New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 2, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 591, 2 April 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 2, 1851.

The last Government Gazette contains a notice for the meeting, in Wellington, of the General Legislative Council of New Zealand on the 19th May, next. This is probably the last General Council which will be summoned under the present constitution of this colony, as it will be the first which has been assembled in the Southern Province. Many important measures will, no doubt, be brought under discussion, the heads of one, an Ordinance for enabling the Government to complete the contracts of the New Zealand Company appears in the same Gazette to which we have referred, ■ and will be found in our present number. Its provisions are of a most liberal character, the clause, especially, which provides for the exchange of sections of land, at the option of the holder, for scrip which shall be taken as cash at future land sales in this Province, the land to be valued at not less than one pound per acre, will be a great boon to land owners, and in connection with previous measures will afford the most ample relief that could be desired. If, instead of keeping the Company in its forced and unnatural state of existence during the last three years, the effect of which has been to throw unnecessary obstruction in the way of the progress of the colony, the British Government had allowed it to have at that time terminated its precarious existence; if three years ago this measure for completing the contracts of the Company could have been brought into operation, the Southern settlements would have at this time presented a very different aspect, their population would have been greatly increased beyond their present numbers, and with the increase of population would have been found increased production and exports. Among the measures to be introduced, we hope will be that of a land tax which shall compel the absentees to contribute to local improvements, and induce them to allow their lands to be occupied by lond fide colonists. Owing to the restrictions imposed on their agents, and the withholding the right to purchase, a good portion of the land in the vicinity of Wellington, belonging to absentees, remains untenanted, and is likely to continue so as long as they adhere to their present system. The consequence is, that many enterprising settlers who come with a determination to settle in this locality are forced to change their plans and eventually to fix cheir abode in some other part of New Zealand, while the land belonging to these short sighted persons becomes of less value because the population is prevented from spreading through their selfishness. We hope than an effectual remedy will shortly be applied to this abuse.