New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, February 25, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 685, 25 February 1852, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, February 25, 1852.

A deputation of settlers and land owners, consisting of Messrs. G. Moore, Hunter, Stokes, G. Hart, Duncan, Spinks, and Bradey, waited upon his Excellency Sir George Grey on Saturday, with leferenceto the present state of the land question and the suspension by the local Government of all proceedings in issuing Crown Grants under the Land Claimants Ordinance, and in granting leases for runs under Sir George Grey’s Pastoral Regulations ; they also intimated to his Excellency that a memorial on the subject (a copy of which was submitted to him) was in course of signature and would shortly be presented to him. His Excellency read to the deputation a portion of a despatch recently received by him from Earl Grey, dated sth September, 1801, on the subject of the claims by the Hon. A. Tollemache t<> compensation-* 8 0 absentee land owner at Nelson, and of certain rights of pasturage claimed by him that settlement under the terms of the New Zealand Company, as set forth in a memorial addressed by him to the British Government. In this his Lordship, referring to the principle laid.down by him in a formsrdespatch, abstains from giving any’ instructions lest they might interfere with any arrangements previously made by the Governor on the subject, and simply directs that the claims of the absentees to pasturage in respect of their purchased lands should be respected. From this despatch, which ' va3 written a month subsequent to the passing of the Act, his Excellency concluded that the Colonial Minister was not in possession ofa copy of the Land Claimants Ordinance either at the passing of the Act, er at the date of the despatch, and that the Home Government recognized to a certain extent these

claims of the absentees. His Excellency, referring to the memorial, said it did not call upon him to take any immediate steps : __That three courses were open to him ;— either to carry out the Act of Parliament; to set aside the Act and revive the Land Claimants Ordinance, and continue to issue Crown Grants; or to adopt any better plan, if it could be devised, which should meet all Jhe difficulties of the case. That if a memorial were presented to him so numerously ' ned as to shew it was the desire of the maioritj of the settlers, he was so convinced such a course would be for the best interests of the colony that he would take upon himself the responsibility of setting aside the Act of Parliament and of issuing Crown Grants to the land purchasers under the Land Claimants Ordinance, and he believed he should be borne out in such a course by the British Government. In this case all the provisions of the Land Claimants Ordinance would be revived including those, relating to scrip, as the law could not be administered partially; he must either proceed under the Act of Parliament, or revert to the law as it stood before the Act was received. With re<rard to the third course, his Excellency said he was not so wedded to any particular system

as to refuse to adopt a better if it could be devised ; but, seeing that the Land Claimants I Ordinance had formed the subject of a most careful and elaborate inquiry, that its details i had been thoroughly sifted and examined [ bv persons in every way well qualified to | i to decide upon them, that no other plan had | been put forth which would equally meet, or provide for, all the difficulties of the case, or that was liable to so few objections, he felt justified in accepting it as the best arrangement that could be made. That, even if a better plan could be devised, the time spent in legislation, and in obtaining the sanction of the Home Government, would occasion so much delay as to be attended I with serious evils ; while the immediate settlement of this question, and the. issue of I Crown grants to the land-purchasers, was an object of paramount importance, and would be productive "of a degree of prospelitv that few would now be disposed to credit. Adverting to the question of compensation to absentees, and the issue of scrip available at the Government land sales, his Excellency informed the deputation that he

had recently been shewn by the Hon. H. Petre a land order, issued by the Home Government to an absentee, directing him (the Governor) on the receipt thereof to issue to the holder a Crown grant for 75 acres, so that the absentees were placed in abetter position with regard to their compensation land, that the actual settler was, with respect to the land he had purchased, by the Act of Parliament; but, if the Land Claimants Ordinance was revived, dealing with the question as a whole, he (Sir George) would issue scrip instead of Crown grants to the absentee claimants. The issue of scrip, available in payment at the Government land sales, was, his Excellency observed, attended with several advantages. 9 A- new survey, rendered necessary by cir|j| cumstances, had been commenced; some

| districts, as the Horokiwi, where the survey | had been inteirupted by the natives, had not ■ been surveyed at all, and others, it was I found, had been surveyed imperfectly; in | these, and several other districts, it was SB probable much land would be exchanged for S scrip, particularly by absentees, occasioning ■ thereby a great saving in the expense of » surveys, as only so much of each district g would be surveyed as was necessary to put I the persons to whom Crown grants were issued in possession of their land. The issue of money scrip was, in fact, a plan to gg enrich the actual settler, and at the same IS time to benefit the absentee, as the latter jjg w °nld find a more ready market for his H scrip, which would be available as a trans- » Arable security, and in three or four years I would be gradually absorbed in the purchase I of land by settlers, who would be able, in 1 t^*'s Wa y> to obtain land on easier terms, ■ and in larger quantities, at the Govern-:-W paont land sales than by paying for it in cash. His Excellency stated that

he had recently directed a town to be laid out at Hawke’s Bay, and the surrounding district to be surveyed for sale as rural land. That many of these town sections might sell for £lOO each, and that, if scrip were received in payment, probably higher prices would be obtained, and a large quantity of scrip absorbed. On the other hand, if he were compelled to give land instead of scrip to absentees, he should be obliged to assign to them the most valuable available district at the disposal of the Government, and this would, in effect, shut up the Hawke’s Bay district altogether, while the necessity of subdividing the land in sections of 75 acres would very greatly increase the expense of surveys, and contiguous sections being, as in former selections, in the possession of different holders, would render any attempt on the part of the settlers to obtain a few hundred acres in one undivided block extremely difficult. That a case, somewhat analogous in its circumstances, occurred at South Australia while he was Governor; at that time under the special Survey system an applicant, by paying £20,000, was entitled to select 20.000 acres in one block. On the discovery of

the Burra burra mines, it was contended by 1 some parties that the land should be divided ’ into small portions, with the view of exciting competition among the capitalists of the , neighbouring colonies, so as to realize the largest amount for the land fund, and that, j by resorting to this course, probably £lOO,OOO, instead of £20,000, would be obtained. On the other hand, he believed that whatever tended to enrich the colonists must benefit the colony; that if these mines were the property of the colonists ' and were productive of much wealth, that , wealth would be spent by the colonists who . had made the country their home in the put chase of more land, and in improve- ; ments and undertakings which would ren- I der the colony prosperous, whereas, if they 1 became the property of absentees, the money ' would be spent out of the colony, and impoverish the country instead of benefiting it. As the question had been left by law to j his sole decision, he had, acting on these views, determined in favour of a special survey, and the result had justified the correctness of his expectations, for the land

fund had rapidly increased in its yearly ! amount in South Australia ; and, according to the last returns he had seen, the Burra ■ burra mines had yielded ♦'750,000 to the proprietors, who had become very prosperous. He believed that somewhat similar results would attend the conversion of the absentee land orders into money scrip, it would bean arrangement that would benefit all parties, ! and would render the colony more prosperous i than any other course that could be adopted with respect to them. On the subject of the New Zealand Company’s debt a strong representation was made to his Excellency by the deputation of the injustice of fixing this debt on the colony without the consent of the settlers, after the Company had already received £236,000 from the Home Government. That if the value of the land granted

in compensation, and otherwise alienated by the Company, and other expenses necessarily incurred by the Government in discharging the Company’s obligations were not deducted from the amount claimed by that body, the colony, and not the Company, would really be made to bear the burden of compensation. The payment of interest was also represented as universally objected to. His Excellency, admitting the hardship of the case, said he thought it probable that an arrangement would be made by the Home Government somewhat similar to that made on paying the debt in South Australia ; that the Government would discharge the Company’s claim by an advance from the Consolidated fund bearing interest at 3 per cent, and that the advance would be gradually liquidated from the future proceeds of the land sales in the colony ; and as the lands were the property of the Crown, this arrangement might be made without an application to Parliament, except to sanction the transfer of the stock. The proposal to receive £200,000

instead of £268,000, his Excellency considered an acknowledgment by the Company of the claims referred to, and an attempt on their part at an approximation to a rough balance. His Excellency LieutCol. Wynyard, Lieutenant Governor of the Northern Province, was present during the interview.

The above is a general outline, from recollection, of his Excellency's views, as stated to the deputation. Whatever propositions may be advanced, whatever other questions may be agitated as to the best mode of dealing with land in this colony, this is reduced to a very narrow compass. It is a question of Crown Grants or no Crown Grants, Pastoral Regulations or no Pastoral Regulations. The settlers can now decide for themselves whether they will at once be relieved from the evils which are every day becoming more intolerable from the present unsettled state of things, by receiving their grants for land and leases for runs under the law as it stood before the receipt of the Act of Parliament, —a law to which no serious objections have been offered, and by which, if carried out, all the difficulties of the land question would be re-

moved—or whether they will sacrifice these immediate and substantial benefits to the uncertain and delusive hope of obtaining some prospective advantage. This is a question that will brook no further delay. Even if it were admitted for the sake of argument that any other plan to be brought forward was the most perfect that human wisdom or ingenuity could frame, that it removed all difficulties, compensated all interests, and satisfied all objections, the time which would necessarily be occupied in legislating upon it in the colony, and in waiting to receive for it the approval of the Home Government, would be more than the settlers could afford to I lose. After the different changes that have ; been made, it would be impossible for Sir ' George Grey to bring inro operation any ' new plan—however perfect we may suppose ' that plan to be—without first receiving the sanction of the Home Government, and during this dreary interval of expectation a I stop would be put to all dealings in land, i and to the further introduction of stock into the colony; everything would be hastening

to d : sorder and ruin, and the positive loss the colony would sustain from a delay of twelve or eighteen months (the least pe-

riod to be calculated upon) would infinitely outweigh any conceivable advantages to be gained from adopting such a course. Without, therefore, entering into the discussion of any other questions which may be mixed up with this most important one, and which mav well be reserved to another opportunity for examination, we earnestly advise those who wish to be in possession of a valid and unquestionable title to their lands, and who desire to secure leases to their runs, to affix their names to the memorial now in course of signature, and justify the Governor in the responsibility he is willing to undertake to promote their interests.

We may state, in conclusion, that, in compliance with the wish of those who have signed it, the memorial has been slightly altered, so as to meet the objection raised by his Excellency, and that, instead of waiting for the interference of the Home Government, the memorialists ask the Governor to undertake the responsibility of immediately issuing Crown grants, and of reviving his Pastoral Regulations, and that this alteration has caused the signing of the memorial to proceed still more rapidly. The amended paragraph of the memorial is subjoined, the alterations being indicated by italics:—

“For these and other weighty reasons wa respectfully beg your Excellency will, by suspending the Act referred to (except such of its provisions as relate to the Trust Funds at Nelson), relieve the settlers from the serious evils which would result from its operation, and that you will cause the arrangements under the Ltnd Claimants Ordinance to be immediately revived, and the Pastoral Regulations issued by your Excellency to be again put in force, and a uniformity of management to be established of the Crown

Lands of the Colony under the Australian Land Sales Act and the Charter and Royal Instructions.”