LEASING CROWN LANDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 74, 17 May 1881, Page 2

LEASING CROWN LANDS.

♦-: r- — -. The following letter, written by the E litor of the Alanawatu Herald, was recently published in the Evening Post. The importance of the question with which it deals is our apology for publishing it : — " Sir— For many years the most important questions this colony will have to consider will be how to settle (he wastelands of the Crown, and how to ease the burden of taxation caused by our borrowing policy of the la«t ten years. Towards the solution of these problems every colonist should devote his attention. In this letter I will endeavour to sketch a scheme by which I think the two objects might be gained concurirntly, the settlement of the waste lands being made to cause a steady and increasing revenue, which would increase according to the rate at which settlement progressed. "1. I would suggest that the sale of Crown laud should be gradually abolished, or at least reduced to a minimum. 2. InBtcad of selling the land,, large areas should be thrown open for "selection," the selector receiving from the Crown a lease entitling him, "his heirs, administrators, or. assigns," to hold the land for ev.eyftr so long as the conditions were compliea with. 3. The selector to be bound by the terms of his lease to improve the land to a certain extent each year for the first seven years, the improvements to represent 5 per ceut. per annum on the selling value of the land, and to be of a permanent character. 4. At the end of the first seven years the selector to begin paying rent, which would be calculated upon the unimproved value, 5 per cent, being the rate. 5. To ascertain the unimproved value, laud to be divided into classes, according to quality, situation, nearness to railways, convenience for shipping purposes, whether bush or open, and other such considerations. 6. The rent to be appraised every seven years by two valuators, one appointed by the selector, or his representative, or succcessor, the other by the Crown. 7. Residfince to be a perpetual condition of the lease. 8. The size of the selections to vary according to the quality of land— pastoral selections being of no greater area than 3000 acres, and agricultural not more than 750 acres. 0. The selector to bear all expenses of drawing lease, &c. 10. The Crown to have the option of buying back the land* if necessary, and the lease to be determined if any of the essential conditions were not complied with. •* The above is the outline of a scheme which would, without doubt, if in opera- . tion, enable thousands of men now struggling in the large towns to become as certainly their own masters as if they spent hundreds of pounds in the purchase of freeholds. It would settle the land instead of selling it, and would in a few years tjreatly increase the number of producers, as men with comparatively small capital would be able to take up selections. It might, perhaps, be desirable to adopt this scheme only partially at first, so that persons desirous of becoiring freeholders would still have the opportunity of doing so. Next to the advantage of increasing the number of bona fide settlers, this scheme would, if in operation, provide a continually-increasing land revenue without the colony parting with the land. Five hundred thousand a ;res, valued at £3 per acre, would return a revenne annually of .£75,000, while, at the end of seven years, it would 'probably be worth £3 per acre, and would, of course, return a proportionately larger amount jto the revenue. / ; " As a contribution toward the solution of the difficult question, how to settle the waste lands profitably, I throw out the suggestions above, beliving that though they may be at present rather crude, they are at least worthy of consideration by all who have the welfare of the colony at heart." •/-..-■ ..... .

NEWS IN BRIEF.

i ■■■.■■■".■■.?■...-, There are thirty-nine Congregational ' churches in New South Wales. r Farmers largely of late preponderate > among the Victorian lists of insolvents. > 1 A coffee palace will be started in Brisbane. ■ The capital is fixed at £10,000, in £\ shares. In China there are 300 persons to, the > square mile, and eleven in the same area in ■ America. The Hairdressers'PhilanthropioSociety.in " South Australia has passed a resolution against Sunday trading. . , The colonial troops in ttajfesato war have been supplied with Bibraftn fche Basuto language, prepared by French mission-, aries. ._ • _ - ,»a \n'iA ;;V A company with a capital , of .£sooft is. i ; being attempted to be formed in Sydney for the purpose of supplying that town • with pure milk. ; ,;. •..',<■. ■• The manifesto of the South A«*tra)ian . Government says, " Our policy ißi>iearlj to draw as closely as WQOW9.9Pr feopd* ol union with Nen South W.*le% ',«..*. t - •..-..; i At an entertainment in Duriedin recently i Mr^o^n Coughlan, the celebrated, " Irish i piper to H. R. H. the prince qg Wales," contributed several favourite selections. Two gentleman recently, jrrijed in the, colony have brought with them. ,^|h'e neceisary^agnj^iaoc^s for manufacturing starch, and nave leased premises near Dunedin. The Italian Government have promised to contribute the sum of 4800 i* fid of tb