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Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 469, 2 May 1857, Page 4

most satisfactory fact connected with those sales, is this—that the large majority of them have, been made to persons of the working classes and to'bona fide settlers' and cultivators of the soil. It may be fairly asked;1 how much of this land would have found its way into their hands had the price been materially lower ? It is matter of notoriety that, within two or three days of the present regulations coming into operation, some large capitalists arrived here for the purpose of making extensive speculative purchases, even outside the original Canterbury block, and at a distance from the cultivated districts. How much land worth having would have been left - inside, and especially in the neighbourhood of your towns, had the cheap land policy prevailed, I leave you to conjecture. ', But there are also extensive interests to be considered in this question of price. On the firm belief that, it was definitely settled a very, large amount of capital has been embarked in pastoral pursuits ; and I think the faith of the legislature and the Government is pledged to its protection—that is, protection to this extent— that the order of things under which that -capital was invested and the stockowners induced to enter on their separate enterprises should not be liable to frequent change. But I am disposed to maintain that regard for our own interests, no less than good faith towards others, should prompt us to resist any alteration in the price of land. The produce of our pastoral districts now constitutes a most important item in our commerce. Whilst agritulture is at present languishing, and its prospects are much clouded, the pastoral interest is happily.nourishing as much as could reasonably be desired. Already, wool is our main export, the clip of 1856 being valued at £70,000; and in a few years it will acquire a magnitude that will abundantly justify all which legislation has done towards encouraging its growth. Nor is this all. While the pastoral interest is contributing to the progress of the country, as every interest does which materially increases its export trade, it is also yielding largely to our territorial revenue. Within a year or two the irents derivable from that source will be alone sufficient, not only to pay the large contribution annually required from this province towards the extinguishment of the New Zealand Company's debt, but will leave a considerable balance available for the use of the pi'ovince. The present price of land, Gentlemen, constitutes the main, almost the only protection of the pastoral interest; and I ask you seriously to reflect whether it is expedient to withdraw it—whether it is wise to kill the goose for the golden egg, and interrupt this steady and satisfactory progress for the sake of ■ a sudden influx of money into the Treasury, which our l-esources in labour may not permit us profitably to expend, and the possession of which might tempt us to extravagance. My own conviction is that it would not. Another subject on which I desire to say a few more words is our form of Government. There are some persons who regard the present mode of administering the affairs of the province as too cumbersome and too pretentious, and who talk of conducting the after th.c model of a corporate town in England, of which a Mayor. Aldermen, and Council are the presiding geniuses. Never having been a member of one of those select societies, I am perhaps unable to appreciate properly the advantages of such a mode of Government. It is, however, not long since that the jobbery, peculation, arid corruption, "which had grown out of the old corporate system in England, led to a sweeping measure of reform, by which the whole of those model Governments, excepting that of London, were swept away. And now it appears that the days of the corporation of London itself are numbered. Experience, therefore, does not appear to justify the preferonce shown for corporation rule, and, personally, I can feel but little attachment to a system which has produced such results. 'But in truth, there is no fair analogy between the circumstances of a municipal corporation in England and a province in New Zealand. To no corporation has there ever been committed anything like the power conferred on the Supei'intendents and Provincial Councils of this country, namely, the power to legislate fctr the entire people of a province—-or, in the: words iof the Constitution Act—" to make and ordain all, \ such laws and ordinances as may berequired. for the peace, order, and: good. government,. of the province." This alone destroys all parallel, iin the oases v '. .'■ „'■..'■ ■■■■'■ ■■_';: ■ ;■"/; ;•■■...;