NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, September 3, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 844, 3 September 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, September 3, 1853.

The new regulations for the sale of land in New Zealand, and the reduction in the price to 10s. an acre, and for pastoral purposes to ss. an acre, has not caused so much discussion in the Australian papers, as might at first sight have been anticipated. Since it is generally admitted that the climate and soil of New Zealand are greatly superior to those of the Australian colonies, it may naturally be expected that the Australian Press would not evince any very , great solicitude to proclaim in their respective communities, that every possible facility was offered

tor the acquisition of land in New Zealand, that the best land might be had at half the minimum upset price at which it is offered in those colonies; that any one who could manage to raise twenty pounds could purchase a farm of forty acres on which with industry and prudence he might render himself independent. To bring such topics prominently forward would evidently not be to their taste. But dne of their number, the Geelong Advertiser, draws a very odd inference from the fact. After stating that a difference is established of 50 per cent, between the country lands of New Zealand and the minimum upset price of the country lands of the Australian colonies, the writer infers that the cheapness must proceed .from inferiority. He says "it cannot fail "to be suspected that there must be some disadvantage or other attaching to the New Zealand land to render such a marked disparity necessary or intelligible," and attempts to account for the , cheapness by supposing the inferiority to consist either in the want of roads or facilities for communication, or in the difficulty of clearing the land and bringing it under cultivation, — " or any other reason why." It is almost superfluous in New Zealand to say that this writer's suspicions of inferiority of the land are perfectly groundless, and that the evils which he predicts as a consequence of the reduction in the price are not at all likely to happen. The reduction has been made expressly with the view to promote the speedy occupatio i of the land, to offer the greatest facilities to the working classes to become owners of the soil, to accommodate those who having obtained some means at the diggings, — a limited capital, — are desirous of settling down where those means may be enjoyed to the greatest advantage. We want population, and by holding out this inducement are most likely soonest to obtain what we most want. The immigration fund will not suffer when the purchasers of land pay their own passage from the neighbouring colonies to New Zealand. Besides, the sale of land, in consequence of the reduction in price, is very much greater, and therefore the fund for immigration purposes very much greater. For the last three years of the existence of the Company,under their system of a sufficient price they disposed of exactly 2^ acres of land in this Province ; during the few months the Land Regulations have been in operation some thousands of pounds have been paid into the Treasury in payment for land, besides the scrip which has been absorbed in different districts. So that a land fund has been created by the reduction in the price of land •where before none existed. The amount of produce now exported to Sydney and Melbourne will afford abundant evidence of the quality of the soil ; we only want hands to increase the amount of produce so as to meet the demands of the market.

His Excellency the Governor returned to Wellington on Wednesday evening. It is reported that his Excellency has completed the purchase of the lower portion of the Wairarapa, and that negotiations with the natives for the remainder of the district are in progress by the Commissioner, Mr. M'Lean ; the natives were to meet Mr. M'Lean very shortly to treat about the sale of the upper portion of the Wairarapa, and the arrangements for the acquisition of those parts which are yet unsold are considered to be on a satisfactory footing. It is also said that the Governor has purchased from the natives an extensive and valuable traot of country at Hawke's Bay.

Inquest. — An inquest was held yesterday afternoon before Dr. Fitzgerald, Coroner, at the Queen's Head, Thorndon, on the body of George Dixon, labourer, who was found dead in the gully between the Queen's Head and the Barracks. The deceased had been drinking at the Queen's Head on Thursday night, and had left there rather the worse for liquor. He was found on Friday morning in the gully lying on his side dead, but with no marks of violence on his person. He had not long since been in the hospital under treatment for an asthmatic cough, and it is supposed he had laid down in the gully to sleep, and ■ had Ihereby met with his death. The jury returned a verdict of " Found Dead," and added a recommendation that publicans should in future be bound to provide accommodation for such persons as were, from intoxication, unafcle to take care of themselves, instead of turning them out of their houses, or that they should send to the police station in order that such persons might be taken to their homes.

Wk have been requested by Mr. May to publish the following communication :—: —

Fellow-Colonists, —Relative to the propriety of calling a public meeting as touching the debts of the Netv Zealand Company ? From what has recently passed at home it is clear a manifestation on our part is looked for in its resistance.- Let us then be up and doing,

and I am persuaded if we are prompt and energetic this debt will be successfully resisted — if supine and indifferent we shall be saddled with it, and serve us right too if we quietly submit. If it meet your approbation I respectfully submit that a public meeting be held in' the Britannia Saloon, on Tuesday evening next, at 7 o'clock, to take into Consideration the best means to be adopted in rendering a protest to Parliament the most effective. Yours faithfully, JAMfiS MAY. Sept. 1