[Concluded from our last.]

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume III, Issue 144, 25 May 1842, Page 3

[Concluded from our last.]

The third condition was, that the mode of sale (whatever the price and the use made of the purchase-money) should be based on sound principles. For along while I had not imagined that this was a matter of much importance ; and such appears to have been always the state of mind of those who have had to deal practically with the subject. Inquiry and reflection have taught me that the mode of sale has effects of the greatest moment. If a uniform price is adopted, whatever the quality and situation of the land, then, unless there be always on sale a quantity equal to the wants of the colonists from time to time, this restriction of quantity will have the same effect as an increase of price in diminishing the proportion which land bears to population. If under the plan of a uniform price the surveys are not carried far in advance of the wants of the colonists, the choice of buyers will often be restricted to lots of inferior quality or position, so as to occasion a waste of capital and labour. If the mode of sale is by auction, at a low upset price, with a view to a selling average of much higher amount by means of competition, then (with the exception of certain spots adapted for towns and suburban lots) the price obtained will depend on the quantity put up for sale. If the quantity open to purchasers much exceeds their wants, the selling price will hardly ever exceed ,the upset price (as happens in Canada and throughout the United States), and the auction will be a mere mockery of competition. In this case, the lowest upset price will really be the regulating price contrary to the intentions of the government. On the other hand, under the auction plan, it would not matter in the least, what was the upset price if the quantity brought to sale were below the wants of the colonists. In this latter case, the price obtained would really be settled by competition, or rather hy the officer of the government who determined the quantity to be offered for sale. Another great objection to the auction plan is that it occasions delay, by requiring notice in order that there maybe competition; it often subjects to disappointment those who have spent time and money inselectingparticular lots, which after all are obtained bj higher bidders at the sale; and in Canada and the United States, most assuredly, it gives occasion to a great amount of jobbing, trickery, and fraud.* The singleadvantage attributed to it is, that it obtains for the Government more money than any other mode of sale. But is this an advantage ? Is it desirable that the Government should get from the class of land buyers more than the price which is sufficient for a due proportion between people and And if it were desirable to get more than that sufficient price, would it not be secured even more easily and surely by adding the desired excess to a sufficient uniform price, than by the auction plan with all its irregularities, its dependence on the quantity brought to sale, its notices, delays, disappointments, and rogueries. I know that the auction plan has recommended itself by the large sums obtained for small quantites of land marked out by the Government as town-sites and suburban lots; but it may be questioned whether* if the Government could obtain the sufficient price (and more, if more were thought desirable) by the simple plan of a fixed uniform price, it does wisely to encumber itself with the pursuit of a business so liable to miscalculation, so often ending in disappointment among the buyers and reproaches against the sellers, and above all, when undertaken by the Governmeut ; so apt to stimulate merely speculative investments, as that of choosing the sites of intended towns in a half-explored country, and selling town and surburban lots by auction. Is it to be wished that the Government should take the part of land-jobbing companies or individuals, without the pecuniary responsibilities that belong to the latter? If not, the auction plan has no recommendation to balance its inconveniences. An alleged inconvenience of the uniform price is, that it requires ample surveys and the fixing of a "sufficient" price by authority; which, indeed it does : but so does the auction plan, if the quantity brought to sale be ample, since in that case the bulk of purchasers will buy at the upset price ; and it is surely better tosficknowledge and face the difficulty of fixing the right price by law, than to fail in the attempt to evade that difficulty by so irregular and uncertain a process as a capricious limitation of the quantity bronght to sale. In fact, however, neither the one plan nor the other. has been firmly established with its proper accompaniments. Under the uniform plan, the price has been far too low ; under the auction plan, tne quantity has been far too great, or the upset price too low; and instead of either plan being fixed by the final choice of Government, both have been the subject of perpetual controversy and indecision. - The fourth condition was, supposing the price to be sufficient, that the greatest liberty and

7*l have been assured that, at a recent lale in Australia ll very improper influence wai used to prevent biddings •g»imt tbe purcliM«r» of certain lott.

facility of selection should be afforded to purchasers. When' the Government gets the true maximum — that is, the highest price required for the only purpose with which waste land ought ever to be saddled with any price — it ought so to manage matters that no purchaser should be compelled to take land of inferior quality or position while there was any of the superior kind within reach. The system, therefore, requires ample surveys. Unsurveyed land is not land for the purpose of this system, any more than unpicked cotton or unthrashed corn is fit for market. Practically, the want of ample surveys has not been severely felt (though it led in South Australia to the" costly device of "special surveys" at the public expense) because neither the uniform nor the upset price has any where been high enough to make it a great hardship that the land of the best position and quality was not open to puchasers ; but if ever the price should be raised so as to meet the views expressed by Lord Howick in the South Australian Committee of last session, ample surveys will be indispensable, in order that there may be a wide field for choice. And hsre it may be well to notice two objections to such a price as Lord Howick is supposed to contemplate. The first is, that such a price, whether fixed or upset, land of inferior quality or position would not find purchasers'. Then let it remain purchased, so long as there is preferable land to sell. But when the preferable land had been bought and cultivated, and the district had been peopled and improved, the land which had been at first neglected, though still waste itself, would no longer be in the midst of a waste, but would have acquired a position superior to that of any land in the waste, and would then, unless rendered wholly sterile by nature, fetch the price of the best land in waste districts ; and if any wholly steril land remained for ever unsold, it would occasion no greater inconvenience than that which had been decreed by nature under every mode of colonization. The second objection to a sufficient price is, that though suitable for rich soils which would make a large return to capital and labour, it would be too high for great part of such a country as Australia, where the main employment of capital is sheep-fanning, and where, in some districts several acres are required to feed a sheep. And this objection must be fully admitted, But in admitting it, the statement has to be made that nobody has ever proposed to put a price on the use of natural pasturage. That might be granted for nothing, as all land used to be, but in strict proportion to the stock kept by the grantee, and on condition that whenever anybody wanted to buy any of it, that portion should be resumed by" the Government for sale, without even a tendency to defeat the object of insisting on a price for every acre acquired as permanent property. The fifth condition was, that, whatever might be the price and the mode of sale, both should be* applied uniformly to all parts of a. colony and to all the colonies of any group. One plan in one place, and another in another place not far off, were sure to counteract each other. This is so obvious as scatcely to require' explanation; yet in the only group of colonies in which the mode of sale, with a view to immigration, has been tried at all, it lias been tried under a variety of modifications at the same time. The sixth condition was, supposing the uniform or upset ""pi-ice to be "sufficient," that sales to come should be anticipated by the raising of loans on the security of future sales, and the use of the proceeds of such loans applied as a fund for emigration. This is required for a new colony, because the first emigrants will hardly give the sufficient price (whether upset or uniform) until the settlement is, in some measure, peopled; and it is; still more required for old colonies, because in every one of them the discarded plan of granting has caused such an excess of land in proportion to people, that, except for certain old reserves or peculiarly eligible spots, there would be no purchasers at the sufficient price until the population of the colon}' was considerably increased. It has been objected to such loans that they would burthen the colony with debt. And what then ? The incurring of debt for a good object, the borrowing of money with a view to" profit, is as legitimate a course of proceeding for Governments as for individuals, provided the borrowed money is laid out so as to insure the means of its repayment with profit besides. Now, if the Government peopled its land first, and sold it afterwards, it would be able to sell it for a great deal more than if it sold it first, and peopled it afterwards. This is proved by the great and rapid increase in the market value of land that invariably takes place in new settlements which attract population. If the Government could begin by taking people to its land without borrowing,, that would be the best course; but the Government has no capital.' The advocates of loans for emigration to be raised on the securit3 of future sales of land, propose only that the powerful aid of capital should be brought to the work of colonization, They say to the. Goverment, take example from the manufacturer of cotton, who lays out his own or a borrowed capital in building a factoiy, and providing it with machinery and raw material, reckoning on, the powers of production which the use of capital gives, as a means of replacing his investment with profit. But Governments, it may be urged, are so wasteful in their outlay, and so apt to be extravagant wlien they have facilities of borrowing? The answer is, that the business of laying out money on emigration, and afterward selling waste land (on thesimplest plan,) may be made a work of routine, and so guarded by publicity, r and other checks to extravagance, as to preclude all danger, of waste. Indeed, experience is here'on the side of those who propose that the. Government should use a capital in colonizing a large amount of the proceeds of the sales of waste land has been expended on emigration under the direction of Government, and with remarkable success as respects both economy and well-doing of the passengers. But another objector says, if the Government has two much money for emigration, it will send out too many labourers, and there will be suffering for want of employment, Why should the Government ever have "too. much" money for emigration? "Whyshould it ever borrow more than enough to supply from tima to time the ascertained want

of labour in the colonies to which the . system was applied? And even if the Government •were so careless as to commit .such errors, there is reason to" believe that an excess of labouring emigration beyond the wants of the colonies would be accompanied by an amount of capital sufficient to employ the capital. The emigration of labour seems always to give occasion to the emigration of capital; if a shipowner trading to any of the southern colonies can but fill his steerage with passengers of the labouring class, he is pretty sure of finding occupants for the cabins ; and this would be still more invariably the case if the labour emigration were more constant and more easily foreseen, so* that capitalists should be more certain of obtaining labour on their arrival in the colony. I know of no other objection to the borrowing of money for emigration on "the single security of the land-sales. But at all events, this is so essentially part of the system originally proposed by me, that, if all the other conditions of its working well had been' adopted, I should still say that it had not been fairly tried. The seventh and last condition was, that the whole system should be fixed, or at least so far fixed as not to be liable to change in any of it* material parts without public discussion and ample notice. I cannotimaginehow this should be done except by a,ct of Parliament. At present everything is in a state of uncertainty, not to say of perpetual change. Nobody concerned in the matter seems to know what is his proper business, and still less what may happen in a month with respect to any part of the subject. At one time the Secretary of Stale determines, and the Governor finds some reason for declining to act on the instruction - } at another, the Governor makes a plan of his own, which is overset by the Secretary of State. Sometimes Commissioners are to do everything, the Colonial Office, next the Local Governments; and decisions of the utmost consequence are continually made as lightly, and with as little responsibility, as if nobody had an interest in them. In one settlement to-day they sell by auction; in another close by, at the uniform price to-morrow. What portion of the proceeds of land-sales i 3 devoted to immigration varies continually everywhere. As to many points, the language of regulations is so vague as to admit of different interpretations, and sometimes to behard to comprehend. Distinctness, uniformity, order, and stability are almost utterly wanting; in almost every particular. Considering the unwillingness of most men to embark their fortunes in a career which hardly admits of calculations as to the future or the present, the wonder is, not that more has not been done with the new mode of colonization, but that so. much has been accompiished. The array of requirements is much less formidable than it appears at first sight; as will be manifest to those who observe that a compliance with them would tend rather to simplify than to complicate theprocess. Nor are the deficiencies I and errors which it exhibits a fit subject of reproach to any one. Instead of complaining that a nearer approach to perfection ha 3 not been j made, we shall be more just if we expi'ess satisi faction at the rapid progress of improvement which the present exhibits in comparison with the barbarous doings of ren years ago. This is still a new subject. But the most careless observer must perceive that there is a growing sense of its importance; and eminent public j men, on both sides as to party, have paid so | much attention to it, that unquestionably if the whole case were now considered by persons in authority with the object of devising a general . plan of colonization, some very good measure would be the result. At the present time, I am not so sanguine as to hope that any attempt will be presently made | to find out and establish the best possible mode of proceeding. And indeed it may be questioned whether, as regards a subject still imperfectly understood, it would be wise to aim at perfection. In this case, though the newest road might not necessarily be the very best, the very best would be wholly new to many ; and such ways are apt to be full of lions. A measure sufficient for the time might be adopted without , startling anybody. Let us but keep moving in the path marked out by what has been done already and with great acknowledged benefit, in one group of our colonies. It would suffice for the present if the government should submit a measure to Parliament for raising and fixing the price (whether uniform or upset) of waste land in all the colonies of the Southern group — devoting the whole, or a large fixed proportion of the proceeds of the sales to emigration — authorizing the the executive to raise by loan on the security of the waste lands of each of those colonies separately (and without any other guarantee from Parliament,) a certain sum for the sole purpose of giving a free passage to lhat colony to persons of the labouring class properly selected — and placing the administration or" the law in the hands of a special department of the Colonial Office. Several letters have within the last few days been received (in Plymouth) from the first settlers in New Plymouth ; all of whom speak most favourably of the land of their adoption, and breath a spirit of contentment such as is not usual from persons so circumstanced as the colonizers of this settlement. In one of the letters sent home, it is stated, , " all" the people that came in the William i Bryan have got twenty yards of ground back [ to build their houses on and for their gardens." This' is "certainly a wise measure, -and a new feature in the commencement of our modern colonies. The effect will be, that" a spirit of contentment will prevail -among -the labouring classes, and an early tesbb'e igiveii as to the fertility of the soil, which* wiU!iehiHii ' an attachment to the colony and a determination to remain. This, we apprehend," is^the motive of the Superintendent in the plan.be has adopted. — Fahnottth Packet. ' .