New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 13, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 690, 13 March 1852, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 13, 1852.

The Government Brig returned on Wednesday from Nelson with his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief and Lady Grey and Lieut Col. Wynyard. The statistics of the settlement are published in the Nelson Examiner, and they give a favourable idea of the progress that has been made during the past year. Several persons of independent means have recently settled at Nelson in the country districts, the improvements in which in various ways we are told can hardlv fail to strike the most casual observer. The Examiner remarks on the tendency of the population to go into the country districts, and the returns shew the population of the town of Nelson to be less at the end of 1851 than at the end of the previous vear, and this tendency in a settlement essentially agricultural and pastoral is in itself a healthy sign of progress. As the principal object of Sir George Grey s visit to Nelson was to ascertain the opinions of the settlers with reference to the recent Act of Parliament for regulating the New Zealand Company’s settlements, by the operation of which the issue of Crown Grants for lands and of leases for runs under the Governor’s Pastoral regulations has been suspended, the subject naturally has excited a good deal of discussion there. A public meeting was held at Nelson on the Ist of March which was very numerously attended, and at which two resolutions were passed, the first (carried unanimously) condemning the Company’s terms of purchase; the second, passed by a large majority, opposed to Sir G Grey’s pastoral regulations, and approving those of the Company. A memorial was subsequently prepared, based on the resolutions of the meeting, condemning the terms for the purchase of land issued by the New Zealand Company in 1849, and approving of the New Zealand Land Claimants Ordinance, as “calculated to set at rest in a fair, equitable, and advantageous manner for the interests of the settlement the long unsettled land question.” This memorial was signed by one hundred and fifty-three persons within seven hours, and is still i n

progress of signature. Another m has also been numerously signed ( k- 6 ’ l ’ o^l the large stockholders and others co b? with them) expressing opinions the Company s terms of Durchas e anri to turage, which the memorialists desire , set aside, and the Governor’s pastoral lations to be revived. The resol the public meeting with the" lOns ° f founded on them will be found in^ 1110 " 31 sent number. ° Ur P*-

In order that the above brief acconm t the proceedings at Nelson may be tt o r • telligible to our readers, it will be necj?' to give some idea of the state of J? opinion in that settlement with reference ' this question. Ever since the WairauT been accessible to the flockowners of kn son, they have eagerly availed themselveZj the capabilities of that fine district for , toral pursuits, until this interest has become one of the most important and that settlement. The occupation of the Wai rau commenced about the year 1848 aid' every year the flocks have increased until at the end of 1851, the sheep of the Nelson settle, ment were numbered at 92,014, almost the whole of which are in the Wairau. Thelar» e profits of sheep farming with the few risks connected with it have attracted the attention of very many of the settlers there, who look upon it as the most desirable mode of invest: ing capital and as affording a ready means to affluence. The squatting interest has grown up in defiance of the New Zealand Company’s regulations, and to a certain degree with the connivance of Mr. Fox,the Company’s Agent, who ? large sheep owner was deeply interested in evading them, and whose partner held two of the finest runs in the Wairau. Mr. Fox, therefore,as - far as he was concerned, suffered those re. gulations to remain a dead letter. That district contains about 500,000 acres, and was about six months since divided into about thirty runs. Those who advocate a return to the Company’s pastoral regulations or some modification of those issued by Sir George Grey, looking to the comparatively limited extent of the pastoral districts included in the limits of the settlement, complain that the present runs are too extensive, several of them comprising 30,000 or 40,000 acres, and one of them (in the possession of a Wellington settler, who is not a purchaser under the Nelson land scheme, and is not therefore a contributor to the Trust funds) embracing an area of about / 0,000 acres, or nearly 110 square miles. It is argued that these extensive holders have a virtual monopoly to the exclusion of those of more moderate means who desire also to employ their capital in this pursuit, and that it would be more beneficial for the colony, for example, that some ten settlers who intend to make New Zealand their home should derive a moderate income from runs of limited extent, than that they should be compelled to look on in forced inactivity, while the same extent of land is monopolized by one individual who, after realizing an ample fortune in a few years, may perhaps leave the Colony altogether. It is stated also that while the runs are of such large extent their fertility and capabilities of carrying sheep per acre have been very ranch underrated by the runholders, and that they are very inadequately stocked, and that if the runs were of more moderate extent they would be gieatly improved by cultivation and the introduction of English grasses, to which the present system operates as acheck. There are many persons in Nelson who, we understand, are desirous of obtaining runs but are unable to get them, and who unless some readjustment takes place must, if they wish to’embarK in pastoral pursuits, go to some other part of the Colony. These look forward to the introduction of the Scrip system, as by means of scrip they will be able to purchase) as has already been done at Rangitiki, large blocks of land, and the holders of runs must either resort to the same system or submit to a readjustment of their rims. The hold* ers of runs on the other hand are opposed to the terms of purchase and pasturage under the Act of Parliament which they desii® to see repealed, and are in favour of Sir

George Grey’s Pastoral Regulations. From the above sketch, the materials of which we have derived from trustworthy sources, it will be seen that both parties, for opposite reasons, are in favour of the revival of the Land Claimants Ordinance, the main difference of opinion being on the Pastoral Regulations, on which all parties in this setment appear to be agreed. It would seem also that the Nelson settlers consider the Scrip system the readiest way for obtaining cheap land, and there can be no doubt that a considerable amount of scrip would be speedily absorbed in the purchase of land in the runs in that settlement. The land thus purchased by means of scrip would be such as would not be sold to any large extent at the Government sales for cash, and the operation of the scrip instead of being injurious to the Land Fund, as its opponents assert, would be beneficial to it. Of course the holders of large runs do not desire to be disturbed in their possession, and would much rather prefer paying a nominal rent under the Governor’s Pastoral Regulations, to being obliged, from the pressure without, to invest some hundreds in the purchase of scrip. They are in possession, and desire to hold what they have; The good old rule Sufficeth them, the simple plan, That they should keep who have the power, And they should catch who can.