Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 152, 11 December 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1863.

We are heartily glad to be able to record that, principally through the exertions of Mr. Colenso, those odious alterations in the existing land regulations lately proposed by the Provincial Council and carried up to the House of Representatives, have been thrown out there.

The country owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Colenso for thus signally defeating one of the most glaring attempts to saddle us with a piece of palpable party legislation that ever was heard of. Nothing could possibly be more utterly ruinous to this province than the leasing of lands to the runholders upon the terms set forth in the obnoxious regulations to which we refer. And singularly enough, those regulations have not even the merit of giving fair play to that particular branch of this community, for whose supposed especial benefit they were to be made law. While on one side of the Mangaone Stream, the land is estimated to be worth 30s. an acre ; on the other side it is estimated to be worth only ill an acre, at the end of 14 years. And while all the lands within certain boundaries, according to this tariff, vary in price from ill to 305., other lands within certain other boundaries are supposed to be worth only 10s. an acre, while it is notorious that there is no real difference whatever in the quality of these lands. Under any circumstances, and even allowing the justness of the scale of prices affixed to each particular block of laud, these regulations would be preposterously one-sided in their effect, supposing them to be actually law. For while for the benefit of one class of run owners, the lands are to be shut up from further sale, for the benefit of another and most influential class of runholders, the lands are to be left upon their runs open for a continuation of the ruinous ss. arrangement. Nor have the shrewd compilers of these new regulations forgotten to cap this sublime undertaking with an additional absurdity, in the shape of a proviso for the reserving of certain blocks of land on the credit system of sale.

That the system of deferred payments or credit, is a very good arrangement, carried to a limited extent, no one, we apprehend, will dispute, hut that the blocks of land set aside for this particular purpose, should be chosen in localities where the land is remarkable for nothing so much as its inferiority, entirely neutralizes what advantages ought, under fair conditions, to be derived from the system. The most out-of-the-way and inaccessible spots within the boundaries of this Province have been selected to meet the demand upon the Provincial Government for land to be solely set aside for actual settlement. We need hardly say that under such conditions as these, the scheme bears upon the face of it the stamp of a mere sham, just got up to suit the Government and the ruling class. There can be very little doubt but that the effect of this defeat of Mr. Ormond’s

little endeavor in'the direction of an improvement (sicj of the Land Regulations will he the upsetting of the pet scheme of Mr. Me. Lean’s Government for borrowing money. We need hardly say that this will prove a source of grief to some, and joy to others. We deprecate the but too prevalent system now in vogue of borrowing money and making anindiscriminate scramble for it when got. If the Government had come forward with an intelligible scheme for the expenditure of the money proposed to be borrowed, and had in fact been good enough to explain what they intended to do with it, it is very likely that the measure would have received support out of doors, but as matters stand at present in this particular, it does not appear that the Government had any very definite idea or fixed intention as to what to do with the cash.

Under these circumstances, then, we, in the name of the people of Hawke’s Bay, placed a veto upon the borrowing of money, and we are glad to be able to say that by the energetic management of Mr. Colenso that veto has taken practical effect, and the Province is, for the present at least, free from the fear of being encumbered by a ruinous and useless debt.

If the natives had shown any inclination to sell land, and if those intelligent people had felt inclined to come to terms of any sort by which we could get possession of some available tracts of country, it would not then have been difficult to see the benefit of at once getting money in hand, with a view to take advantage of this happy state of the native mind. But, unfortunately, under existing circumstances, one of the most unlikely things to occur at present, is the sale by the Maori owners of any of thenavailable lands, so that if we are to borrow money merely for the gratification of spending it upon nothing in particular, we apprehend that the less we see of it the better. If there is one man deserving the good-will and support of his country more than another, that man is undeniably the Member for Napier. That gentleman, in spite of the most strenuous endeavors of the Government party, strong as that party was, set his face against the proposed Land Regulations, and against the borrowing of money upon the strength of those regulations. In doing so, lie incurred the hottest displeasure of the dominant party, was turned out of his appointment, and in fact was nearly being smothered in the stream of foul language which was let loose upon him.