NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 16, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 795, 16 March 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, March 16, 1853.

The new Land Regulations, published in last Thursday's Government Gazette, (and which will be found in another part of our present issue) appear to have given the most general satisfaction, for with the exception of a few whose sanguine visions of monopoly, like the dreams of Alnaschar, have been somewhat abruptly disturbed and put to flight, the settlers are convinced that the practical effect of these regulations will tend more to promote the general prosperity of the colony than any other measure that could be devised j they feel that the Governor is entitled to their warmest gratitude for having unlocked the land and throw open the resources of the country to be rendered available to the multitudes who will eagerly rush in from all quarters to enjoj the advantages which are offered to them. Cheap land will not be given with a lavish hand only to the few, — as under the legerdemain practised by Mr. Fox under the specious name of compensation, when the pick of the[country, the most valuable portions of land claimed by the Company and of demesne lands belonging to the Crown were alienated by him at ss. an acre while the

upset price was fixed by law at 20s. an acre ; — when the jobbing was carried to such an extent that on the very last day, just as the office of the Company was in the act of closing-, and his functions as their agent about to cease altogether, claims to compensation were, on his own admission, allowed by him which he had never examined, which had been previously rejected, and as he himself expressly states, he could discover no grounds on which such claims could be admitted to compensation. No— all start fair, all are placed on an equal footing, and any man who desires to settle in the country and can muster twenty pounds can purchase his forty acres of land. It will be seen from the regulations that their leading principle is to render the land generally accessible to all comers j that while the auction system is preserved j and applied whenever from circumstances competition is likely to arise, so as to secure a fair price for the land ; in ordinary cases, in all proclaimed lands outside Hundreds, which are notified as open for sale, the land is offered at a fixed price of 10s. an acre in sections of not less than forty acres in extent; and where from its hilly and broken character the land shall be certified to be unavailable for agricultural purposes, it will be offered for auction in blocks of from eighty to six hundred and forty acres at the upset price of ss. an acre. And even in unproclaimed districts, under certain conditions, land may be purchased by those who may be attracted by any particular locality. Care is taken to prevent any undue advantage in selection by any attempt to "monopolise the wood or water in any particular locality," as is well known to have been allowed by Mr. Fox in some of the compensation cases, where one man has a water frontage of upwards of three miles in extent, and another has been allowed to monopolise all the wood, so as virtually to secure to himself the surrounding pasturage for miles in extent ; there not being enough wood to build a house, or even to light a fire except in the belt of wood which has been thus appropriated. So far as the regulations can secure it, no undue preference will be granted to any one — all will be placed on the same footing, all will enjoy their fair share of the advantages which the district in which they may settle may present. If we contrast the present position of this colony, with Tegardto the land question, with that of any of the neighbouring Australian colonies, the advantage in favor New Zealand is immense. Its superiority in point of climate, soil, and other natural capabilities is universally acknowledged; — but if to all this be added the attraction of cheap land, we can readily conceive the effect it will have in inducing thousands to emigrate to New Zealand to secure a comfortable home* for themselves and their families. Under the Australian Land Sales Act, no land in the neighbouring colonies can be sold for less than 20s. an acre, so that while even the worst land, the land most unavailable for the purposes of agriculture, must be offered j there at the upset price of 20s. an acre, the very best land in New Zealand can be had by any intending purchaser at 10s an acre, and every facility is offered for its immediate acquisition. And this advantage, this practical monopoly of cheap land will remain with New Zealand (the quality, as we have said before, being vastly superior) for at least two years to come. For the upset price of land can only be altered by the same authority which originally established it ; the Aus- | tralian Land Sales Act can only be altered or repealed by Act of Parliament. I But before the information of the reduction in the price of land in New Zealand can reach England, even if Parliament be sitting, it will be too late in the session to alter the existing law, so that it cannot be repealed till the session of 1854, nor will the news of the repeal reach those colonies till towards the close of that year. But this is not all ; the effect of the gold discoveries has been to enhance the price of land as well as that of every other commodity, and abundant evidence of this fact may be found in any of the Australian papers. In turning to one of the numbers of the Melbourne Argus recently received, in which reference is made to this very question, speaking of a late Government land sale at which the sum of £63,000 sterling was received, it states £520 to have been given for a rood of town land, " a hundred pounds an acre

for a patch of suburban, while a fourth is glad to get a country lot at the reasonable rate of £& an acre." But when the working men of Port Phillip who have obtained a few hundreds by their successfuljindustry at the diggings find that they can buy the best land in New Zealand at 10s. an acre, we very much doubt if they will any longer give the prices above quoted for land in Australia. The Government has already, we find, taken the necessary steps tabling the new regulations into immediate operation. In yesterday's Government Gazette a notice appears by which the demesne lands of the Crown near Wellington, at Rangitiki, and Wanganui are declared open for purchase or selection. It is also reported that a company of Hutt settlers is forming for the purchase of a block of land to subdivide into smallfarms, and when the new land regulations are extensively circulated through the neighbouring colonies, every vessel will be loaded with passengers desirous of availing themselves of the advantages offered to them in the acquisition of cheap land,

The Lord Nelson, one of the vessels belonging to the Southern Whale Fishery Company, came into port on Sunday, having been ten months out on the Whaling grounds. It is reported that she will proceed to England.