TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 238, 26 September 1873, Page 6

TOPICS OF TALK.

"Eveti since the first restraining command given to man was disobeyed, all positive restrictions have been framed more especially to meet the cases of infringed previous enactments. Some writers have gone so far as to say that if theft was legalised it would not be necessary to pay for gaolers. Granting that this is an extreme and, perhaps, absurd view, yet we have it on record as proved certainties that crime -increases in exact proportion to the punishment or penalties meted out, and •that the more mankind are told not to do a thing the more they delight to do it. Otago gets no wiser from the world's experience. She says now, No man shall buy more than 200 acres on .deferred payments, —a very desirable object, if attainable. The result is. of course, that everybody is anxious to buy more, and what is more certain still, is able to do it. Mr. Tolmie told •the House the simple truth the otser day, when he said, " In Victoria, where he had lived for twelve years, the effect .of the (restrictive acreage) system had been to cause more speculation than had ever been attempted in any other community. The same thing would occur in this Colony ; and the House might put up as many barriers as they pleased to prevent speculation, but a designing public would walk through -those barriers, and would make, a law that was intended for special purposes a means of monstrous speculation." It can be readily agreed that if the system of deferred payments can be carried out in its integrity, it is admirably adapted to the requirements of settlers on poor lands on Goldfields. If not, if Mr. Tolmie is right—and he should be an authority on speculation—it would be a great abu«e, ,a great waste, of public money if the best lands in the Province—such as the blocks declared lately in the South—that, at open competition would fetch £2 to £3 an acre, should pass into the hands of speculators at 14s. —for that would be the cash value of £1 payments spread over ten years. How could liona fide settlers, who had bought at £1 cash, be expected to compete with those who obtained land much cheaper? It has offceo. occurred to us as a theoretical speculation, that it is unwise for a young Colony to debase the value of its agricultural lands. This is done when land is obtainable at too low a price. Nor do low prices facilitate settlement so much as is thought, be-

cause the security is lowered in the market, and is of little value to borrow upon. Suppose a! 1 agricultural land, from the first interference with the waste lands, had been fixed at d 65 per acre: an acre of land, as security, would have represented £5, instead of, as now —disregarding exceptional cases - —between 10s. and J6l. Land would have been taken better care of—there would have been less sinful wasting of ■ "■the-powers of the poil, less burning of straw. Low prices open a door to ■ ■speculation which no legislation has as yet been able to put a c'lec'-: to. Of all difficulties this so-call eel settling of the people on the laud is one of ; . the greatest, not even excepting State education .of the young.-

Tet, as we cannot get land for settlement under any system, by means' of the provisions of the present

Land Act of 1872, we inust even put up with the risks of S'teeillation and • make the best of deferred payments. ,80,000 acres, is allowed to be taken .annually by fch". Province, to be declared open in blocks under the restrictions as laid clown in the Act. -.This quantity being all that can be taken for settlement would not by any means keep up with a healthy flow of. immigration. It-forma'merely the small fairing to be scrambled for every ses'aion of the Provincial Council —to be portioned out .compromisial.lv in such /small blocks as to confer very, little .good to the settlers, while annoying the pastoral tenants. The Otago Waste Lands Amendment Act,passed through j;he was intended, while dealing 'withi the Southland lands spegive the Province power ;';-.%'^^"' ? i-ri : «?W ; ''-'afie this yearly allowance of aires to 300,000. The Legis- /• : iaiive Council, to Mr. Macandrew's : : ;' wo:.ld tar nothing of this —

three members only supporting the measure, and its mover in the Council (the Hon. Captain Eraser) had to own he knew it had no chance. 'lf the Upper House could give a reason for the faith that is in them, we should have no right to Complain, but they have none. Simply, they will not have it. They say, Let us hear no more of the democratic wishes of Otago! If the two Houses always agreed, the double expense they involve .would be useless. We do not quarrel with the Lords because* they disagree, but because they do so on questions which, we think with the lion. Captain ITraser, are vital to the prosperity of the Colony.

TiEE?Asseinbly has treated the Goldfields Bill exactly as the Goldfields Committee of the Provincial Council recommended by telegraph that they should do, —let it be amended in Committee and then shelved for a season, so that full attention might be given to it in its amended form. It would be a good thing for an assurance to be given that it should be brought up again next session. , Some Goldfields member should elicit the intentions of the Government with regard to it. In spite of all that has been said against it, and we were among the first to expose its defects in these columns, we cannot but recognise that it owed a far better origin than that too popularly ascribed to it, of having sprung from the bruin of the member for Mr. Shepherd's part in the framing of the measure was of no more utility to. it than the buzzing of the self-perched fly is to the digestion of the grazing ox. The Bill was drawn and framed by the same able hand that drew most of the Acts bearing on Otago gold legislation, and entirely framed the present Regulations under which mining matters are now carried on. The Bill, as amended, has been too costly, and presents the results of too many carefully considered opinions, to be allowed to go into the darkness of eternal lumberdom without an effort being made to ensure its reconsideration at a future period.

Notice is hereby given that the special claim of ten acres granted to Mr. A. M 'G-. Brown, about a mile and a half from the township of Naseby, has been cancelled, and the land is opened for occupation by holders of miners'rights.

Horace Bastings, Golclfielcls Secretary.. The above notice, inserted in a late ' Gazette,' is of importance. The desirability of large special claims-in the face of a danger of monopoly—barren monopoly, we should say, for, if a large claim is worked by a large quantity of labor nothing could be said—appears to be a very open question. No doubt those whose energy prompts them to employ labor largely in the district should be encouraged, but if such encouragement is, as it might easily be, abused, it ought not to be given.

Some consternation has been caused by the announcement of the introduction of a Bill, by the Premier, to take away the Educational. of the Province. A special correspondent takes the trouble to communicate sensation .il telegrams to the ' Bruce Herald' and ' Cromwell Argus,' tc raise agitation *as if poor, unprotected Otago was being shamefully robbed, i he more dependable telegrams show us that Mr. Macandrew, whose zeal for Provincial educational institutions is well known and lias stood the test of time, is strongly in favor of the Bill. These educational reserves, on so large a scale, were a very . great blunder. Over two million acres (2,132,899 being the exact number, according to the ' Bruce Herald ') have been Provincially appropriated as reserves for different purposes. ' This simply means that all this huge estate was tied up at very low rents and could not be realised upon, nor was any prospect it would be improved, so that it escaped its share of the responsibilities necessary to enable the public works essential to the Province to be carried out—public works which, if the Province were deprived of, would render all land fifteen or twenty miles from the coast almost valueless. The Province can far more healthily sup-

port educational requirements by making the most of its landed estate than by- cramping its own energies and fields for action—maintaining efficient schools for a pauperised population. So true is the locking-up process under these reserves, that a runholder has always considered it a benefit to have his run made a University or other reserve, as ib is then fortified against Hundreds or other democratic abominations. If. these reserves are maintained as good —and quite independent of this Bill, their legality is a matter of doubt —it is a very serious question for the Groldfields—the consideration of the fact that the auriferous lands will be the first real security for the railway development now so rapidly progressing—a security . that, some day "while we sleep, will have to be realised. ■ ' •

The ' Bruce Herald ' gives a pathetic wail ovei the sins of Macandrew, and the enormous loss to the revenue of the Provir.ee if this slaughter of innocents is carried through. A calculation of the revenue derivable is given, the accuracy of which we do not vouch for. Still, from it we find that the actual revenue at present derived from these two millions and more of acres is the magnificent sum of a fraction over 2d. per acre. Of this, one large reserve of 353,300 acres brings in £1,863 155., or every nine acres returns about Is. —not quite l|d. an acre. Surely we cm do better than this with the waste lands of the Crown, and support education as well Such results, at any rate, do not impress us with the' wisdom of the " Old Identities," whom we are told to have in such awe and veneration.

Last week, we understand, a woman was brought into the Hospital suffering from a temporary mental derangement. It is reported that she has been ill-treated by her husband at the Kyeburn—being, indeed, a good deal bruised, apparently from kicks; In default of a law to interfere for the protection of married women where they themselves will not complain, or are driven to such a state as to be unable to do so, it might be excusable to resort to the old tar and feather plan. We hope our information is wrong, but we have too much reason to believe it to be true.