LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEMES.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1747, 25 September 1879, Page 3

LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEMES.

[" New Zealand Times."]

The history of the march of colonisation in America and Canada all tends to show that, as a rule, the first settlers upon virgin land are little- better than robbers of the fertility of the virgin soil. The socalled farming of new settlers in a colony generally consists in scourging the land with a succession of grain crops until the soil is brought down to such a low level of productiveness that it no. longer pays to cultivate it. If any scheme can be devised by which suitable Grown land shall be sold on deferred payments to farmers in moderate-sized blocks, with stringent improvement and residential clauses, wo shall bo prepared to support it to. the best of our ability. What is wanted' is a oultivator of the land, who is. prepared to husband its resources a man who knows that land to be farmed * must be treated generously ; that for every bushel of wheat or oaia taken oS the land some small return must be made to the soil whioh has produced it. _ A class of impecunious tenants cannot do this. They have interest to pay on borrawed capital locked up in stock, tools, seed, and houseroom, acd so long as they are called upon to "compete with the grain glowers or meat growers of other countries, the balanoe of profit left on ordinary farming transactions is too small to leave any margin available for oxpenditnre on renovating materials for maintaining the fertility of the land. The commonest fallacy of the day is to suppose that any man who can do nothing else is fit to start as c farmer, like the individual immortalised in verse, with a pig, a horse,, a cow, and hia wife to mind the dairy while he shall drive the plough. Praotioal farmers kn.Qw well thai such is not the case. In New Zealand an ablation in favor of village settlements apd. land, on deferred payments h&s. teen, got

up by Sir G. Grey as an electioneering cry, and a certain number of the unemployed have taken it up, in the hope that relief will be afforded them in some shape or other by the Government. One member of the "Wellington Working Men's Eights League gravely proposed a resolution in the following words :—"I would also ask for timber to erect a house for each family, a cow for each settler, a team of horses and a plough for every ten settlers, the cost of these to be added to the price of the land, making the whole amount payable in seven years, at a small rate of interest." Happily, this was set aside in favor of a motion urging upon the Government the desirableness of setting apart land for settlement on deferred payment on reasonable terms, as the best way of promoting settlement. To the latter resolution, so far as it goes, we are not prepared to take exception. We think that the deferred payment system under a carefully framed set of laws may perhaps be extended with advantage in this country. But an impression has got abroad, and has been carefully fostered, that the present depression has been, in part, at least, caused by tho absence of such facilities as are now sought for. To this we would only raply that in Victoria, where free selection has prevailed for more than ten years, coupled with manhood suffrage and an elective Upper House, a far larger number of men are out of work, and suffering for want of it than is the case in New Zealand.

One grave objection has cropped up against the Victorian system of land tenure. It may be thus stated: Whenever large numbers of the community are, by force of circumstances, converted into debtors to the State, a serious political danger arises. On the eve of a general election, for instance, a bad harvest or a drought may seriously interfere with the prospects of the deferred-payment men or free selectors; they may agree to petition the Government of the day fer a remission of their rents or progress payments. Under such circumstances a refusal would alienate the sympathies, and perhaps also the votes of the petitioners. On the other hand, a compliance with their request would act as a great political bribe. This is no fancy sketch. The danger is one that has already attracted attention and caused considerable anxiety in Victoria.

We have on previous occasions poinfed out ! that the number of holdings is quite as great in proportion to population in New Zealand as it is in Victoria. It is scarcely reasonable to suppose that this would be the case, if the land laws of this colony were so restrictive as somo would try to make the public believe. In 1879, in New Zealand, there were 21,000 ! holdings, tho population being 415,000; in "Victoria there were 46,000 holdings to a population of 880,000, which is at the rate of one agricultural holding to every nineteen persons in both cases. It is scarcely fair to compare the number of holdings in the two colonies, seeing that no less than 25,000 owners m "Victoria have not completed their purchases, and a large proportion of the selections will, in tho ordinary course, relapse to the Crown, ; owing to non-fulfilment of the conditions of occupation or progress payment. In New Zealand there were, by the latest returns, 2;300,000 acres under cultivation, in Victoria only 1,560,000 acres. It will be Been, therefore, that in spite of the pressure of popula- : tion upon the land in Victoria being infinitely greater than in New Zealand, the area in cultivation per head of population is nearly three times as great in this colony. Had we chosen to compare the system of land tenure in New ' Zealand with that of New South Wales in- ! stead of Victoria,, we believe that New Zealand would not have suffered by comparison i with that colony. In our opinion* these men are false friends to the people who endeavor to persuade working men and< artisans to settle upon the land without a little capital, and if possible, a little experience- also, to help them. If by any means the- Stats or a company ean provide steady employment for such a term as to enable a body- of working men to accumulate savings sufficient to allow them to establish themselves each- in a house and garden, and to obtain a seofeien of fertile land on deferred payments close' by, village settlements may be successful;. "Without some such provision for the employes, they are unlikely to succeed.