PASTORAL LANDS: THEIR FUTURE MANAGEMENT.

North Otago Times, Volume II, Issue 40, 24 November 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

PASTORAL LANDS: THEIR FUTURE MANAGEMENT.

The following Message from his Honor the Superintendent was laid before the Piovincial Council :•— In his address to the Provincial Council on the opening of the present Session, the Superintendent alluded to the value and importance of the pastoral lauds ot the Province as a source of future revenue, and to the duty of considering in what manner those lands may be most beneficially administered, _ It is very generally known and admitted that the mode in which our pastoral lands have been dealt with is not altogether satisfactory to the tenants, while it is opposed to public policj£<suKl interests. The tenure beinguncertain?jj»'~fcii9 ntituie, the tenants do not

possess those inducements to invest capital in the enclosure of their runs, in tne introduction of new grasses, and in making those general and permanent improvements thereon upon which materially depend the successful breeding and management of stock. On the other hand the revenue derivable from pastoral lands is utterly disproportionate to their annual value. From the annexed table it appears that the total amount of income accruing , to the Province as the rental of 6,394,100 acres of land amount to the comparatively small sum of £4,810 10s 9d. For many years past the Superintendent has been impressed with the desirability of creating and reserving from sale a Provincial estate, from which a perpetual and increasing revenue may be secured to the Province, auxiliary to all other sources of income. Possibly, objections may be raisei to such a proposition, and some difficulties may present themselves in "iving it practical effect; but if the advantages which would follow its> adoption are fully weighed, it is hoped that they will be found sufficient to counterbalance all such objections, in which case no insurmountable difficulties would be found to interpose between the object and its accomplishment. The expression of a decided opinion upon the working of the Otago Waste I ands Act of 18C3, and the influence they may exercise upon the colonisation of the Province, and the cultivation of its agricultural lands, would now be premature; but it is not too early to recognise the fact that the second of these acts, which imposes an annual tax of 2s per acre upon all purchased lands until their owner has expended £2 per aero upon improvements thereon, i*> inapplicable to lands which are uiuulapted for agricultural purposes. It is believed that no argument is required to prove that not only are our existing pastoral regulations inoperative to secure to the public and to the runholder those reciprocal benefits which ought to result from pastoral leases ; but that modifications of our recently passed land acts will become necessary before they can have any general application to the sale of purely pastoral lands. It is> likewise assumed that it will become a matter of necessary policy, at no very distant date, to sell portions of our p'>stoial lands in older to sustain an adequate Provincial revenue. The Superintendent submits to the Council the outlines of a system under which (if adopted) a more advantageous remit would be obtained than that which has attended the system now in operation The following arc some of its main features : — 1. That 100 runs, containing in the aggregate 3,000,000 acres, be selected in vaiious paits of the Pro\ince, as a Pro\ineial estate, and that all necessary steps be taken to weenie such lands to the Province as its inalienable piopeity. 2, That on the cxpiiation of the leases affecting such iuns, the same be let by the Gen eminent by public auction, on leases for 7, 10, or 1-1 jeai&, at the highest lent obtainable for the same.

3. That in addition to all usual and necessary conditions, the leases should contain the l following, viz

Ist. That at the expiration of the lease valuation shall be allowed to the tenant for all such fences, buildings, and other permanent improvements, including the planting of foiest trees, as he may have erected or made on the land occupied by him during the currency of the lease, by written consent of the Government.

2nd. That the Government shall at all times, during the currency of the lease, have full power and authoiity to enter upon the land for the purpose of making and repairing roads and bridges, quairying stone for building and other purposes, and for woiking minerals; and shall also have the right, upon payment of reasonable compensation for the seine, to abstract from the land so leased, if required for agricultural purposes, any part or parts thereof, not being moie than five per cent of the whole, and shall also have the right to erect or cause to be erected, on any pait of the said lands, all buildings required foi police etations and for other purposes, as also to authorise the election of and to license hotels or other houses for the use and accommodation of travellers.

3id. That in the event of the holder of any Depistuting License for any run which shall be so set aside and reserved as a Provincial Evtate as aforesaid, being desirous, during the euriency of such license, of exchanging the same for a lease on the conditions befoie mentioned, the Government shall be at liberty to grant the same, at an annual rent to be fixed by them, without submitting such lease to public auction.

4lh. That all pastoral linu*. evcept the lands so to be leserved and as a Pro\iucial estate as afores-aid, shall, on the expiration of the licenses affecting the same, be open for sale in blocks of not less than 320 acres, at the upset pi ice of LI acre, and the purchasers thcieof shall be exempt fiom the operation of the Otago Waste Lands Act. 1863, No. 2 ; but until the said lands shall be sold, the same shall be let for pastoral purposes in such areas ns the Government may determine, on for 7, 10, or 14 years, subject to the following conditions in addition to those contained in clauses 2 and 3, viz. : —

1. That when any portion of land shall be sold by the Government, the rent previously payable in respect of the lauds so sold shail cease. 2. That the purchasers of any land comprised within a run so leased shall i:ot be entitled to any rights of pasturage on the said run, beyond the limits of the land so purchased by him. Regulations based upon these conditions would produce over the first fourteen years of their trial the following results, enirely independent of the revenue arising from the sales of agricultural lands :—Estimated nett annual rental from reserved est 'te of three millions of acres, L65,00Q; estimated annual nett rental from, say two millio~ns acres of the residue of the pastoral lands, L 30,000; estimated nett annual revenue derivable from sales of pastoral lands, 60.000 acres, say at LI per acre, L 60,000 ; total amount of revenue from sale of lands, Lt 55,000.

The Superintendent has been unable during

the present session to prepare for presentation to the Council v complete code of new regulations, but as he believes that the subject is entitled to early consideration, with & \iewto the repeal of existing regulations at the earliest possible date, and also that the principles contained in the foregoing clauses would, if particularly applied, be productive of great and permanent advantage to the Province, he has determined to submit them in their pieseut imperfect state, in the hope that they may prove the basis of a system, which, when fully matured by the Council and the General Assembly, will finally secure to the Province an equitable aud justifiable disposal of our pastoral lands. J. H\i)i'. llAßurs, Superintendent.

Dunedin, Sth Nov., 1864