Yet with all these advantages the population on the Manchester Block is certainly not increasing in proportion to other settlements with hot one half of the internal elements of wealth to offer the new settler. Men of means come and examine the bush land and go away. They admit all its good qualities, but they do not purchase. The question arises — the same here as in other parts of the colony — is it that too much of the soil is monopolised for sale at prices that leave no margin to the settler? That this may be the case js borne out by the. fact that 21 ,000 persons have left New Zealand for the Australian Colonies during the last three years, and only 19,000 have arrived; that is, the balance is. against this colony to the tune of 2000. There can be no doubt that ' the trouble which is given to, and • the obstacles to be overcome by, an : intending purchaser of land in this colony are powerful deterrents. In toomany cases where a new colonist , is desirous of purchasing a piece of I land — wbich to his inexperienced I mind is nothing but a virgin soil, the < property of the Government* >who are ' desirous of selling — ho finds that there are half a dozen middle men to be ' purchased as well, or .in other words .he is handicapped by the stupid laws \ which at ipresent obtain for the pro- 1 < tection of land monopolists. Canter- i

bury in the old days was the only place in the South Seas where an immigrant could go direct to the Land Office, purchase a section from forty acres and upwards, and receive a title with the receipt for his cash. The only other exception to this rule j is the Manchester Block. Any person j desirous of purchasing land here can : do so on payment of £8 per acre. Should his means be limited, seventyfive per cent, of the land purchase money can remain on mortgage for five years at the lowest rates of interest, and with no collateral legal expenses. With the wonderful advantages we possess of cheap and good land, abundance of employment for the laboring man, and the consequent high rates of wages, with the amount of public money to oe spent on roads, we have every confidence that the year 1884 will be a most prosperous one for this district. The only thing needed is an influx of good settlers and steady working men. __^___^^_