MOONLIGHT FLAT BLOCK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 402, 25 November 1876, Page 3

MOONLIGHT FLAT BLOCK.

The petitioners for the opening of a block of land at Moonlight Flat, Macraes district, have already tasted the fruits of Centralism. In all good faith they petitioned the House of Representatives that the Flat might be opened for settlement. What would have become of the petition had the Assembly been sitting it is, of course, impossible to speak certainly. If it had not gone into the waste paper basket, or been sent down to the House ; from the Public Petitions Committee with the usual report —"Your Committee have carefully enquired, &c, <&c, but regret they do not see their way to recommend the prayer of the petitioners"—-the exception would have been noteworthy indeed. The Assembly having prorogued, the petition found its way to the Commissioner of Customs The Commissioner sent It to the Board. The Board sent it to Mr. M'Kerrow for the happy despatch, and on Wednesday of last week it was finally disposed of to the satisfaction of all the circumlocution offices and officers engaged, but to the extreme fligust of the petititioners. The terms of the Surveyor's report will be no doubt sharply criticised by tho disappointed settlers. At an early oppor ♦ unity we will revert to those portions of the report, republished in another column, which stamp all blocks opened in the Interior as failures, and the treeless interior as iudeed only fit for runs. The amount of power now placed in the Board is a subject of the gravest anxiety. The Board can at will recommend tho increase in price of all lands open for sale. Its recommendation is sufficient to justify tho Governor in issuing a proclamation, without any notice or consideration by tho peoples representatives. The Board can alone exercise the Provincial Councils

function of selecting blocks and hundreds for settlement. i\'o block ;-sui be proclaimed, it would appear, without the recommendation of the Board li' the House of Kepresentatives itself were to declare in favor of the Moonlight Flat block the Boards power of veto would still be good, unless a I/md Act was introduced and passed for the special case. The Board can make a bargain with the pastoral tenant for the alienation of the lease without compensation, the quid pro quo being, it may be presumed, as cash is excluded, the right to secure a good slice of ground favorably situated as freehold. It can also exercise the formidable power of withdrawal of any lands from sale should it choose to think that its sale or disposal may appear likely to be prejudicial to the public interest, I and this power can be used, notwithstanding that shall have been already made. While it is necessary some power should exist to interfere where a sacrifice of public estate is imminent, such a power in the hands of the Board alone is very liable to abuse. The Board is also to be invested with powers akin to a Commissioner of Q-oldfields, for where authority is needed by miners to go upon lands occupied by license that authority must come from the Board.

If the Boards were to be partially elected by the Provincial Districts there might be some check upon the 'abuses of the erroneous power and patronage confened upon them. Unfortunately the Board is to be a nominee Board. Its members must all be of necessity selected from residents in or near Dunedin, as the payment for the Commissioners is too moderate to induce residents in the County to act if nominated. The practical result of the change of system will be that the whole control of the waste lands, in particular of the selection of blocks for settlement, will be iu the hands of the Boards officer's. Whether it i 3 that the lessees of the Crown are more in and out of the survey offices, and thus more continuous'y brought into contact with the officers of the land department to instil their opinions, or whether it is that in these gentlemen pastoral Conservative instincts were implanted from che beginning of their official careers, cerfcuiuly we find that they have been the most persistent foes of agricultural settlement—which iu the interior means, mixed grazing and farming. That they will improve >n this particular we- fear to hope. That they will have the full powers of the Otago Provincial Execu ive and Provincial Council is only too certain.