New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4466, 13 July 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1875.

The <c unsettled land question J) is engaging attention in the Parliaments of Victoria and New South Wales, and it is certain to assume prominence in New Zealand at no distant date. It is a pity that something like finality has not been arrived at in the land laws of these colonies ; but so far from that being the case, every change of system appears to bring with it fresh troubles. Class interests and private interests manage somehaw to get the better of public interests. There is no; denying tliis fact. It is prominent everywhere. In Victoria, however, the popular cry is against selling the public lands. The people are disciples of Mill, so far as his land tenure theory is concerned, forgetful of the lessons of history which demonstrate its fallacy. Followers of this great thinker in his one mistake, they are perfect heretics on Ms sound economical doctrines) and it "is not to be wondered therefore if “ dummyism,” “ land-shark- “ ing,” “absenteeism,” “trade and “ land monopolies,” and the hundred-and-one abuses of which one hears and reads, are rife in Victoria. Its legislation, as all legislation invariably does, hears fruit after its kind, and we need hardly say that Victoria has produced a crop of laws which have gone far towards checking the progress of that country. In New South Wales the state of things is different. In that country there is no powerful, if ignorant. Democracy. The squatters have had it all them own way, and great estates have been acquired for a few thousand pounds sterling. Settlement has not kept pace with the requirements of the country, and were it not for the enlightened fiscal policy adopted by the Sydney Parliament, New South Wales would soon become parcelled out into sheep and cattle runs. But sound principles of finance having been adopted, New South Wales is thriving in spite of its defective land law, under which immense mineral and auriferous areas have become private property, to the great and lasting detriment of the State. New. Zealand, however, presents greater anomalies than Australia. Its land laws are various and varying. They are not only ■ without finality, (Canterbury excepted,) but they are also without system. Otago is the great field for experimental land legislation. In that stirring, thriving province, they seem never to know their own minds. Every man appears to have a theory on laud tenure differing somewhat from his neighbor, and in the intensity of Ms conviction that he is right, he labors might and main to upset every other system, and set his own agoing. But as that is manifestly impossible, compromises are .made, and groups are formed of those who more nearly approach each others views individually. These aggregations of political atoms are in a state of perpetual’ excitement. Their activity is something •marvellous, and for several years past' they managed to change the land laws of Otago almost every session, and to render them nugatory by every possible device that ingenuity could suggestiiand perpetual agitation compass during the recess. No one need be surprised, therefore, if the coming session of the (general Assembly should witness another “ Otagq.free fight” over its land laws. Indepdp’the preliminary steps to that end have been taken. The note of warning has been sounded, sides have been taken, and we may expect to ha,yo it hot and strong before many weeks have gone by. It is the old story wi th a trifling variation. The General Assembly, unwisely we think, limited the area of land to be taken up in “ free selection ” lots in Otago, to 30,000 acres in any one year. The Heriot Hundred lot, which has been recently proclaimed open to free selection, brings the quantity somewhat over the statutory limit, and the pastoral tenants seek to restrain the Waste Lands Board of Otago, by injunction, from proceeding farther in the matter, not, however, until 126 applicants had deposited £4OOO. These persons were put to considerable inconvenience and expense coming to Dunedin to comply with the law, for winter travelling over Otago roads is not holiday making, and strong feeling has naturally been excited bythia tardy action of the squatters. But the pastoral tenants have a perfect right to protect their own interests in their own way, although that position would certainly be disputed by many persons in Otago. However, the Daily Times commenting on the affair, remarks that the number of applications put in for the Heriot land is strong testi-

mony to the need of extending the area for selection under deferred payment next year. It then proceeds to discuss the general question of land legislation from an Otago point of view, as follows: —

The real quarrel lies between those who desire to see the soil of the colony in the hands of settlers, and the General Assembly, more especially the Upper House. The question of the advisability or not of increasing the area under deferred payments is to bo decided there, and not by any subordinate officers. It is much to be regretted that the question seems likely to turn upon legal and ingenious subtleties, when it ought to be decided after plain debate upon its merits. The action of the Commissioner and the Board should not be allowed to interfere and draw away attention from the main issue. We have a strong opinion as to which of the two parties in the quarrel is acting according to law, but we cannot now express it, as the matter is still svb jtidice. The question of putting bona Jide occupants upon the ground admits of but one answer, however. We take it that the excellence of the deferred payments method is still unsettled, and wo have repeatedly declared that wo want nothing more than an unbiassed, a dispassionate report upon its working hitherto, as a guide to its extension or abolition as a system. If it works well, extend it; if not, wipe it out. The Assembly, however, and not the Supreme Court, is the proper tribunal, and to it we appeal. Nothing could be more disastrous than that it should become understood that the Acts of the Assembly were so misty and confused that lawyers might construe them this way or that. To take advantage of a quibble or misunderstanding to extend the area of deferred payments beyond that which Parliament decided as sufficient, would commend itself to the cool sense of neither disputant, and would be pregnant with far greater disasters than those sought to bo overcome. We believe the interests of pastoral tenant and settler are identical, if they would only look them fairly in the face. With a dark cloud of debt hanging over us, those who have a large stake in the country arc deeply interested in sharing the burden with as many as possible. Things now are not as they were in Victoria, and the time is nearly come when we shall have to take our burden upon our back and bear it as best we may. Wo trust that the Assembly will look at the matter in a farsighted way, andr’that, however the present conflict may end, the next session will see such points put beyond dispute.

We have just one word to say in reference to tlie foregoing. We trust that the Assembly will grapple with the land question fairly, and adopt some uniform system of administration, which will tend to settle the country and ensure more profitable occupation of its waste lands.