NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 9, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 793, 9 March 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 9, 1853.

The most prominent feature of the land question in this, the Southern portion of New Zealand, seems strangely enough to have been altogether overlooked by the great majority of those interested in it. We allude to the existence of an apparently exclusive right of occupation of extensive tracts of country, coupled with a right of indefinite extension, exercised by a mere fraction of the population. jßhese tract s^tof land have hitherto been used almost entirely for the purpose of rearing sheep and cattle on runs, so that the fortunate occupants thereof enjoy a present monopoly of this branch of industry, and will, unless checked in their course, ultimately obtain, as has happened elsewhere, the fee simple of a vast property of great and increasing value. How has such a gigantic evil arisen ? How has it come to pass that the agriculturist, the merchant, the storekeeper, and the labourer, have been as it were thrust out of their inheritance"? By what process has it occurred that some forty or fifty persons in the settlements of Wellington and Nelson have forestalled their neighbours, that they have engrossed the country available for agricultural or pastoral purposes to such an extent that even at a distance of a hundred miles from the capital town of either settlement, perhaps not ten square miles remain for any one i Surely, exclaims a stranger, fresh from Europe and I unacclimatized to the atmosphere of a Colonial Land Commissioner's office, such a state of things cannot exist in New Zealand. Has it not been sytematically colonized ? Has not the" Wakefield system been in operation there for several years ? Has not the vigilant, and able Sir George Grey been at the head of the Government to prevent any, even the most insidious, advance towards such a wholesale appropriation by a few of the acknowledged property of all ? Nevertheless, in spite of every care, or previous precaution, in spite of every vigilance on the part of the Governor, this colossal grievance exists. It is as clear as the sun at noon-day, that a small knot of persons, to the absolute exclusion of all others, hold nearly the whole agricultural and pastoral resources of the country, outside the neighbourhood of towns, in their own hands. They are squatters. Their interest is called the squatting interest. In some cases it is already called a vested interest. And unless measures were adopted to prevent it, it would ere long become in all cases a vested interest with a right to compensation, and of easy transition to an indefeasible estate of inheritance in fee simple, to be sanctioned by a grant from the Crown. This interest 'owes its birth to the Netor

Zealand Company. Its agents created it by illegally reducing the price of land, and handing" over the cheap land with the utmost profusion, to a certain number of discontented and clamorous land purchasers. Since the cessation of the New Zealand Company, those who have most benefited by the lavish profusion practised by its Agents, have sought to perpetuate the abuse ; and we believe that all the available land in New Zealand would fail to satisfy the applications that have been made for runs ; in several instances one!person has applied for two or more runs, of several thousand acres each. The result is that the country has been locked up, and handed bodily over to a handful of the colonists to the exclusion of every other class. A monstrous wrong to the community has been thus committed. Was itfofrsuch a consummation, we ask the working classes whether agricultural or mechanical, that they emigrated? Was itfor this,we ask the small capitalist, that he has invested his means in trade, and, eating the bread of carefulness, devoted himself to thrift and accumulation ? Was it for this, we ask the whole population, excepting always the favoured few alluded toj that they originally resolved to leave England, that they have since confronted so many dangers and hardships, and having for years endured disappointments, privation, vexation, and delay, have finally achieved a victory over all their difficulties ? Was it in quest of bitter disappointment in a colony with its land thus forestalled, engrossed, and locked up, that persons with capital of various amounts to be embarked in agricultural and pastoral pursuits have, for a long period, annually arrived from England ? No. On the contrary from the beginning of the colonization of this portion of New Zealand, it has always been understood and declared that it was emphatically a country open to all classes ; that if it presented attractions to any one class in preference to all others, that class was the working class. Hence it has been called the poor man's paradise. And it deserved the name until the late Principal Agent of the New Zealand Cnpyw'ijt jnitUted dsytem of engrossing the country by a privileged few to the exclusion and injury of all besides. The question now to be decided is, what remedy is to be applied to a state of things so unjust and ruinous to the colony. The answer appears to be simple. Warn off the trespassers. Dispossess the intruding occupants, for they are only occupants without a title. Sell the land at a fixed and moderate price. This is the true remedy, and the New Constitution Act gives the power of applying it. It is generally understood, as we stated in our last number, that the Governor-in-Chief has, in the new Land Regulations shortly to be issued, availed himself of the authority the law confers upon him to break up this Monopoly, by lowering the price of land. And we are persuaded that all who have at heart the progress and prosperity of the colony in preference to the aggrandizement of a few, will cordially support this measure. Every one disposed to uphold the cause of fair dealing and justice will do so. Every one who, thinks that the resources of the colony ought to be enjoyed by all the colonists equally and without distinction, will be found on the same side. Let the electors under the New Constitution seriously reflect upon the importance of the trust confided to them, at the coming elections, in reference to this subject. If men are elected who favour this system of gigantic monopoly in land, the fair inheritance of the colonists as a body, will be destroyed at once and for ever. The bulk of the population, that is, the real thews and sinews, of the country will be sacrificed to aggrandize a few wealthy stock owners, and New Zealand some years hence, instead of resembling our Fatherland, where every unit of the population enjoys the benefits of liberal institutions and free trade, will be crushed and trodden under foot by the iron despotism of a grasping and selfish oligarchy.

We understand that the Governor-in-Chief and Mr. M'Lean, the native Commissidner, have finally arranged to pay the natives £2,500 for the Castle Point district of 300,000 acres, the amount to be paid in yearly instalments. ' The second and last instalment for the Ahuriri district and harbour was paid to the nar

tives by Mr. M'Lean during his late visit to Hawke's Bay, when the second instalment for the Mohaka district was also paid. It seems that the second instalment of £1000, due for Te Hapuku's block, was not sufficient to enable that chief to meet the numerous demands of outstanding native claimants who desired to participate in this year's payment ; he therefore considered it more 1 advisable to leave the instalment in the hands of Government until next November, when another instalment of £1000 will be due for that important district, which will enable this chief to discharge with greater satisfaction the demands both of the natives and of their European creditors, who have advanced goods to the amount of £3000, in the expectation of the instalment of £1000 being paid this year. We have also noticed lately several native meetings at the Government offices, which we believe have had reference cliiefly to negotiations for the purchase of a considerable tract of land at Taranaki.

The Despatch, from Sydney via Nelson, and the Resolution from Melbourne, has brought us news to the ] sth November. Through the kindness of Mr. Allen we have received files of Melbourne papers, from which extracts of the I most interesting intelligence will be found in another part of oar paper. By these vessels several gold diggers have returned from Port Phillip, and from all we can learn we do not believe the success of those who Have left Wellington in search of gold is such as to induce many more to go on so unprofitable an errand. We regret to learn that two of those who left Wellington have died of dysentery, Mr. M'Gregor, carpenter, and Mr. K. Seed, shoemaker, of the Porirua road. Three large masses of gold have been dug up at Ballerat, and the report of such prizes may tempt some to try their luck, but the average success of those who have gone to the diggings is not such as to lure any sober minded person from a comfortable home and regular occupation.

The Minerva arrived on Sunday from London via Port Victoria; among the passengers are Mr. E. G. Wakefield, and Mr. Sewell ; Captain Simeon is also a passenger from Lyttelton. The Minerva is one of Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons vessels, and is the first sent out by them under the arrangements by which they have connected themselves with emigration from England to this Colony. The New Zealand Settlements cannot fail to derive the greatest benefit from the exertions of so influential a shipping firm in promoting emigration, while the comfort of Emigrants will be effectually secured in obtaining passages in such a well appointed class of first rate vessels as that to which the Minerva belongs.