CROWN LANDS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 346, 8 April 1884, Page 2

CROWN LANDS.

We have held over for a long time our remarks ou the report upon the Crown Lands Department laid before Parliament last session, but they willghave a special interest after the observations on the land question made by Captain" Mackenzie at AVyndhom the other evening. About five years ago tta proceeds of sales for the year exceeded LBOO,OOO, which lavge sum, though we were revelling in borrowed money <vt the time, was all spent as bona fide income. Since then, however, he Minister of Lauds might exclaim — " What a falling off was there !" Last year the cash sales were 149 acres of town land to 289 purchasers ; 1685 acres of suburban lands, to 209 purchasers ; and 164,337 acres of rural land, to 1020 purchasers. The cash received for th.^so sales was L 227,000. '1 here wore also sold on deferred payment 66,947 acres of agricultural land to 484 buyers,- while 13,178 acres of pastoral- land were sold to 16 purchasers, and 314 acres in village settlements to sixty-four purchasers. Tho deposits on these sales, together with the instalments on jlands tiken up in former years, amounted to L7;2,376. 'Agricultural leases on goldfrelds brought in L 5839. Some extensive sales of leases of runs in Southland, Otago and Nelson took place during the year. The total area now leased by the Crown is about eleven millions of aGres, This is held in 1039 leases —averaging over 10,. iOO acres per lease. The total income for the year was L 128,463 —1e5s than 3d per acre. Royalties on coal, timber and mineral leases brought in L 5,500. The total revenue of the department was, therefore, L 439.000. Though this is only about half of the receipts of five years ago, it is only LO2BB less than the average of the last three years. This "filling off" is attributed to the stringency of the money market, and to the withholding of a large area from sale in the North Island, as bonus for the railway projects under the Acts of 1881 and 1882. It will be a surprise to many people who can never find any Crown lands for sale'to learn that the department had, when the report was made, about 509,000 acres surveyed and mapped and before the public for selection and purchase under various settlement conditions, and also in addition to that 150,000 acres more for sale for cash. -Pbisi is certainly a respectable stock—intrad©, as far as extent is concerned. But we areafraii that the quality is notihighclass, or that the position is not desirable. Unfortunately it is not true of land in News Zealand that there are fish m the sea as good as any that have been caught. Still the worst of our land;is of fair quality compared with that'of our. neighbors, f ' farmers in South Australia can thrive on ten bushels per acre, it is difficult; to see why it should not be possible to settle land that will make at least as good a return in New Zealand. The only trouble is that of price. If that were in proportion to the value of the land, no doubt settlers would soon be found. However, the time is coming very fast now when the New Zealand people will be less hard to please than they have been. It is amusing, if it were not so irritating, to observe ho v the powers that bo begin to lay down wise maxims when it is almost too late to be of any benefit. .Now that we are over head and cars in debt, we are Jeetured on economy. Why were we told nothing : about it years ago 1 Now that nearly all ihe principal railways are made, it is proposed to tax the land- benefited by new lines, so as to make up interest on th'.-jr cost. Why was not this doer trine adhered to from the beginning? Now also that most of the public estate has bfen sold, the Department thinks ifc time to lock the stable door, and tells Ub that its 'function is not to raise so much revenue*—it is t" seltle the Crown lands in the mantuv' m >st likely to be mutually beneficial to the settlers and the country, and to prevent as mueili as possible any middleman coming between the Department gnd the settler. Certainly in past years the <s>bj.e£.fc of the department has been to sell land to any and eyery body and in any quantity, and to hsGii<l fho proceeds as if they were income and wot capital. The result is that the once niagiiiueeni estate of tk& public has already had nearly all the plums pj-cked out of it before a tenth of our population has arrived. Tho total area of New Zea= land is npwut'ds of sixty-four million itcree. Of this, foiu'fcegn millions have been sold, or disposed of i« e4ucation and other public reserves ; sixteen liiil.lions belong to the aborigines, or to the Europeans who have purchased from tliem; and thirty-four million acres of Crown Jands still remain for disposal. Of the latter fifteen millions are open grass or fern country, ■_ ten millions forest, and nine millious of barren mountain-; top?, lakes, and worthless country. -It may be a sort of comfort Jo reflect that Victoria is in a worse case, having next to no Crown lands left. Erc jn in the United States, where the pub!i;j estate was once thousands of miilioi s of tieiTfjj a recent state in en.!; shows that only some fourteen million acres of passable country remain to be taken >i)>. As (lgricultur I land in the colony is rapidly increasing in value, it is evident that if no restrictions were ;i! ic'id on the. sa'e of it a veiy few /uars woiild ena le large, capitalists and conip .nies to secure all that remains to be sold, and to hold it for

greatly Enhanced prices to the detriment of settlement. It is to prevent this evil that the department wishes i not so much to raise revenue as to ■ settle the land. Hence the deferredpayment system, which, judging from the outcry o£ the public over the j Dummyism cases, is very highly ap- f predated. Hence, also, the determination of many wise men to limit the ai*ea purchasable by one man for cash. It may be further mentioned in connection with the popularity of the deferred-payment system that under it 10,000 persons have taken up one million acres, being an average of 100 acres each. The report before us maintains that large estates are not an evil " where the possessor has the capital and employs it- in improvement of the lan I. On the contrary, there are instances in nearly every land district where the drainage and reclamation of swamps and other waste places has been done and could only be done, on an extensive scale or not at all, in which case settlement on the scale of a few hundred acres would have been wholly impracticable ; but as a rule it will best promote the future settlement of the country if the remaining lancl is so disposed of as to ensure its occupation by a resident population bound to cultivate a certain portion as one of the conditions of holding the land." Large estates appear, then, to the department only to Le defensible under certain circumstances—such as the Piako swamp | for example. The position looks sound j enough if it were not opposed to an- \ other principle paraded in the same re- | port, that of opening up land before i selling it, and then offering it in moder- i ate-pized sections with cash and deferred- j payments well mixed. The Wai mate ; Plains, where roads were made before the sale of the land, is cited as an illustration of the profit to the country of this principle; " TJp to March 31, 360 sections, aggregating 2^,328 acres, have been sold on deferred payments j for £102,608, or an average of" IA 4s ( 4tl per acre; for cash, 46,954 acres, ; realising £190,741, or £4 Is 3d per ] acre ; of town and suburban lands, 526 ] acres, realising L 15,837, or a total of ] 71,808 acres and £309,106. Of the 360 deferred-payment selections only 11 have been forfeited. The roading of the land has been kept in advance of the sales." r 4?nis is, no doiibfc a clear case of the benefit of reasonable management. It is vastly bettor than selling tho land in a bloGk to a capitalist and allowing him to pocket immense profits and leaye the country without a chain of road in it. But we can hardly see why the some principle does not apply to the Piako Swamp. Why could not that have been drained and cut up by the Government ? If a company could clear .£100,0.00. in a year, why could not the State do likewise, "We fear the Department could be hanged witlj. its own rope. ♦■