LAND SALES.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 24, 20 August 1842, Page 96

LAND SALES.

[From the Auckland Standard.']

Having, in a former number, expressed our opinion of; the ruinous effect which has been produced upon the prospects of this colony by the very high prices given for the waste lands, which have been so tardily and sparingly surveyed, and offered for sale from time to time — having pointed out some of the unfair practices of the system — it is hardly necessary now that we should speak to the buyers in reference to the absurdly sanguine estimate they have been persuaded to place upon what is really of no value ; still less is it required of us to enlarge, before the dwellers in Auckland, upon the mischievous consequences of allowing the capital of an infant community like this to be absorbed in abortive and chimerical bind speculations. The stagnation of trade, and the almost total inactivity in the pursuits of husbandry, speak for themselves ; they tell a plain and a clamorous tale, of which we have an echo from every tongue. , Our present small community, for leave to Mt down upon the land, have been drainad of almost the last iota of thaee means which should have been economised wJbake the land useful : as if there were^qt enougwend to spare of the millions <&%&&& jttti- useless acres by which we are Burnraaafa,"^ few hundreds only are

periodically offered to a scrambling competition, in the hope that the present handful of people may, by these means; pc made to defray the cx r pense of establishing instantly (out of the hard cash which is their present scanty capital) the costly machinery of a systematic form of government, such as would be suitable to the dignity and easy circumstances of a thriving community' of a century's standing.* If the British Government do really suppose that an emigration population, such as emigration populations are and always have been, can afford to buy land at high upset prices, a force should be sent before to make it somewhat available for present purposes; such land as is capable of cultivation should be offered in preference, not reserved ! and the seller, in common honesty, should bestow upon it some slight pretensions to the advantage of being approachable ; but no ! — what signifies quality and situation ? Land (like the Jew's razors) is surveyed to sell! It really would be refreshing if our surveyors would show us (if it were only upon paper) the ghost of a road in the colony. If we had but the empty idea of such a thing, we might be taught (for we are gullible enough,; Heaven spare the mark !) to place reliance on the veracity of a poet, and to believe that

" Coming events cast their shadow* before"— that the work of colonizing in reality would some day commence. This we fear, however, is hopeless. Notwithstanding the depression already produced, so long as there is a possibility of further depletion, we must have an occasional " roup" of an hundred acre patch or two, at an upset price of 20s. an acre — (or gall it suburban, where whs rum est, et forsaa nunquam erit — hey presto. ! twenty pounds) — to set together by the eari the few flats who have a hundred or two pounds ; a-pdece left. - ' And the result of all this is that we have merchants whose ledgers have no entries but for imported food — shopkeepers whose heaviest disbursements are, for rent — and farmers who " downa yoke a nag." We have no desire to suggest anything that should embarrass the Colonial Government — we deny any disloyal feeling as British subjects*but we do say, again and again, that the present system of land sales is utterly bad; it is entirely one-sided; it is calculated only to pander to a needy, short-sighted* desire of revenue, and, in the long run, must be abandoned, to the discomfiture of present speculators ; or it will lead to the desolation and relinquishment of colonial enterprise altogether. If the wilderness land in the colonies must be sold, and at high prices, a liberal credit should be given, and an open selection offered* to the settlers. At present, so little liberality, is there here, that lots rejected under all the fortuitous provocations to buy which auctions engender, are still withheld from sale at the upset price, and put by for a more favourable opportunity of getting off, when new gulls may be gathered together. We see by the Government Gazette that a sale is to be attempted this morning; and we! suggest to intending buyers one or two inquiries appropriate to be made of the auctioneer: ! they can do no harm. It ought not to escape observation, that the lots are not consecutive. Why are they not so ? Have reserves been made in the lots as well as the price? If so, wJio for? Have sales been already privately made to the holders of London- , made land orders, or others?

People who are simple enough to bid at these auctions should recollect that parties purchasing land orders in Downing-street have the jiower of selecting any surveyed lands, at the upset price ; so that the best of those lots which people here are so eager to outbid each other for, to their mutual impoverishment, may have been rejected already by half a dozen or more holders of these favoured documents. The above are pertinent queries to put to the salesman. Now let our readers, after reflection, ask themselves whether, if they give above five shillings an acre for such lots, they are not giving not only more than they are worth, but more than the price at which such lots must speedily court their acceptance ? The system of high prices and auction excitement in a couple of years ruined half the people in New South Wales, where there was a large, a wealthy, and. a settled population. How is it likely to promote the advancement of an infant and needy community such sis- ours ? Sir George Gipps would tell our Government, if inquired of, that, after a year or two of ruinous excitement, this same system has thoroughly interrupted, if not entirely destroyed, what would, with reasonable liberality, have been a steady, permanent; and improving source of revenue and social advancement.

* The ' Estimates .of the present year cover a cool sixty thousand pounds, or thereabout, to be paid by a population of at most, perhaps, ten thousand, scattered and in the .settlements ; and this includes women and children, pauper emigrants, soldiers, sailors on our coasts, and birds of passage of every description ! The parties ' really taxable being less than a tithe of the whole.

A Coloured Jddgk.— Mr. Athill, a gentleman of African descent, has been appointed chief baron of the exchequer in the island of Antigua. On occasion of this appointment the Antigua HeraM expresses itself as follows:— We are top wen pleased with the appointment announced is last Tuesday's Rtgitter to allow it to pan without giving it our unqualified assent. Whether we view it as a valuable precedent, or as the menu of admission to one of the highest colonial titter of* highly .respected member of the class towliiiikf Ms) belong, we unhesitatingly pronounce it to be the most important that has yet been made by the Lieutenant-Governor, during his adrninstration of the general government.