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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 741, 21 May 1853, Page 2

We have much pleasure in directing at . million to the correspondence between ti !e Committee of the Auckland Land Association and the Government, on the subject of the New Land Regulations, which will be found in another column. It was filling the representatives of a Society which has been organized for the specific purpose of bringing small freehold properties within the reach of frugal and industrious men «f ' limited means, should express their grateful appreciation of a measure which, by reducing the price of land, is calculated so directly and powerfully to advance the end of its " organization; and the reply of the Governor, —frank, explicit, and sympathetic as it is— ‘ cannot fail to be highly gratifying to the members of the Association and Ike large class of the community of'which they form apart. Such actually was the f cling of. perhaps the most nnmerous’y attended meeting of the Committee of the Land As- < sociaiion that ever assembled, —by whicniiis Excellency’s reply was received with warm expressions of satisfaction, unbroken by a single querulous or objecting voice. It may be observed that the Address to the* Governor was framed after tlx* model of the Address on the same subject from the inhabitants of the Province generally which is - now in course of signal re; su halterations being made, however, as- without departing from*’ the spirit of that document— yet adapted the structure and phraseology of the Commit tee’s Address to the peculiar circumstances (if the body from whom it proceeded. Thus, in addition to thanking His Excellency for the great boon of Cheap Land, and calling attention to the necessity for following up this most beneficial step by the adoption of all practicable means to render a larger - quantity of land available for purchase, the Committeesngges cd the importance—to those , on whose behalf they spoke,—that the llcguiations should be so administered as to secure all due facilities to smalt purchasers. It will be seen that Sir George Grey’s reply was an unequivocal assurance dial this should be done; with, at the same lime, an implied appeal to the very spirit and design of the New Regulations as furnishing evidence shat nch was, from the first, tin* intention with which the Plan was promulgated. And indeed, the Regulations fully justify and hear out such an appeal. A farm of forty mres, as the attentive reader must perceive, was the simple and primary idea of the plan; and an applicant lor forty acres who complies with the terms of the Regulations, * rnnnni be ousted by any subsequent applicant for a large tract. So lar from being de-' : signed to aid the monopolists, the Rcgulalionswere calculated to strike a deadly blow at the monopolies by which a wealthy ard sordid few might shut up the country against the competition of the humbler, but more genu ne, selilcrs. The monopolists in the South understaii i this well, and to their knowledge that it is so may be traced a great pari of the selfish opposition which Thev have raised against the new svsiem. vu * t Still, there were members of the Committee who, not without ample reason, dreaded, that even these liberal Regulations might be perverted from their beneficial designs—by graspingcapitalists,, not only now but on the opening up of further tracts of land at future limes,—unless the “ administration” the Regulations was so guarded, as to shield the comparatively poorman. This apprehension is met by His Excellency s satisfactory adoption almost verbatim of the words in which the request was conveyed; “ they may re>l assured that the Land Regulations tci I be so administered “as to afford every proper facility to those whose limited means only permit them to purchase small farms.”

Altogether, the Governor’s reply, whether regarded as to its mailer, or as to the courieous and even friendly tone in which it isexpressed, is calculated to encourage the s:mgm«c expectations which we (eel warranted in entertaining that His Excellency's best efforts will he directed to secure for the Province of Auckland an advance in prosperity far surpassing in rapidity even that which has so signally marked its progress timing the last few years. And it surely is no more than bare justice than the people “whom he is trying to serve” should give a. distinct and warm expression to their “satisfaction and gratitude,” as the Committee of the Lana Association have done on that subject winch f ill more immediately within this province—the reduction in the price of land.