Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 199, 4 November 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1864.

On Friday last, a large quantity of land was sold at the Crown Land Office, which the Crown ispleased to call “unhgriculturalland,” and which, in consequence of its coming .under that vague aud unsatisfactory category, was sold at the small upset price of ss. an acre.

It is one of the most remarkable amongst the many remarkable and glaring instances of prodical misgovernment, this selling land at ss. per acre; and it would be more than impossible for any legislature, whether Provincial or otherwise, to give a clear and satisfactory reason for it. When the present Land Regulations came into force—now more than 11 years ago—land was sold by the Government at ss. per acre, and yet, after the lapse of that long period, land, so long as it continues in the hands of the Government, seems to be worth no more. Why is this ? Land bought by private persons ten years ago, whether in this Province or in any other part of New Zealand, at ss. or 10s. an acre, is now worth as many pounds, and we will venture to say that no sooner does the sale at the Crown Land Office close than the fortunate buyers of the land would refuse £1 an acre for their bargain. The original cost price of land as purchased "from the New Zealand Company, now nearly 2 5 years ago, was .£1 per acre, and that, too, when the Island might be said to be unknown, and completely isolated from the rest of the world, that it might be almost looked upon as belonging to an entirely different system of worlds, and when the few immigrants brought hither by the first ship were nearly if not entirely the only white inhabitants in it, and had, in consequence, to cmtend against all those difficulties which are inseparable from the colonization of a new country. This fact of the stationary condition of the value of lands while public property shows but too distinctly how extremely corrupt must be the system which enables those persons entrusted with the administration of that property, thus to lavish it away. For their own interests, aud for the interests of party do men in power combine to keep the lands in the market at such a preposterously low figure ; nor do they attempt to palliate their conduct by making the rules practically public, but they consummate their iniquity by huddling those sales off in the most private and underhanded manner, rendering them in practice private sales, for the benefit of a few persons of influence in the Province. If, now, this Province was a land flowing with milk and honey, and, in short, population was so thick, and the reclamation of the wilderness so perfect, and money as plentiful as the people, then, perhaps, by way of still furtherinducing an advance into the surrounding but trackless wilderness, by enterprising and intrepid pioneers, the sale of land at a cheap rate, supposing there was plenty of it, as in America, might possibly be politic; but in the impoverished state of the public exchequer, with a crowd of people anxious to buy land if they can get it, and with a great cry for population, the atrocious system which now obtains is alike disgraceful to the country and to the men in public trust who countenance and maintain it.

That poor shift of pretentious ignorance, which is denominated in derision, we fancy, the Provincial Government of Hawke’s Bay, made agreat clatter aboutborrowing .£60,000, and whichjscheme was applauded by our respectable contemporary the Herald, and all that iry with as much eagerness as one might suppose a party of vultures would applaud the killing of a horse for their especial benefit, and, in'order to raise the sum, attempts were made to give a fictitious value to certain land yet unsold, so as to bo able to make a respectable figure when questioned as to

what security was proposed to be given. This was little short of gross dishonesty. But, setting aside that part of the question, let us look at the matter in a simply financial point of view. This land, which, as we said before, has just been sold at 55., was considered worth that amount fifteen years ago, and at the very smallest computation of the rate of increase of lands it ought to be now worth 30s. an acre ; therefore 20,000 acres at 30s. per acre, produces, or ought to produce, .£30,000. Here, then, we find that by a proper arrangement, this very sale just gone off, ought by rights to yield just half of that sum which our local authorities are straining every nerve to raise. Can even the most ardent admirer of the Provincial Government, actuated by the most lively hopes of falling in with something in the salary line find extenuation for such prodigal, nay, such criminal waste. Borrow .£60,000 at 6 per cent., and we have .£8,600 per annum to pay as interest. Yet we have just sold 20,000 acres of laud for .£5,000, just and only <£1,400 over the first year's interest of our projected debt. What a monstrous piece of public iniquity ! And by way of putting a cap upon the whole business, we cannot pay our fair share of the expenses incurred to the country at large in the war. If we had for sale about 20,000 square miles of land of difficult access aud inferior quality, then, perhaps ss. an acre would be a pretty fair price, but not when the present valuable 20,000 acres just sold represents nearly the last lot which we have to offer.