CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 89, 13 February 1863, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Say Times.

Sib, —As the period for the session of our Provincial Council must now be near at hand, it behoves the PEOPLE of Hawke’s Bay to turn their attention to various matters of public interest which appear to require discussion, and through the medium of the PUBLIC PRESS to bring their ideas before the Government and Council as well as the general public, with the view of having such matters ventilated and necessary reforms introduced by our local Parliament. I therefore beg to avail myself of the privilege afforded by your Correspondence column to call attention to one such matter, usually known as Military Grants, —by means of which any man who has been a soldier, and for no other reason whatever, can obtain free of cost, or without any equivalent, a portion of the best land in the province. lam quite unable to perceive any valid reason for such an absurdity. A somewhat extensive experience in colonial life has led me to the irresistible conviction that old soldiers are, as a class, (whether officers or privates,) amongst the very least desirable as colonists, for while the discharged private only too frequently proves to be a drunken and worthless character, the officers are found striving for, and obtaining, every office of honor or emolument, to the almost entire exclusion of the bond Jide and pioneer settler, and in the case of both officers and privates the land is obtained for the purpose of speculation, and not with the intention of its use, occupation, or improvement. lam aware of several lots of such land in Auckland and in this province, some of the choicest lots at Hampden among the rest, which are now in the market, and on which the ex-military will neither settle nor expend one penny.

But, sir, I am not singular in the views I have taken in this matter, for Mr. Wm. Fox, late premier of the General Assembly, and well known as an authority on such matters, in his Six Colonies , speaking of settlers, says “ With the single exception of convicts it would not he possible to select a worse class for emigration, nor are their families likely to bo much better than themselves.” — (p. 41.)

It is a fact patent to all that the good lands of the province are nearly all now in private hands. The province has but little left by means of which a revenue can be raised if sold for cash at current rates —certainly none to give gratuitously to such a class of men, and I would suggest two important points to the Provincial Council—lst, to put an end to the system for the future, and 2nd, to take such stops as shall effectually prevent past grants being confirmed in all cases where the conditions are not strictly complied with. I am, Sir, Yours, &c., OBSERVER.