New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4904, 9 December 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9.

It was admitted that the legislation of last session on the land question was but of a temporary nature, and that it wonld he necessary ere long to grapple with the whole subject. A reference to the legislation of the New South Wales Parliament of 1861 on the subject may be both interesting and instructive. Previous to this date tho lands of the colony were disposed of under cercain Imperial regulations, issued in March, 1843, the price of country lots being £1 per acre, payable in one month from the date of sale, no lands being alienable beyond certain boundaries, or before survey, or otherwise than at a: land sale, except lots previously offered., at auction. Under the ; new policy, which was initiated in 1861, v two principles were adopted, viz., free selection before survey over all unreserved lands, and the deferred payment of threefourths of the purchase money, subject to a rate of interest. It is more particularly to 4 the effects of the deferred payment system that wo wish to: call attention, for' it was there' predicted that its adoption would have most disastrous effects ■ on the squatting interest throughout the colony, and .although last session tliere. wa3 no expression of a similar... opinibn in the; - NeVr, Zealand

Parliament, yet it was understood on all. hands that the excision of the deferred - payment clauses from the "Waste,;Lands Bill .was owing to an impression that the interests of the squatter would be: injuriously affected. In New Sonth Wales it /was found that deferred payments did not result in any disastrous consequences, or prevent the natural and healthy growth of the pastoral interest, but secured that which every; land law should—the occupation and improvement of the waste lands of the Crown, not only by those who possessed capital, but also by bona fide workmen, whose principal capital was' their own labor.. The chief difficulty which arose was owing to the system of free selection, viz., that settlement was too scattered ; but doubtless in course of time this will naturally cease to exist. The wide signification of the term " person," as used in the original Act, caused selections,to. be made in the names of children ; and to put an end to this, and the practice of dummying,—selection by agents for the benefit of employers,—it was enacted that " vicarious selection" should be a. misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment, with hard labor, for any term not exceeding two years;, and that no conditional purchase should be made by any person under 16 years of age. The maximum area allowed for individual selection was increased from 320 to 640 acres, and on fulfilment of the condition as to residence and improvements, power was given to take up additional selectionsof 640 acres. Pre-emptive powers of leasing adjoining lands of three times the area of the land purchased, at an annual rental of £2 for each 640 acres, were also given to selectors. As illustrating the immense strides which settlement is making in New South Wales, it maybe mentioned that the area taken up during the two years 1873 arid 1874 exceeds that of the ten years from 1862 to 1871, and that the area taken up in 1875 exceeds that of any previous year, being 1,756,000 acres, equal to all the'selections made in the seven years from 1862 to 1868. Lands not purchased under the system before noticed are either sold by auction or selected at an upset price of £1 per acre. As an illustration of the benefit accruing by the alienation of land, which has been progressing so favorably during the last few years, nothing can be more convincing than that the land fenced increased from less than 2,000,000 acres in 1865 to over 6,000,000 in 1874, that is, an increase in the ten years of 200 per cent, on. the previous 77 years. The judicious rearing of stock and improvement in the quality of • the herds during the past ten years is also a most noticeable feature, and is distinctly traceable to the liberal land policy of the New South Wales Government. The great success of the deferred payment scheme initiated by Mr.. Donald Reid in Otago under the auspices of the Provincial Councils, has certainly not interfered with the pastoral interest in the slightest degree; and although there is some slight dissatisfaction on the part of the settlers with the jobbery perpetrated along the Bluff-Kingston line of railway in favor of squatters and for the purpose of obtaining loot, which has been spent in Diinedin, yet there is nothing which can be described as class-feeling existing throughout the province. In our opinion the most important part of the Land Bill was the deferred payment scheme, and next session we hope the Lower House will, at an early period, grapple with the subject of waste lands. Deferred payment has been adopted with success in New South Wales for upwards of twenty years, and. the experiment in Otago, so far as it has gone, has had a. similar result. With these data a liberal scheme of deferred payments should be certainly adopted, and the feeling of the country being with the House of Representatives in this matter,, they, should bring every legitimate pressure to bear on the Council to procure such a liberal land law as will attract the working agriculturist not only from the Home country, but also from other colonies. .The land laws of Canada can in nowise compare even wi,th our existing system, and were a broad policy as to the sale of : land adopted for the whole colony, now that the various Provincial; systems are passing away, and promulgated, many a hardworking backwoodsman in the country far west of Lake Huron would be tempted to join our younger colony, and change his lot from, one where he is eking out a bare and solitary existence, for something brighter in the Britain of the South. Not only in Canada alone; is .there dissatisfaction with a short-sighted land policy; and if the General Government, now that they have to legislate for the colony at large, will adopt the liberal democratic principle, results may be looked for even greater than have accrued, or can be expected to accrue, from the Public Works and Immigration, scheme oE 1870.