THE NEW HUNDREDS AND DEFERRED PAYMENT BLOCKS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 324, 21 May 1875, Page 3

THE NEW HUNDREDS AND DEFERRED PAYMENT BLOCKS.

The way in which—--as the member for Waihemo remarked—the Council swallowed the £125,000.0dd acres of Hundreds proposed by the Government, without question or discussion, may have "been an economy of time, but it is not clear that it was "wise. In point of fact, we are not at all sure that the Government did not.invite a little mild pressure to enable them, without an undue - appearance of Executive harshness, to take land on other runs more suitable, for immediate settlement that some of the Hundreds proposed. Be, that as it may, it is a doubtful good, unless good reasons cotild be shown to place all the ]andj|gp be set apart -together. With the exception of the Kyeburn and Kingston Hundreds, the Government proposals are nearly all cen- • tred in one locality. We are not pre-: pared to say that this, in the special case in question, was an error' of Executive judgment, but it would" have been , more satisfactory to have . had a good reason given why a bad principle should have been best adapted for adoption on so very general a settlerftent of the waste "lands of the Province. It is quite clear that it j does not do to isolate new settlers too much, and a steady progress outwards from agricultural centres may be the best, sign ot | \vhat 2 JMr.' : Trevsurnr Tumbull calls the 1 " path of progress?' Yet it does Hot fol-

W that the whole of the land available for settlement as Hundreds and deferred payment with ' one exception, should be selected in one locality. Mr. Reid, we -are aware, is of opinion that agricultural lease areas effer the same ■facilities' for settlement in the interior (ioldfields of the Province as the deferred, payment blocks do elsewhere. ; This, however, is not the case. As a matter ofjobtaining a freehold title to ah. agricultural section the two systems are not very different. If the agricultural lessee has a little more freedom with regard to conditions, he has to pay a little more for it. The obstacle to settlement the Goldfields leases offer is that an agricultural lessee is confined to his section, whereas the. occupier on deferred payments has a grazing right. In the remote interior district,' where the settlers have to contend : with heavy freights, and comparatively no markets, it seems unreasonable to handicap them with such a drawback as the absence of all grazing right. It is very doubtful . whether the early settlers could heve weathered their first difficulties without the grazing rightsoffered by the Hundred Acts. - ; Yet this is what the settlers on Goldfields " ' asked to do; or ; in default* the county they reside in ,is uncompromisingly rim '■■■'■ down as unfit for settlement. One of the exceptions we have referred Eyeburn Hundred—is the key which will funlock the Maniototo Plain. The p roclam'ai tiori of this' Hundred is in every way -a : wise measure. : It will give facilities to: settlers, and will solve the problem—what to do with 1 the Maniototo when the leases expire. No doubt 'the Hundreds" in the South wilf'speedily be taken iip arid set tied if the 1 details of survey are improved, 1 and the charges, especially, rendered less : extortionate,. In ' the districts in which the staff : system has not been reverted to, the charges : are, in many instances^ ; prohibitive. One case is returriM in which sg4o was charged for the' survey of 41 acres,' or thereabouts. Wheri further land proposals have to be dealt with, we hope the suggestion thrown out will be considered. It may be summarised as being whether the better policy would not be to open up country further removed from'' first settlement;.'.':". Every Hundred would theti be; in its turn, a central point for more minute selection when the pastoral leases Guardian.;' ■ -' :