PORT NATAL.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 861, 2 November 1853, Page 4

PORT NATAL.

The Secretary of State has approved of the | Lieutenant Governor's policy of granting small allotments of land at Natal, in fee simple, to those beads of families among the native population, whose advancement in civilisation, and whose good conduct entitle them to the boon. The plan has been highly approved of, also, by many of the enlightened colonists, including the missionaries of the American board, and it is at once to be «dopted, experimentally, on two locations. It is expected that the native holders will be prevented from parting with their allotments, at least for a few years, by a non alien clause being introduced into the title, and that residence and cultivation will be absolutely required. ,As the scheme becomes extensively applied, all squatting is to be prohilited, and the country will become dotted over with native settlements, interspersed amongst those of Europeans, and thus religious and educational training will be rendered more practica ble. A icheme, it appears, is also matured for throwing open other unoccupied Crown lands, so as to make them available for approved Eoropean settlers. The purchase money is to be paid by small instalments, and after the expiration of a certain term of years, the lands will be subject, in perpetuity, to a quit rent of a reduced and almost nominal amount. It is reported that the colony will very shortly be divided into several districts, similar to the townships and boroughs in England. It vas understood that an ordinance bad been

prepared, to accomplish farther important reforms in the law and administration. A commission was about to be appointed to report tbe state or education, and the best means of extending it to all classes on a sousd and unsectarian principles. Mr. W. H. Currie has published some particulars respecting the culture of arrowroot, which he contends can be produced at Natal in great perfection, yielding a handsome profit to tbe grower. He calculates that the amount realised per acre would average per 1b.,0r£28 7s. 2^d od tbe total tcre.