SETTLING THE LAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5032, 10 May 1877, Page 3

SETTLING THE LAND.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE HEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib,—l met a man in town to-day with a very long face, who in reply to my query as to what was the matter with him, said : “ Look here Mr. Fisher, I must leave this place.” I said why? He said : “ I have been trying for the last four years to get a block of land to settle on, and I can’t do it.” He said: “There is the reply to my last application,” I took it and read “ Memorandum for Mr. , “ Westport. “ Your application for a lease of 150 acres of land near the Fairdown railway junction cannot be received, as the land is not open for sale or selection. I therefore return, &c., “Alpred Greenfield, “ Commissioner.” If I have read one reply like that I have read hundreds during my residence here of six years. The manager of one of our local banks told me not long ago that he believed he could tot up £50,000 which had been drawn and carried away by the owners during the last three years, because they could not get land in the district to settle on, and that these people had not gone to other parts of the colony to settle, but had cleared out for Australia or elsewhere, and were entirely lost to the country. X know from equally good authority that many thousands of pounds have been drawn out of our local savings bank and earned away for the -same reason. The retnedv is to throw open the reserves, which include within their areas nearly the whole of the land in this district available for settlement, and the creation and continuance of which have been the bane of this part of the colony. But this throwing open most he judiciously done, or the whole area will he grabbed up by speculators, and the remedy prove worse than the disease. The extent of land around Westport is very limited—only a few thousand acres, and mostly dense bush. It costs from £4O to £OO an acre to make the hush land ready for the plough, and then it is unfit for pastoral or agricultural purposes on any extended scale. What it is fit for is small farms which will provide dairy produce, root crops, and vegetables for the town, and maintain a few cattle and sheep in condition until required for consumption. What I suggest is, that the Government ascertain and appropriate what they want for their railways, and that the balance be surveyed off into blocks of one hundred, one hundred and fifty, and two hundred acres, jnving as far as possible to each allotment a portion of hush and a portion of clear ground. The next thing would be to settle an upset price for the land, which should take the form of a rental, and should cease at the end of ten or fourteen years, and the property become the freehold of the leaseholder. A form of lease should be prepared, containing stringent clauses as to payment of rent, fencing, clearing, and residence. The leases should then in each case be put up to auction, so as to do away with what every would-be landowner dreads, viz., that some one will get a straight and early tip, and pick the eyes out of the whole block before anybody else knows it is open for selection. The extra sum bid might take the form of a cash premium or an increased rent. By following the course indi-

cated, the Government will locate more people on the land and get the land itself better farmed than in any other mode I can think of These must also be an entire or qualified local administration of the waste lands. It is simp y absurd to expect the Nelson Waste Lands Board to administer these lands to the advantage of the settlement or of the colony, ihe Nelson Board knows nothing of this people, their requirements, or their wishes, and what s more, they don’t want to know. They consider West Coasters ought to be satisfied, if not nattered, when Nelson condescends to reply to applications for land—" It cannot be granted, or ‘■ft cannot be received,” or “The land applied for is a reserve,” or “ This land is not open for It would be quite too much to expect these gentlemen to rouse themselves to the fact that the applications for land are becoming raoie numerous, the applicants more clamorous, and that, therefore, it might be as well to re-open the question of these reserves, to enquire whether the circumstances still exist which obtained when they were made, or whether the conditions have altered so much that a great wrong is done to the district, the settlers, and the colony by their maintenance, and that, therefore, they should be cancelled and thrown open for selection immediutely.—l am, J. Bickekton Fisher. Westport, May 4.