The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, Feb. 6, 1864.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 81, 6 February 1864, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, Feb. 6, 1864.

Acts of misgovernment in the body politic are generally attended with results similar to those seen in the acts of misgovernment of the individual. Whether those acts arise from foolishness or wickedness, the result must be evil. When, however, foolishness will accept uo warnings, and evil results produce no attempt at reformation or improvement, then foolishness merges into criminality, and the end is worse than the bad beginning. When an individual has exhausted the income arising from his capital, and, to meet temporary pressure, encroaches upon that capital from year to year, the inevitable result must be bankruptcy. In like manner, similar results arise from similar causes in the affairs of nations. Precept and example have taught us that to use capital as revenue is an error, always bearing bitter fruit. When we see a Government, therefore, using capital as revenue, wc feel instinctively that the people of the country are being wronged, and that they will suffer. The interest of the Government must be identical with the interest of the community, and any action on the part of | the Government which presses hard upon the people must, in the end, be for the disadvan- j tage of both. It is a natural law of forces that action and re-action are always equal. In many instances it is also a law in reference to things political. The recent action of the Government, as represented by the Waste Lands Board, in reference to the sale of township lands, is one not in accordance with what ought to be the action of a Government. The people of Qucenstown having settled upon a barren spot, and on the faith of being ultimately able to purchase their allotments at a fixed upset price, have gone to great expense in the way of improvement. This upset price was fixed in other parts of the island at a previous time. In almost every instance the buildings erected are of more intrinsic value than the land upon which they are set- After long delay the Government at last intimate their intention to sell, and in the knowledge that no man can refuse to buy without suffering loss, they put a fancy price upon each lot, and thus, while securing a large sum for the time, they unwisely forget that that sum is gained at the expense of the community at large. To make matters worse, these sums realized from the sale of lands will, like previous sums realised in the same manner, be put down and used as revenue, thus encroaching upon capital, and literally burning the candle at both ends. When a Government, situated as that of Otago is, commenced to sell their land at the fixed upset price of £SO ' per acre, they were bound to adhere to that price. The result of raising the price of land i in Queenstown has been to put a fictitious value upon all other land in the Province, and j every acre sold in other places for a less sum I than was charged to the inhabitants of this town will depreciate the value of what they \ have been compelled to buy. Legislatures, when they try to prevent settlement, either by asking too high prices, or by withholding waste lands, will certainly temporarily increase the profits of the large landholders. The punishment, however, which will follow, will spring from the act itself, and general depreciation must be the permanent result. If the present unjust and unequal policy in reference to the disposal of waste lands in Otago be persevered in, the result will be to give profit to the few in the meantime, and to produce to the community permanent loss. For the sake of the permanent welfare of the Province, we urge upon the Government to adopt some policy as to the disposal of land which will tend to the general benefit. Let them not, either through ignorance or selfinterest, be made the means of sacrificing, at the altar of the land speculator, the future interests of the Province. With the example of Victoria before them, surely they will not ro«hiy run upon the rocks which her political history exhibits. With the example of Western Australia before them, surely they would not like to be soliciting the mother country

to supply her with convict labor to till her lands. With the example of America before them, they cannot say that they have never been taught an equitable system.