The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 520, 9 April 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not : Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1851.

Whatever may remain io be done, by the reduction of price or otherwise, before the disposal of land can be regarded as placed upon such a basis as will secure the full development of the agricultural resources of the Province, it must be admitted by every impartial observer that the Ordinances referred to in Lord Grey's recent despatches, (which, this day week, we copied from the Government Gazette) , are calculated to do much towards the removal of difficulties previously complained of, and towards materially extending the beneficial control of the settlers over the property which they have acquired, and over the appropriation of the funds raised by the land sales. While those Ordinances were passing through the Legislative Council, we pointed out the advantages which they were likely to confer upon the public j but the proclamation of their confirmation by the Quei'n, and the large extension of the operation of one in them in the direction of popular self-government, afford an inviting opportunity of recnning to their bearings, of which we shall to-day briefly avail ourselves. The Crown Lands' Ordinance had in its general scope and provisions a practical merit, which the trial since made of its workings has enabled the public to appreciate satisfactorily. It not meiely gave legal solidity and permanence to the previously txisting regulations for the occupation of the Waste Lands of the Crown, and introduced facilities for squatting, but also effected a new and important step towards investing the settlers with the right to manage their own affairs, by empoAvering Wardenschosen by themselves — to administer the law and make bye laws for the maintenance and proper exercise of the rights of pasturage in the several Hundreds, to levy taxes for the purposes of their appointment, and to expend the monies so raised for the benefit of their constituents. It is gratifying to know that this ,Qrdiaance, although t>o .shoit a time in operation, has commended itself thoroughly to the good opinion ot the stock- holders, for whose

accommodation and advantage it was primarily designed ; and that any inconvenience or cause of dissatisfaction which aiose during its first year of trial could be traced— not to any faultiness inherent in the provisions of the law — but to local or casual circumstances, most of which may be met in such a way as to prevent any future annoyance from these or similar sources, by attention to the recommendations of the Commissioner of Crown Lands (as read by him at the last election of Wardens for this town, and published in the New Zealander of the 29th of January). The Funds placed at the disposal of the Wardens were some time ago considerably increased by a regulation, sanctioned by the Governor-in-Chief, giving those Officers the power of applying to the purposes contemplated by the Ordinance all sums received as poundage ices, and fines for trespasses on Crown Lands and for breaches of the Rules, in addition to the sums raised by assessment and License Fees. A still more important augmentation of those Funds is now sanctioned by the Royal Instruction and the explanatory j despatch of Earl Grfy. The Governor is authorised (in compliance it appears with a recommendation forwarded by His Excfllency himself) to devolve upon the Wardens the Expenditure, in the construction of roads, bridges, and similar public works, of one third of the gross proceeds of the Revenue raised by the sale of Lands within the divisions for which they have respectively been elected. Within the Hundred of Auckland especially this will make up an amount which, under judicious management, may be rendered available for very extensive improve" ments ; and which is to be so appropriated, it is to be always borne in mind, by the chosen representatives of the land-holders themselves. For the last three months of 1850, this proportion of the Land Sales Reveuue would have given them the expenditure of about Five Hundred Pounds ; and although that Quarter's 1 proceeds may have been above the aver1 age, still the regular amount must be very considerable indeed. It is true that the Governor is not absolutely bound to entrust the whole of this proportion to the management of of the Wardens, the words of the Royal Instruction being " any proportion not exceeding one third ;" but the spirit of the Instruction, and still more of the Despatch (in which the discretionary limitation is not named), evidently indicates an intention that there sliall be no avoidable restriction imposed here ; and we cannot anticipate that any such will be imposed in practice, provided the constituencies exercise their privilege of election judiciously, by choosing as Wardens men of suffi- , cient intelligence to perceive, and sufficient I independence and integrity to pursue with! i singlenesss of purpose such objects as will be really promotive of the general good. i As respects the Ordinance for Quieting Titles to Land in New Ulster, we need do ! little more than express our pleasure that a measure, which when it was before the Council we advisedly characterised as " equitable in its spirit, comprehensive in its scope, and calculated to work extended and permanent good to the whole Province," has received its complete and final legalization by the approval of Her Majesty. It would be no difficult matter to revive questions respecting the mannet in which some of the claimants obtained their alleged rights to the landswhich are nowirrevocably theirs; and, (as Lord Grey has, we think, not only forcibly but justly put it) respecting " the injurious tendency to the public interests of finally placing in the possession of individuals such extensive tracts of land." But the case is now a settled one : Sir George Grey's large and liberal Ordinance gives the grantees Titles, the validity of which cannot again be mooted; Titles good not only against " Her Majesty, her Heirs and Successors," but against " all oilier persons whatever .*" and we have no other desire than to unite with Lord Grey in trusting that the mea- , sure " may be productive of peace and content in the Province of New Ulster, and that the ' animosities to which the question gave rise, may speedily be laid aside and forgotten." In another point of view, however, much will depend upon the course the proprietors may adopt in the future with regard to the lands \ thus secured to them. Up to the present we have witnessed the anomaly of parties crying out loudly for an opening of the country by admitting European purchasers to treat freely with the Native owners of land; while some of those who have joined most strenuously in this j cry have been themselves keeping large tracts of country entirely locked up — absolutely inaccessible to the efforts of the indu-try and enterprise of new settlers. According to the official Returns published a few weeks since in the Government Gazette, there are within the Province, (without referring at all to the Waste Lands of the Crown), upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand acres of land which, although actually granted by the Crown and^in the occupation of the grantees, remains uncultivated. Every pretext as to " doubts" respecting the Titles interfering with improvement is now removed by the provisions of this " Quieting Ordinance." But, after all, what avail will that be to the public, if individual speculators, who, there is little doubt, have in some instances acquired their Lands from the Natives by means which amply warrant the application to them of the epithet of " land-sharks/ prove still true to

their sharking propensities, and abuse the boon conferred upon them in the Ordinance, bykeeping whole districts of country in a state of uselessness for practical purposes,— hoping probably that at some coming period they may satiate their appetite for gain by the prices to be prociued for the now unemployed thousands of acres. 'I his would be a great evil ; but the responsibility of it must obviously rest on the owners personally ; not at all on the measure of legislation of which it forms no part, and to the spirit of which, it is diametrically opposed.