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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4813, 25 August 1876, Page 2

The Statement of Land Purchases in the North Mand, laid before Parliament by the Native Minister, possosses many features of interest and importance, and on the whole appears to be highly satisfactory. The report is plain and businesslike, devoid of anything like garnish or straining after effect, the figures being left to tell their own tale. The statement is supplemented by ample tables, showing in detail the various completed purchases and leases, and current negotiations for the purchase or lease of land in the North Island. For the information of those of our readers who have not leisure to study the statement, we propose to briefly comment on the principal results which it contains.

Statements have occasionally appeared that the whole of the £700,000 originally voted by Parliament for the acquisition of land in the North Island had been expended, and that the greater portion of the land acquired was of indifferent quality. A perusal of the statement laid before Parliament proves both these assertions to have been entirely unwarranted by the facts. In the first place, only £445,402 2s. Id. has been expended; of this amount £241,077 Bs. lOd. has been spent in the purchase of 1,769,972 acres and the lease of 339,499 acres, making a total area of 2,109,471 acres acquired as a public estate. A further sum of £120,438 9s. 7d. has been paid on account of incomplete negotiations for the purchase of 2,695,807 acres and the lease of 1,478,912 acres, or a total area in various stages of negotiation of 4,174,779 acres. Added to this a sum of £83,288 3s. Bd. has been expended for general purposes connected with the negotiations, but only £37,909 16s. Bd. of this has been paid away in survey salaries, miscellaneous services, and supplies. The balance of the £700,000 unexpended on the 30th June last amounted to £254,595 17s. lid., which is available to complete transactions now in progress, and for such further negotiations as may be entered into. The total area brought under negotiation during the year ended 30th June last is 573,910 acres, of which 522,664 aro in Auckland, 10,000 in Wellington, and 41,252 in Taranaki, and the total area actually purchased and leased during the same period is 615,146 acres.

We will now collate from the statement the transactions in the various provinces. In the province of Auckland since 1872 a total area has been purchased of 835,628 acres, at an average cost of 2s s|d. per acre, while 339,499 acres have "been leased, making 1,175,127 acres in all. Negotiations are also in progress for the further purchaso of 1,937,852 acres, and the lease of 1,171,077 acres, a total of 3,108,929 acres. Thus when the whole of the transactions are completed 4,284,056 acres will have been acquired, showing that Auckland has fared by far the best of all the provinces, more than two-thirds of the entire area negotiated for being within her limits. Out of the amount originally appropriated for expenditure in this province £267,027 18s. 2J. has been spent, leaving a balance of £82,972 10s. 10d. The total area acquired in this province during the past year is 335,369 acres. In the northern part of tho province several valuable blocks, of an aggregate acreage of 443,856, have been acquired, at an average cost of 2s. per acre, and 229,559 acros have been handed over to be locally administered. A great portion of this land has been found on survey to bo well adapted for settlement. In the Mangonui, Hokianga, Kaipara, and Whangarei districts alone 165,661 acres have been acquired during tho year. In tho same part of the province some 27 blocks, of an aggregate acreage of 57,536, have been surveyed, and partially purchased, the adjustment of claims by the Land Court being the only necessary preliminary to the complete acquisition of the land. Tho earnest desire of the Ngapuhi and Te Rarawa tribes to promote European settlement in their midst, is evinced by their readiness to part with their waste lands for the purpose. During the visit of his Excellency tho Governor to tho North the natives frequently expressed the same desire, and in various ways ovinced a keen appreciation of the advantages conferred by the settlement of their lands by Europeans. In tho Coramandel and Thames districts, in spite of numerous obstacles, ox tensive negotiations have been almost completed. Considerable advances have been made upon tho Waikawau and Moehau block of 118,802 acres. Some of these purchases are encumbered by timber leases, acquired by European millowners and others long prior to the time when the Government began negotiations. Tho then Superintendent of the province, Mr. T. B. Gillies, was impressed with the expediency of acquiring these lands on account of their known auriferous character, and he persistently urged upon tho General Government tho necessity of purchasing them, on the express understanding that the preexisting private rights should bo recognised and respected. In fact, as the statement shows, ho personally assisted Mr. Mackay in the negotiations, and on I ono occasion advanced a sum of £2OOO out of provincial funds, in order to 'expedite the- purchase at what he be-

lieved t6-:be a favorable opportunity. It ,is probable, alsoj/that the natives would have declined to part with the fee simple unless the prior obligations were included in the of transfer.- The total purchases in-the Thames district amount to 145,441 acres, at an average cost, including incidental expenses, of 3s. 3d. per acre. The Ohinemuri goldfield, an area of 132,175 acres, has been leased. On the Upper Thames, Waitoa, and Piako rivers the purchase of a considerable part of a block of 200,000 acres will shortly be completed, and much of it is regarded as suitable for agricultural setilement. When this land is available facilities will be provided for industrious and frugal miners to acquire homesteads and become producers. In the Taupo and Bay of Plenty districts 99,974 acres have been purchased at an average cost per acre of 2s. lOd. Surveys are .in progress on a block of 261,000 acres, the survey of 62,787 acres, having been completed. At Taupo 19,423 acres have been acquired during the past year. In the East Coast and Wairoa districts large areas are under negotiation. The acquisition of 146,000 acres of land in the Upper Wairoa country is a fact which calls for some remark. This is a district, the inland part of which is inhabited by the Uriwera, a tribe formerly notorious for its aversion to civilisation in any shape, and for its bitter hostility to Europeans. This tribe was amongst the most obstinate of our enemies, and lonfc after the war it pertinaciously refusecf to sell a single inch of land, rejecting Jhe most tempting offers of private speculators. It was only by a conciliatory course of conduct, fair terms, open adjudication, and liberal reservations of land for their future use, that the Government succeeded in dissipating suspicion and removing opposition. The native owners may now be said to fully recognise the impartiality and convenience of the Land Court as a means of settling vexatious complications, and averting perpetual causes of. dispute. In the province of Wellington 440,927 acres have been purchased at an average cost of 2s. Bd. per acre, inclusive of incidental expenses. Besides this, negotiations are in progress for the purchase of 694,763 acres, and the lease of 307,833 acres. Thus when the existing transactions shall have been completed 1,443,525 acres will have been acquired in this province as a public estate. During the past year 58,425 acres have been acquired, and 69,113 surveyed. There have been handed over for local administration 179,944 acres. Of the amount appropriated for the purchase of land in this province £109,142 355. sd. has been expended, leaving a balance of £90,857 4s. 7d. available to complete transactions in hand, or to undertake further operations. The sum of £BO,OOO was appropriated for expenditure in the province of Taranaki, and of this there is still a balance of £40,663 19s. sd. The transactions include the complete purchase of 252,880 acres at an average cost of 2s. lOkl. an acre, and incomplete negotiations for a further area of 41,252 acres, while negotiations have been entered into for the acquisition of 200,000 acres of heavily timbered land. There have been handed over for local administration 87,209 acres. During the past year 82,381 acres were acquired in this province. In expenditure in the purchase of land in Hawke's Bay Parliament voted a sum of £70,000, of which there remains a balance of £40,132 12s. Id. The purchases completed amount to 240,537 acres, and there are incomplete negotiations for 22,000 acres. Thus when the transactions now in progress shall have been completed an Aggregate area of 6,284,250 acres —onefifth the entire area of the North Island —will have been acquired as a public property. In order to convey an adequate idea of the magnitude of this estate, we may remark that it is greater than Wales, and is equal to the united area of the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Warwickshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. , The difficulties with which the Government have had to contend in their land purchase operations have been frequently referred to on previous occasions, and need not now be dwelt upon. It must be borne in mind that the Government when it entered the market had long previously disbanded its staff of land purchase agents, and that it entered into competition, without complete organisation, with a numerous, keen, and wealthy body of private speculators, who regarded the Government with jealousy, and were, in many cases, disposed to throw obstacles in the way. Theso private speculators had their agents distributed throughout the North Island, and were rapidly buying up all the choice land, while rejecting that of average quality. This will account for what might otherwise appear to be high prices paid by private speculators. The Government, on the other hand, having larger requirements, was obliged to purchase land of mixed quality, and consequently was not in a position to excite the cupidity of the native owners by taking out the eyes of the land, to the ultimate depreciation of the bulk of it. It may be that the exercise of the Crown's pre-emptive right, under the Public Works Act, in respect to some blocks, has in a few cases excited disappointment, but the policy has been fully justified in the interests of the public at large. In a matter of such important bearing upon the future progress and prosperity of settlement, individual private interests must be subordinate to the good of the whole. By the systematic land purchase operations of the Government a valuable estate has been preserved to the public, which must othorwise have been absorbed by monopolists, who. would havo picked out the eyes of the country, and having held it for speculative purposes until its value was improved by contiguous settlement and public expenditure in improvements, would have doled it out at high prices, to the detriment of settlement and the injury of the interests of the people as a whole.