NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 31, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 695, 31 March 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 31, 1852.

In an article which we republished a short time since from the Australian and New Zealand, Gazette on the price of land in the Canterbury Settlement, in which a reduction of price from £3 to thirty- shillings an acre was advocated, the writer, in alluding to the system of selling Crown lands by auction which obtains in the colonics, expresses his dislike to it, “as giving rise to a class of men who live by extorting money from the emigrant who really means to purchase, by threatening him with their opposition at the sale if they arc not bought off,” and gives a preference to the plan of selling- lands at a uniform upset price, as more favourable to the newly arrived settler. The mode in which the auction system is carried out by Sir George Grey, in this colony, combines the advantages of both systems, while it avoids the delays incidental to that of selling lands by auction, and obviates the defect pointed out at the commencement of this article. By the additional Royal instructions of 18-19 it is directed that no part of the demesne, lands of the Crown in New Zealand shall be alienated until tlie same shall have been put up to sale at a public auction, and that notice by proclamation shall be given of such auction, “ not. more than three months, nor less than one month before the same shall take place,” while it is further provided than lands which have once been put up to auction, may, within three years after, be sold without any further auction, at the upset price. On a Government sale of lands in any given district, care is taken to offer more land than is considered necessary to meet the immediate demand, so that there shall always be a choice of lands in several districts open for sale at the Land Office to the newly arrived settler at the upset price, and from which in most in--taiices he would make his selection, while the upset price of 20s. an acre would prevent to any great extent persons from buying land on speculation to sell again at an advanced price to those who really want it.

The settlers have lately heard a great deal of the advantages of cheap land which has been advocated with great warmth, and in a quarter where, if it were reasonable to look for any consistency either of conduct or opinion, they might least have expected it. Even after making all due allowances for those aberrations and eccentricities, which experience proves' so often occur in the course of professing patriots, who offer themselves to. the community as friends, philosophers, and guides, and would have their opinions implicitly received as “ wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best,” and who utterly condemn all .who • presume to differ from them, as naught,—making a due allowance, we say, for these things, the settlers could hardly be prepared for so great a change as this. I hey find the men who have, been the constant upholders of the Wakefield theory of a sufficient price, providing a fund by which labour would be introduced into the colony and the means for making internal improvements, who have formerly regarded any attempt to lower the price of land as fraught with ruin to the best interests of the colony, who have fiercely denounced in the strongest terms of reprobation the land sharks of tlie North for trying to obtain cheap land, ami who bitterly opposed Captain Fitzroy as the accessory and accomplice of the land sharks, they find these very persons, we say. now coming forward as the advo-

cates of the system they have always previously so strenuously condemned. So much was this the case, so completely did the leaders of the Faction, or self-styled “ Constitutional Association,” approve of the proceedings of the Company, and its high price system, that in their very last report to the shareholders immediately previous to the Company’s dissolution in what may be called their last dying speech and confession —the directors confidently appeal, as a testimonial approving of their conduct, to a resolution of the Association, (Mr. Fox, the Company’s Agent, being then its presiding genius), in which it is stated that, ct taking into consideration that the Company are now in possession of some of the most fertile and available districts in New Zealand, which are open for Sale and Depasturiny Licenses ; this Association is firmly persuaded that the New Zealand Company has now, for the first time since 'its forriiation, a fair field for its colonisation operations, with every reasonable prospect of such operations being productive of benefit equally to itself as to the colonists.” No chano-e could bo more sudden or striking, no conversion could be more complete. The very men who in 1849 upheld the Company’s system under which the price of land was two pounds an acre and no depasturing license was, as we believe, ever issued, as productive of benefits to the colonists, now turn round and denounce the system, in Mr. Fox’s phraseology, as “ altogether rotten, delusive, and Algerine.” Are we to suppose this sudden conversion sincere, that it has been wrought entirely by a desire to benefit the working classes of the colony; is this cry for cheap land really got up for the tvxcs<,» o, tiic country settier and newly arrived immigrant? Have the men who have obtained cheap land shewn any disposition themselves to sell it cheap for the good of the colony. Have they not acted on the free trade axiom of buying in the cheapest, and selling in the dearest market, and having acquired land at a cheap rate, “ for the good of the colony,” have sold, whenever they have parted with their land, at the highest market price they could obtain, for their own good r Experience is the best guide in our speculations on the futuie, ami in order to arrive at a correct conclusion, let us take a case at once as an illustration of the system, and a test of the sincerity of the party. A leading member of the “ Constitutional Association” who embarked in the original scheme for foundingthis settlement—one of “the foity thieves,” as they were then facetiously designated—for the sum of one thousand pounds, “lawfully paid,” obtained twenty sections of laud, or tw'o thousand acres of jural land besides twenty town acies in the original scheme of this settlement. It may be ncccssarr, before proceeding further with our illnstiation, to explain to such of our readers as may be ignorant of its mcaYring the origin of the soubriquet “ forty thieves,” to which we have alluded. In order to despatch the Tory, the first vessel sent to New Zealand by the Company, the sum of twenty thousand pounds w’as raised in forty shares of ,£SOO each, and w’hcn the Company acquired greater stability and the scheme of the first and principal settlement became more fully developed, in order to compensate those who had in the outset embarked their capital in the undertaking for their supposed risk, these forty were allowed to receive, at their election, a double quantity of land to that obtained by an ordinary purchaser, or an equal amount of land and of the Company s stock or subscribed capital in propoition to the amount they had subscribed. Thus, a subscriber of £IOOO or two of the forty shares might at his option receive twenty sections of land in this settlement, or be considered as owning ten sections of land and £IOOO ol the Company’s paid up capital. In the case to which we refer the subscriber preferred to receive twenty sections of land, the original cost of which to him (leaving out of the accountthe town acres) W’as therefore 10s. per acre. But in addition to this he has also received compensation to the extent of three thousand acres for the hardship of havingobtained his land at half price in the original instance. Five thousand acres at an original outlay of one thousand pounds (still leaving cut of the account any estimate of the value of the town lands, which is considerable) is

something like four shillings an acre. Now, we would ask, what has heen the effect of the cheap system in this case, —has it induced him who has bought cheap to sell cheap, has there been any illustration here of the system “of small profits and quick returns,” any attempt on the part of this land-owner, from having acquired land so cheaply in the first instance, to undersell his neighbour in the land market ? If a road was to be formed of vital importance in connecting two districts together, or affording access to a populous district possessing but imperfect means of communication, was the narrow strip' of land required for this purpose cheerfully given to the public in consideration of the increased value conferred on the property through which the road was to be made? Has any tenant or purchaser obtained any advantage from this owner of cheap land, or has not the latter always obtained for his commodity the highest market price? In adducing this case we have no desire to question the right of the land owner “to do what he likes with his own,” or to direct public attention to the individual further than as an illustration of what we believe would be the probable working of the proposed system of cheap land, and to prevent any one from being deceived by the gross and palpable delusion that this cry is raised for the benefit of the working classes or the good of the colony. Its effect would be to establish land jobbing as a regular system. The colony, instead of being plagued by one —monopolist—would confess their name to be Legion; while those funds, to be derived from the Government land sales at the upset price of 20s. an acre, which would bring fresh labour to our settlements, which would add thousands to our population, and attract the capitalist by means of internal improvements that confer increased value on the land, would be lost to the colony by being diverted into the pockets of private speculators.

We have often taken occasion to allude to the contemplated improvements in Lambton Harbour, by which a considerable extent of land would be reclaimed from the sea and rendered available forbuilding purposes. From the period when the plan of the Town was first projected by Captain Smith, it was ascertained that this capability for improvement existed which could, at some future period, be turned to account according to circumstances and the requirements of the settlement. A plan has been recently made by Mr. Roberts, which has been approved by Government, and as contracts for the first portion of the work have been called for, we will endeavour to give our readers an outline of Mr. Roberts’ plan for carryingout this extensive public improvement. The main feature of his plan consists in a continuation of Willis-street in one strait line towards Pipitca Point, a distance of 1300 yards, or three-quarters of a mile, forming a quay sixty feet wide, with a depth of water at half tide varying from eight to twelve feet, the quay then takes a curved line projecting from Pipitea Point in its greatest depth about four hundred yards, the total length of the wharf being 2014 yards or about one mile and one-seventh. The space to be thus reclaimed, which includes an area of thirty-seven acres, is subdivided by streets of sixty feet in width into blocks for building of an average depth of two hundred feet, giving a depth of one hundred feet to each line of frontage. The lines of the projected streets are adapted to the present plan of the town ; thus that portion of Lambton-quay extending from Messrs. Johnson and Moore’s Store, in a North East direction towards Mulgrave Street, will form a magnificent new street of twice its present length, being 970 yards or more than hiilf a mile in length, with a parallel street of equal extent; on the other side, towards Kumu-toto, Lambton-quay is continued in a straight line towards the new quay forming a street 660 yards, or rather more than onethird of a mile, long; the other streets are either parallel to or at right angles with these streets, diverging on the new quay at convenient distances, while reserves are left for a Custom House, Court House, Resident Magistrates Court, Post Office, Government Offices, and a Public Market. The whole area, with a view to the progressive execution of this magnificent project, is divided into eight portions, which may be carried on in succession in such a way as to allow of those parts which from their distance from the line of high water would occasion the greatest outlay, to be executed last. The first portion extends from Mr. Luxford’s, in Willis-street, to Mr. Walden’s, being 720 feet in length, the ground reclaimed in this portion is one hundred feet in depth with a water frontage and a frontage towards Lambton-quay. Tenders have been received for half of this portion, and Mr. Carter’s contract having been accepted, as the lowest, the works will be commenced forthwith. The con-

tract we understand is £1,036. The sum realized by thesaleof theland thus reclaimed we should imagine would not only cover the cost, of the improvement, but leave a surplus towards carrying on the works of the second portion in which is included at one end the reserve for the Custom House and bonded Warehouses, and at the other a reserve for a Court House, Resident Magistrates Court, and Post Office. The extension of the quay in front of Pipitea Point, besides reclaiming a large additional amount of land, gives the further advantage of protection to Thorndon Harbour from the South East winds. Into the cost of this work we do not pretend to enter, as it is obvious that from a variety of circumstances, such as the amount of immigration, and consequent supply of labour, the cost of materials, and other items which must be continually fluctuating in price for the next few years, only an approximate estimate can be formed, but it is very certain that the outlay will be more than covered by the proceeds of the land reclaimed, while the successful execution of this plan, the general arrangement of which reflects the greatest credit on Mr. Roberts’ professional talents, will confer the most important advantages in a commercial point of view on Wellington, and cannot fail of rendering it the emporium of New Zealand. While on the subject of improvements of the Harbour we may state that the Government, after obtaining every opinion on the subject of the best site for a Light House at the entrance of the Harbour, has decided the weight of opinion to be in favour of Pencarrow Head, on which it has been determined to erect an Iron Light House which will be made in England, and sent out with all possible expedition.

Programme of the performance of the Band of the 65th Regt., at Thorndon Flat, on Friday, April 2nd: — 1. Fantasia Kuffncr 2. Selection—l due Foscari Verdi 3. Le Souvenir Quadrille, Brepsant 4. Choeur de Moise ßossini 5. The Wild Flowers Waltz Juilien G. Sturm March Galop Juilien