ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 636, 6 September 1851, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington. September 4th. 1851. S IR r In looking over the report of the meeting of the Constitutional Association published in the Independent of the 30th August, I observe that Dr. Featherston, in a very lengthened speech proposing —rs« resoxUvion, states that the settlers in New Zealand pay in taxes three or four times the amount that is exacted at home; and Mr. Clifford, in seconding the resolution, reiterates the statement. This kind of argument may suit very well to mislea_d the people, but how far it is applicable to this community, of which nearly the whole would be rate payers, the annexed extract of the amount levied as duties on such articles as on an average are consumed by an adult in this colony will, I hope, sufficiently refute. Did the labouring community live here, as in England, where the large bulk of them seldom see in their houses either tea, sugar, spirits, tobacco, ale or wine, the absolute amount of duty paid by them would be almost nominal.

Again, the Grand Jury on making a presentment upon the condition of the roads (which are bad enough God knows) state the present taxation bears sufficiently hard upon the public, and that it would be impolitic to increase it. It might be asked whether the community generally who are not consumers of spirits and tobacco would be aware they were taxed at all, or in other words whether the tax levied affects the retail prices. Do we get bread cheaper since flour has been admitted free ? and this would be tne case with almost every article in tne Tarin excepting a few bearing a higher rate of duty. The Grand Jury, composed of the most wealthy men of the Colony, did not perhaps thiuk when they talked of heavy taxation that, had they been in England, (that favourite place of comparison, for many of them only echo the opinions of the leaders of the Constitutional Association) they would each have had to pay annually as income tax a larger amount than they now pay to the general revenue for three years ; with this’fact before them it uocs appear to ma somewhat absurd to apply such a mode of reasoning to the public of New Zealand, or to compare those who are living in affluence in the colony to the working classes at home. I trust for their own credit when they again draw comparisons between New Zealand and Great Britain they will enter a little more into particulars, and not merely state what the average taxes are at

£5OO they ’ the lead * ng men ’ with their xou ) to AlOOO a-year would have to pay towards the support of Government were they there, and also what their audience, who most of them doubtless enjoy the good things of this life, not forgetting the gi as s and pipe, would individually have to conni i U r> e indulge in these comforts in the Old Country; by doing this they might afford the the 1C S ° me USeful inforn iation and not deviate from Truth.

Consumption for one Adult per annum. England. New Zealand.

This is something near the mark.

There are hundreds of other articles upon which heavy duties are paid at home, besides the excise duties levied upon the great portion of home manufactures to which may be added the following taxes Income tax, about 3 per cent, Poor rates, Tithes, Paving rates, Lighting rates, Window tax, Ground tax, Carriage, Servant, Dog, and Horse taxes, Stamps and many which I cannot at present Call to memory.

Report of the Select Committee on the New Zealand Company’s Land Claimants Bill. (Laid before the Council, July 23, 1851.) Phe Select Committee of the Tlegislative Council, appointed on the Ist July, “to whom the New Zealand Company’s Land Claimants Bill, together with certain proposed amendments and other documents relating thereto, were referred for consideration and Report,” have agreed to the following Report:— The object of the bill being to settle the claims depending upon the unfulfilled contracts °* the New Zealand Company for the disposal of land, the attention of your Committee was first directed to an enquiry into the "eneral nature and extent of those claims, fn'proceeding to that enquiry they were met by the difficulty of there being no accurate published statements by the Company of its liabilities for land, or of the total quantity it had disposed of; and your Committee were therefore only able to arrive at an approximate estimate of the claims which, in consequence of the Company having surrendered its charters without issuing titles to its purchasers, will now be brought against the Colonial Government. 1 hose claims may be divided into two classes, namely: I. Claims in respect of land originally purchased :

11. Claims in respect of compensation. From an Appendix to the last Report (Ist July 1850) issued by the Company before its dissolution, it appears to have sold about 240,000 acres to original purchasers in the settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, Nelson, New Plymouth, and Otago. But being unable to give possession of a great part of the land so sold, and a large proportion even of the land of which possession could be given being worthless, the purchasers in the four first named settlements demanded compensation for the nonfulfilment of the contract. The general principles on which it was eventually determined to allow that compensation are stated in the “ Correspondence relating to Land Questions” appended to this Report. It consisted of two privileges which were conceded to thepurchasers: one was that of surrendering land either unavailable or of which possession could net be obtained, and reselecting other land instead ; the other was that of receiving a free gift of an additional quantity of land. And although in the adjustment of the Nelson claims the right of reselection was extended to apart only of the land purchased, yet. as the Company subsequentlv offered it to all the purchasers in the otfier settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, and New Plymouth, in pursuance of its own admission that every purchaser was entitled to “ beneficial occupation of the full amount of his land,” it seems to your Committee neither just nor expedient to exclude the Nelson purchasers, even partially, from the privilege of reselection, or to compel them to retain any land which from position or othejsjyise may be unavailable, and of which they cannot consequently have that “ beneficial occupation.” In estimating the probable extent of the claims that will be brought forward under the first class referred to, your Committee have assumed that the Government will recognise and carry out the general offer of reselection made by the Company to its purchasers. It appears, indeed, to have been established with the consent of all parties including Her Majesty’s Government, that it would be unjust and unwise, since the Company in every case demanded and received money for land that had never been seen by the purchaser, to force the latter to keep any land which was not a fair equivalent for his money : unjust to the purchaser who got ■o return for his investment, unwise for the colony which suffered greatly by the dissatisfaction and disappointment of a body of persons who had contributed large sums to its foundation.

If that principle is admitted by the Crown, and the positive engagements of the Company to the same effect with the large majority of its purchasers have to be carried out, it is evident that the contract in respect of the 240,000 acres originally sold by the Company. could not be fulfilled by the mere offer of Crown Grants for' the land hitherto selected. On the contrary, considering the character of much of the selected land, the incompleteness and inaccuracy of many of the Company’s surveys, the impossibility of giving possession of about 40,000 acres selected in districts not yet acquired from

the natives, and other fair grounds for reselecti°n, it is clear that Government must provide for the rejection of a very large proportion of the whole quantity originally chosen; and though your Committee have had some difficulty in ascertaining, from the witnesses examined, what that proportion would be likely to be, they cannot estimate it at less than one-half, or 120,0' 0 acres.

With regard to the second class of claims, arising from the right of compensation, your Committee have found still more difficulty in ascertaining their probable extent, chiefly from the fact that only a part of those relating to the Nelson settlement were advanced against, or even.considered by the Company before its dissolution. But so far as the adjustment was proceeded with by the Company it appears, first - that the claims of all the purchasers resident in the settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, New Plymouth, and Nelson have been settled by the gift of land to the extent of about 76,000 acres; and secondly—that the Company made a proposal to the absentee proprietors in the three first named settlements, to fulfil which (when all these parties come into the arrangement) about 81,000 acres more will be requisite.

The claims just referred to as not having been settled are those of absentee proprietors in the Nelson settlement, who were not included m the Company s proposal, but who it appears ar . e n °w before Her Majesty’s Government with a request for seme similar arrangement, assisted by the recommendation of the Company, which has admitted their claims since its dissolution, and would therefore have adjusted them had it continued its functions. The claim advanced in particular by the Hon. Algernon Gray Tollemache, being one of the matters referred to your Committee by the Council, they have given the whole subject their earnest consideration : and without admitting ffi® ?^ e S a^ons injustice and unfairness on which that gentleman mainly rests his case, they are of opinion that he, as well as the great body of absentee proprietors in the Nelson settlement, would have had, as against the Company, an equitable right to refer their claims to arbitration, under the plan of adjustment known as the “Nelson resolutions of July 1847;” but that, as the Company’s dissolution has rendered such arbitrations impossible, their case should now be adjusted by the Colonial Government on a general principle similar to that which was adopted with regard to the Wellington and New Plymouth absentees’ namely, that of giving an additional amount of rural land, not exceeding 75 acres, in respect of every 10<) acres originally purchased. This would require about 40,000 acres more.

Adding together, then, the whole number of acres already given or offered by the Company Ui COITI PSDSS.tIIQTI WslTmgtrOrij Qnrl New Plymouth, to the number which under the proposal of your Committee would be further necessaiy for Nelson, it appears that nearly 200,000 acres would be required to meet the ,claims for compensation under the Company’s contracts. And as out of this quantity only 76,000 acres have been selected (namely, by the resident purchasers in all the settlements), new land will have to be provided out of which more than 120,000 acres may now be chosen.

Thus, taking the probable quantity of land which would be thrown up under the beforementioned general right of reselection, and the quantity for compensation that has not yet been selected at all, it would be necessary, if no other means existed of meeting the claim, to Provide districts out of which 240,000 acres could be selected now; of which at least 100,000 acres would have to be found for the absentee proprietors in the settlement of Wellington alone, merely for their compensation and for the land chosen bj’ them but not acquired from the natives. These rights to selection and re-selection being admitted, it appears to your Committee that the Government is undoubtedly bound either to provide good'land for the purpose at once, or to devise some other means of meeting the whole claim. For there is no doubt whatever that the. fair expectation and understanding upon which the purchasers from the Company agreed to the compensation arrangements, was that the land should be given within a reasonably short time; so much so, that the Company itself stipulated that all the choices should be.made within six months from the time of any districts being declared open by its agents. This expectation was fulfilled in ni the case of the resident landowners, who in all the settlements had plenty of good land and a fair range of choice, within a short time after the arrangements with them were made; but it was not fulfilled in the case of the absentees, who were clearly entitled to the same advantage, and yet for whom no district whatever was declared open, or even surveyed, in the Wellington,. Wanganui, or New Plymouth settlements, either for re-selection or for compensation. But your Committee believe it may be assumed Ist: that there is^riMkui indent good land in the districts by <he Company to the Nelson, and New allow of 240,00 ) more acres being immediately selected therein: and 2ndlj’—that if there were, the whole would have to be immediately surveyed ; since it is improbable that reselection to any great extent would be made out of land thrown up. And repeated experience has shown, that in order to provide a fair range of choice over good land, at least one-third and probably one-half more than the land actually to be chosen, must be surveyed; so that in order to provide even in the present districts a fair range of choice for 240, t>oo acres, a survey of at I'ast 320,000 acres, and probably of 360,000, would be necessary, the cost being probably not less than £B,OOO if the land were mostly open, or £16,0.;0 if it were mostly wooded. Without a single reselection, and taking merely the unselected compensation land, an immediate survey of from 160,000 to 180,000 acres would at any rate be required, the cost whereof would not be less than from £4,000 to £6,000. But independently of the doubt that exists as to there being such an amount of good land immediatelj* available in the present districts. xor the selections alluded to, it appears to yolij

Committee that, as the resident landowners in all the settlements have had the first choice of the good land therein for their compensation, and in Wellington, Wanganui, and New Plymouth have also had their reselections before the absentees, it would not be fair to force the latter to select within districts where the best land has been so secured beforehand. An instance of this may be given in the case of the Rangitikei district, where out of about 28 miles of frontage along the course of the Rangitikei river, and 30 miles on iheTurakina river, comprised in the block purchased from the natives, the resident landowners have taken about 22 miles frontage on the first river, and 15 on the second; and where out of the 20 miles of frontage remaining about 5 miles are occupied by native reserves, and at least 10 are useless mountains or sandhills, leaving barely five miles frontage on the only two rivers in a district of •160,000 acres open for any other selection. Then if the Government, in order to avoid this injustice, determined on providing new districts for the selection of the 210,000 acres, it would be met by two one, that the cost of acquiring those districts from the natives would have to be added to the cost of the survey, thus incurring perhaps several thousand pounds more expense; the other, that as the residents were themselves expressly confined to the present districts and to a limited time for selection, they might take occasion to complain of so extended a choice being given to the absentees, claim the right of throwing up to some extent their present choices, and swell the quantity of new land to be acquired and surveyed. It appears, consequently, that if the scheme of reselection were to be carried out and land had to be provided for the compensation (and, as has been said, this can only be done fairly by being done at once), the public would not only suffer by the extreme profusion with which it has to give away land under the Company’s contracts, but the present settlers of this country would have to provide immediately, outof the revenue raised by themselves, a very large sum of money for the mere purpose of acquiring districts and making surveys for the Company. Or if it be said that the public is really under no unavoidable obligation to provide immediately good land to the extent named; that it may put off once more claims which have been already' put off again and again for ten years, and suit its own convenience (notwithstanding the Company’s promises and engagements) in meeting them; it is still questionable whether that course would not be worse for the settlers. If these rights of choice under the Company’s iandorders were to be continued indefinitely, no uniformity of system could be maintained; they would constantly interfere with land being put up for sale, and the actual colonist, desirous to buy, would never know whether he could do so, or whether a landorder would not be put in for the piece of land on which he had set his wishes.

Again, evidence has been given before the Committee that, in the Wellington settlement, the compensation land given to the residents (the best, it will be remembered, of the good districts then open) has been sold at from ss. to 7s. an acre; that even under regular arbitrations it has been awarded at that rate; and that at Nelson land of the very best quality of soil, given out to the purchasers as rural sections, has been sold at from 6s. to Bs. per acre because the land was 120 miles from the chief town of the settlement. Your Committee request the attention of the Council to these facts as they affect the prospect of any early revival of the land fund in this Province.

If the persons who have to select the 250,000 acres above estimated find themselves forced and restricted into the present districts after the residents have been allowed to obtain the best land, and, after ten years of delays and loss are made to choose land, the best of which has often been sold at ss. an acre, y our Committee believe the inevitable result would be that the greatest part of the 440,000 acres disposed of under the Company’s contracts would be thrown into the market at similar prices; in which case it is unnecessary to say there would be no buyers from the Crown at£l per acre. On the other hand, if the absentees had new and valuable districts thrown open for them wherein they might take the best of position and soil, as the residents had done in the old districts for their compensation, no land fund for some time could be reasonably expected from sales of second rate land at a minimum price of £1 per acre. Whether, therefore, the whole of the 440,000 acres disposed of under the Company’s contracts were chosen in the best parts of the good and of new districts; or the purchasers, by being forced into only the present districts were driven to throw a great proportion into the market at low prices; or, as a middle course, the right of selection with Company’s landorders was allowed to be exercised for an indefinite time at sales of Crown land; there could hardly be a reasonable hope of reviving the land fund for a very long period.

The foregoing considerations have led your Com. mittee to the MjUusion that the offer made in the Bill, of claims to the immediate delivery of lend, into Government at future sales of Crown lands throughout the greater part of New Zealand, is the only plan by which the various difficulties enumerated above maybe avoided. It is itself surrounded with comparatively few difficulties, and is attended by many advantages. It affords, in the opinion of your Committee, the means of immediatelyclosing all claimsundercontracts with the Company; relieves the actual colonists (on whom such an obligation would most unfairly rest) from the necessity of expending immediately large sums on surveys, chiefly for the benefit of persons who will never be resident in the colony : will save to the public a great amount of land without injury to the Company’s purchasers, tend very materially to lessen absenteeism, and increase the proportion borne by the population to the alienated land; give facilities, never hitherto existing in these settlements for the real colonist to obtain land, and substitute uniformity of system for the loose and varying schemes adopted under the Company; and even promote emigration hither, which the unsettled state of the land question has for years discouraged and prevented. It Was objected by one of the witnesses examined by your Committee, that there is something deceptive in issuing scrip which purports to give a right

to purchase land from the Crown, while there is not good land enoughimmediately to redeem the amount of scrip issued ; and that the purchasers will be no gainers by receiving inconvertible Government scrip in exchange for inconvertible Company’s landorders. In reference to this objection it may be remarked in the first place—that the scheme consists in an open offer, to be voluntarily accepted or not; secondly—that the Government being indebted, under arrangements over which it had little control, for an immense quantity of good land which it cannot immediately provide, proposes to compromise that debt by giving a bond which may be presented from time to time as good land can be opened out; and thirdly—that in return for not being required to provide the whole immediately, the public waives its strict right of compelling a selection in whatever land may be now to give, and in a very limited time, and offers an entirely unrestricted choice and an indefinite period for its exercise. The offer, therefore, so far from being a deceptive one, is equally advantageous to both parties. And it must be remembered, that there is no difficulty whatever in the way of providing an ample extent of good land bye and bye : there is merely a great inconvenience in attempting to provide it now; the public therefore by the scheme of scrip merely avoids that present inconvenience without in the smallest degree evading the ultimate fulfilment of the whole obligation. And even if, after issuing the scrip, thepnblic were suddenly required to redeem the whole at once in land, it would of course be in no worse position than the Company has left it now. But while the proposal is so far equally advantageous to the purchaser and the public, the latter will obtain a further advantage without an injury to the purchaser. The public being on the one hand freed from the obligation of immediately finding at a very greatcostalarge extent of laud,and the purchaser obtaining on the other hand an extended choiceand more time for its exercise, Government can then adopt the only plan that ought ever to be pursued in a new country, namely—that of surveying and laying out from time to time as demand existed or was anticipated only the best and most available land from position and soil, and of leaving inferior land till the other, by being occupied, gave a value to it. For this good land it would often be entitled to ask a higher price than £1 per acre, at which rate the scrip was issued; and to the extent of whatever higher price was obtained, a quantity of the scrip would of course be absorbed. The value of the land being no longer nominal but depending on demand and many other tests of value, it would then be often better worth the scripholder’s while to give the higher price in new districts opened by Government, than £1 per acre in a district which was not in demand and where, as at Rangitikei, the very best land, from there being a glut in the market, was only worth five shillings an acre. All the witnesses examined by your Committee on this point agreed in the opinion that the effect of the scrip would be to save a great deal of land to the public by higher prices being realised at Government sales; and this of course would be most seen in sales of town and suburban land.

Further, your Committee believe that the scrip would tend to remove in a great measure the evils of absenteeism. They have evidence on the one hand that the existence of a large absentee proprietary, and the dispersion of the colonists’ lands thereby caused, have been complained of as among the greatest defects in the Company’s schemes of colonization: on the other hand, some witnesses have maintained that it is desirable to force the absentees to keep or to reselect their lands, in order that they may be taxed for the benefit of the residents’ land, interspersed among them. The inconsistency has doubtless arisen from a superficial examination of the question. The two arguments, indeed, taken together, resolve themselves into a proposition, that although absenteeism is an evil in the abstract, it is is expedient to have absentees for the mere object of taxing them. But it happens that the scrip scheme really meets both alternatives. For it would have two effects, among others: first —if the scrip were not re-exchanged for land byabsentees, the evil of absenteeism woultTcf course be checked : secondly—if it were, the land would (supposing taxation to be established) be subject to be taxed as well as if it had been selected with a Company’s landorder. It appears to have been forgotten, however, that if the absentees’ lands are to be taxed to benefit the lands of colonists interspersed among them, nothing would be easier than for the former to escape any such liability, by exercising their right of reselection in some district where there were no resident landowners at all.

Now the actual proportions (under the preceding estimates) of the land held under contracts with the Company are as follows, namely : by residents, about 120,000 acres; by absentees, about 320,000 acres ; and in whatever way the scheme of re-se-leetion were carried out, it is certain those proportions could not be improved very materially. It remains to be seen 'how the scrip would have an immediate tendency to make that improvement. One of the points bearing on this question is the probable value which the scrip will bear: your Committee, therefore, took a great deal of evidence upon it. Some witnesses thought it might maintain a value not far below the rate of its issue : others (and these the majority) that it would fall to a price at least as low as the Company’s scrip, which at Wellington was from the first at a discount of 75 per cent, and even at Nelson (where the Company’s large private estate made it more valuable) was at 50 percent discount. Your Committee have desired to regard the probable effects of the scheme from both points of view. Proceeding, first, on the supposition that the scrip would maintain its value in the market at par or some rate not much below, it seems very improbable that the absentees will to any extent reexchange it for land. It was objected by one of the witnesses that the absentee or his agent would compete at the land sales with the actual colonist for the best pieces of land, and being better able to spare scrip than the colonist to pay cash, would outbid him continually. It appears clear, on the contrary, that if the scrip maintains its value in the market and the absentee can obtain £1 or thereain money ior 1 o£ scrip, it cannot be worth, bis wnile to outbid the colonist, who would rarely give him a higher price afterwards than he was disposed to bid at the sale : and in the few cases where the land was really so valuable as to excite the competition, it would be proper that the public should get the benefit of it. On another ground it seems there would not be an inducement to the absentee to outbid the colonist, since his scrip would

certainly not be taxed, while the land (when he got it) possibly might. But whether he did so or not the public would gain, and the proportion between absentees and residents would be improved : if the absentee scripholdcr obtained the land a quantity of scrip would be absorbed in the higher price, and there would be so much less absentee scrip to come in "afterwards : if the colonist obtained it, the land fund would benefit by his cash payment, and he would increase the proportion of resident to absentee landowners.

Proceeding on the contrary supposition, that instead of maintaining its value at or about par, the scrip should, by being extensively thrown into the market by absentees, fall to a great discount, it is clear that it would be still less worth the absentees’ while to attempt to outbid the real colonist; or, more properly, that the colonist could always afford to outbid the absentee in proportion to the discount at which he could obtain the scrip. The greater that discount, the more could the colonist afford to bid if there were much competition, and the more capital would he save if there were none ; in the one case the public would save land by the absorption of scrip, in the other the colonist would practically obtain cheap land without the cost of an acre to the public : in both cases, as before, the proportion between resident and absentee landowners would be improved. ■ Again, in estimating the quantity of land that would probably be required for re-selection, your Committee have only taken into account that which was unavailable from position or inferior soil. But though they are disposed to agree with most of the witnesses that little good land would be thrown up under the simple scheme of re-selection, they think it very probable that under the scheme of scrip many absentee proprietors (and especially those holding more than one section, scattered here and there over the country) will rather take scrip for the whole of their claim including the unselected compensation land, than keep even good sections so scattered and only take scrip for the compensation. This, if at all gener ally done, would free a quantity of good land already taken up, and place it at the disposal of Government : when the same process as has been above referred to would be repeated, and always with the effect of improving the proportion between resident and absentee landowners. Independently, however, of the direct benefit to the land fund and the colonist, which would thus take place, whether the scrip maintained its value or fell to a low price, your Committee believe that the scheme will have an indirect influence, at once more extensive, more certain of lessening absenteeism, and more beneficial to this country. If, as has been said, the absentees will not themselves find it worth their while to re-exchange their scrip to any great extent for land, but will be willing to sell it at fair prices, their possession of a large amount of it in England may be made a means of promoting emigration to New Zealand, and of relieving the Company’s settlements from the reproach of being, out of all the colonies of England, with very few exceptions, those where the public land has been the most profusely granted and where the proportion borne bv the population to the alienated land is the most unfavourable. Hitherto no intending colonist would buy from absentees a landorder fettered as the Commany’s, and so uncertain of being exchangeable for a legal title : and there can be no doubt whatever that these difficulties, common to a body of persons in all parts of the United Kingdom who subscribed £230,000 to the foundation of these settlements, have had an immense effect in discouraging colonists of capital from coming here. It remains to be seen whether the adjustment at last by thp Government of all questions arising out of the Company’s contracts, may not produce a contrary result. In the first place the mere removal of previous disgust and doubt, and the equitable and immediate settlement of every claim, may of itself be fairly expected to renew, among the same class which produced the pioneer! of Brithish civilization in New Zealand, the desire of emigrating hither, which has so many years been suspended. In the second place there has been ample evidence, in the immigration of the last few years, of a growing inclination in a class possessed of small means and able to bring out their families i without any cost to the Emigration Fund, to come to this colony; persons who on their arrival would increase the number of “ peasant proprietors,” to whom a very great part of the progress of this colony js undeniably attributable, and whose exertions, as being perhaps those which soonest repay themselves and increase production, it is most desirable to encourage and promote. To such persons few greater iuducements to emigration to this colony would be found than that of being able (if some effort were used in assisting them) to purchase from the absentee proprietors, at reasonable prices, Government scrip with which on arrival they could obtain land at the Government auction sales. For it is again to be remembered that while great diffii culty exists in the way of redeeming at once the ; whole of the scrip, none whatever would be found in providing from time to time for the arrival of colonists holding the scrip in small quantities : and that even if it were so presented in large quantities, the public, which really has no sort of inducement now to expend thousands of pounds in providing land for absentee proprietors whom the Company should have satisfied long ago, would have the greatest possible inducement and interest in finding the money and the land for colonists, and would, in fact, the more people came out on such terms, be the more able and willing to do it. No one who has had any share in the practical conduct of emigration, and has mixed at all with the class referred to, is ignorant of the (find of passion with which they legard the prospect of becoming independent landowners in a colony, nor how large a part that teeli„g nas in maucing them to leave their homes ; where (as for instance in emigrating to America) they may feel certain of obtaining what to them is land. Your Committee believe that under the scheme proposed in the present bill, this feeling might be greatly and most legitimately directed toZe ® lahd > efforts were made to render Sv,.p ucccomblc to such intending Colonists. One means would be its issue in small sums so as to place it Within the reach of persons of limited means ; another would be for the Colonial Government to inform her Majesty’s land and emigration Commissioners very fully on the whole subject, requesting them to circulate that information by meansof the numerous agents throughout the United Kingdom : and many others will readilv suggest

themselves to the executive out the scheme. In this way aS™ < cjn, trouble, many who would go colonies might be legitimately otlS certain as they would be of meetL C tance of their own Government in thri> h J he £ creditors and bondholders. “ ™ And besides the good which would probability result from the pl an J? » Committee are assured that it win k T and . to», satisfaction by the whole U? and labouring population, of these a to whom the absence of a legal £ J?***? its division into large sections' chiefiv J J* of absentees, have hitherto been obst i way of acquiring any. And yet nothwifU ? such causes, the history of the subdS"*M land originally sold by the Company 2ft *4 strongly to confirm this assurance uA claims to Crown grants at Nelson were; WheQ the other day, there were only about' purchasers from the Company remains Oti W settlement: but there were more than'X the persons, chiefly of the working class wta otket they had not paid any money to the Com!? yet prosperous landowners there; andwh vestigation is extended to the other shh similar result will most likely be also fbamlTv! 11 ’* sue of the scrip in small sums will certs, ? facilities which have never yet existed sons to acquire land; thus again im W cr * proportions borne both by the resident to tfet * tee proprietors and by the population tn«7* alienated at each place. Your Committee having thus discussod h eral plan of issuing scrip as a substitute immediate provision of a large extent of fan sire to refer in conclusion to some points Z; detail than of principle in the measure. The first and most important of these is th position that has been made for funding sojt the scrip in Government debentures bead moderate interest. This proposal was.’appS* intended originally as an answer to objections fa might be made against the scrip, and as a meawS earlier reviving the land fund. But onthewH your Committee believe that under present cim2 stances the funding of any large proportion of fa whole scrip issued would itself be objectionable and they are unable, consequently, to recommend fa adoption of the proposal by the Council. After giving their most careful attention to fie various amendments proposed on the 14th clause of the Bill, your Committee have come to the con elusion to recommend to the Council that persons owning land in districts not yet acquired from fie natives should have that land assessed and be aQn. ed scrip to the amount.

Some doubt seeming to have arisen astowhefia BF the bill, as at present printed, would enable erm ■ purchaser without exception to exchange his 14 ■ for scrip, your Committee recommend that th ■ right be expressly declared, subject to the foliowig ■ reservation; that as by some awards in between the Company and its purchasers the lallaßf have been allowed to take land at a less assessneaiß-i than£l per acre, they should upon exchanging scrip receive only £1 of scrip for every pomi'i worth of land awarded, and not for every acre taka Eh It appears that under the bill as it now the land owners in those settlements where th ■ Company’s selling price had exceeded £1 an am I. would be able to obtain (if they exchanged) 9 more pounds of scrip than there were acres giro f up. Your Committee recommend it to be express- | ly declared, that no landowner who has g may receive compensation should afterwards rs L ceive more than £1 of scrip for any acie hemj | throw up. As an investigation into a large number i a claims to land at Nelson has already been c® I pleted under the orders of His Excellency the fe g-vernor-in. Chief, your Committee recommendfiii J a new clause be added exempting those claims fr® further examination. H Upon a consideration of several proposition 8 with respect to the disposal of fees received oatk j| issue of Crown grants, your Committee ha»esgt«r ® to recommend the Council to adopt the proposl ft that the money so received should, after psyinf J the actual expense of the grants, be applied to etui- H gration to the various settlements in proportion to I the amount of fees paid by each. ■ Experience having proved that in the Companp J surveys roads were frequently laid down when” gs was impracticable to make them, your recommend that a power be given to the CotnfflS-H) sioners under the Bill, with the consent of all F ■ gj ties concerned and the approval of the chief offidgj of Government in each settlement, to alter any of the Company’s roads, and to lay oat o . where absolutely necessary; any such altenM being distinctly laid down on the plans at the tit* And lastly, your Committee having ascerft^B' 1 that in many cases the lands to be K raDtedr \B| the Bill arc either held in trust, or in estaW life, or under mortgages, or under other conaiß where it would be improper to grant the * estate for ever, proposed by the schedule, that it is probable the grantees may in some** MH obliged to bar the dower of their mend that the Commissioners be authorised, the responsibility of the law officers of the < 0 Ml in each settlement, to make in those cases s ’* Mi alteration in the form of the grant as circnß®®; may require. . , ■| E. Eybk, KI W. A. J* W. M. Smith, ,Ml G. CvTFiEtn, Hj HfiNSV w. H F. D. Bbli, ■ Sg Alfred Domett, ■ j C. A. Dillok»2

Homemade. Imported. Imported. Colonial Ale or Beer 24 galls. 0 6 0 1 Coffee 11 lbs. 5d.. s.l 10 4 1 1 a. 0 7 3 £. s. 0 8 d. 4 V 6 Nil. Currants and other fruits 101b 14 Bice 28 lbs. 6d. .. 2 n Spirits 5 galls. 9s. to 22s. 6d. O 2 5 0 5 Sugar refined 12 lbs. 21s 12 2 6 1 1 10 0 7 Sugar raw 56 lbs. 15s 7 Wine 1 gall 5s. 6d. 1 2 1 » lobacco manufactured G lbs. 3s. lea 6 lbs. 2s Id... 18 1° 0 6 3 » >» >» 15 5 £2 6 "2