SETTLING THE LANDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 118, 21 May 1877, Page 4

SETTLING THE LANDS.

: Mr J. B. Bickefton Fisher writes to the New Zealand Times from Westport as follows; — Sib,— -I p_et a man in town to-day with a very long face, who in reply to my query aa to what was the matter with him, .eaid ; "Look here, Mr Fieher, I must leave this place." I said why ? He said : " I have been trping for the last four years to get a block of land to settle on, and I can't do it." He said there is the reply to my laat application." I took it and read — " Memorandum for Mr . Westport, "Your application for a lease of 150 acres of and near the Fairdown Railway Junction cannot be received, as the .land is not open for eale or selection. I therefore return, &c, " Alfred Greenfield, " Cool, issioner." If I have read one reply like that I have read hundreds during my residence here qf six years. The manager of one of our local banks told me not long ago that he believed he could tot i«p £5Q,000 which had been drawn end parried away by the owners during ithe last three years, because they could not get land to settle on, and that these people had not gone to other parts of the colony to settle, bnt had cleared out for Australia and elsewhere, and were entirely lost to the country. I know from equally good authority that many thousands of pounds have been drawn out of our local savings bank and carried away for the same reason. The remedy is to throw open the reserves, which include within their areas nearly the whole of the land in this district available for settlement, and the creation aod continuance ol which have been the bane of this part of the colony. But this throwing; open must be judiciously done, or (he whole area will be grabbed up by speculators, and the remedy prove worse than the disease. The ex ten tof land in Westport is very limited— -only a few thousand acres, and mostly dense bush. It costs from £40 to £60 ao acre to make the bush land ready for Jthe plough, and then it is unfit for pastoral or agricultural purposes on any extended scale. What it: is fit for is small farms which will provide dairy produce, root crops and vegetables for the town, and maintain a few cattle and sheep in -condition until required for consumption. What I suggest is that the Government ascertain and appropriate what they want for their railways, and that the balance be surveyed off into blocks of 100, 150, and 2JOO acres, giving, as far as possible to each allotment a portion of bush and a portion of clear ground. The next thing would be to settle an upset price for the land, which should take the form of a rental, aod which should cease at the end of ten or fourteen years, and the property become the freehold of the leaseholder. A form of lease should be prepared, containing stringent clauses aa to payment of rent, fencing clearing, and residence. Tbe leases should then in each case be put up to auction, so as to do away with what every would-be landowner dreads, viz., that some one will get a straight and early tip, and pick tbe eyes out of thejwhole block before anybody else knows it is open for selection. The extra sum bid might take the form of a cash premium or an increased rent. By following the course indicated, the Government will locate more people on the land and get tbe land itself better farmed than in any other mode I can thing of. There muet also be an entire or qualified local administration of the Waste lands. It is simply absured to expect the Neisou Waste Lands Board to administer these lands to the advantage of the settlement or of the colony. The Nelson Board knows nothing of this, people their requirements, or their wishes, and what's more, they don't want to know. They consider West Coasters ought to be satisfied, if not flattered, when Nelson condescends to reply to applications for land— " It cannot be received," or " The land applied for is a reserve," or " This land is not open for selection." It would be quite too much to expect thesa gentlemen to rouse themselves to the fact that the applications for land are becoming more numerous, tLe applicants more clamorous, and that, therefore, it might be as well to reopen the question of these reserves, to enquire whether the circumsUnces still exist which obtained when they were made, or whether the conditions have altered so much that a great wrong is done' to the district, the settlers, and the colony by their maintenance, and that, therefore, they should ba cancelled and thrown open for selection immediately. — I au>, &c. , J. Bickerton Fisher. Westport, May 4. THE LATEST YANKEE NOTION. What is it? It is nothing more or less than the construction of a pneumatic tube across the Amerioan continent. The proposition is thus put before the publio by a correspondent of the Philadelphia Item: — " What would you think of a continuous pneumatic tube for mail matter of all kinds, for 3000 miles over the hills and far away? Engineers say it is entirely practicable. Following the course of the overland railway, the air tight tubes would meet in the vast mountain ranges it traverses abundant water-powers at convenient relays

for compressing and exhausting air. Coal, iron, stone, and lime abound, to make cast-iron tubing and machinery of other kinds, saving great cost in construction. The Government of America and i : Europe would aid in such a work. All European correspondence of commercial import with Australia and all Asiatic ports would be sent by the American transcontinental pneumatic express. Engineers differ as to the time of such transmission. Were it not for the necessity of relays to provide refreshment of condensed . air and for the corresponding exhaustion, to create a partial vacuum at the far end, the transit would rival electric speed. But, all delays considered, twenty-four hours seems thought to be ample. The importance of such a bond of union to the United States cannot be over estimated. Its consequence is material in a military as well as in a political and commercial sense. Its international advantages would be very great, and our country would derive the greatest benefit. If correspondence would pass this way, so would trade and commercial payment. The coin now doing duty among the Christian nations and the people of Asia and Oceania would suffice for treble service. No port on the Atlantic seaboard would derive greater comparative benefits than Baltimore. The increase of trade is evidently bound to crowd all Atlantic ports that prepare for it. Those best provided will gain the most. Baltimore has surely eyes to see and wits to observe. It cannot be dormant and make no effort when such a rioh prize invites its acceptance." The editor of the Item is favorably impressed with the project, and says: — " Our correspondent is right in asserting that the construction of a pneumatic tube that would transmit mail matter over a distance of 3 000 miles ia practicable. The only question is one of cost. This would be enormous, not because of the length of the tube and its calibre, but because of the innumerable stations with engines and pneumatic machinery that would be required to compress and exhaust the air at intervals over so long a distance. Without doubting the probability of the scheme, the project resolves itself into one of .profit .and loss. Would it pay? We are inolined to think it would."

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