The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 24 November 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1880.

| The success which attended the last sale j of sections on the Waimate Plains has induced the Government to place in the market another large area. The announcement in another column is notable for its lack of information. Those who require 1 particulars must seek it at railway stations, 1 post offices, and of Commissioners of ! Crown Lands. The sale is to take place I between the J.3th and 20th December in- | elusive, at Hawera. We suppose that the competition will be great, and that the prices realised will be high. There seems to be a mania for areas on the Waimate Plains. Why, nobody seems to know. It may be due to the amount of money that has been sunk in acquiring them. There i 3 one thing, however, that we do know—the prices paid for areas at last sale were too high for struggling colonists to pay. The land is in a state of nature, A man with small capital might be able, by in- j dnstry, and cutting and contriving, to make a living for himself and family out of sueh land. But, we fear that when the payments become due, he, like the deferred payment settlers of the South, will be landed in difficulty. Four pounds per acre is the upset price of 6000 acres of this land, which will be sold in areas ranging from 43 to 105 acres. It is not improbable that competition may end in donble the upset price being paid, as was the ense at the last sale. It is true that the Plain 3 have cost the Colony a much larger sum than will be realised for it even at these rates. But colonists should not be called npon to contribute so unfairly towards the payment of such an expenditure. They may undertake such an obligation, but they will fail in fulfiling it. The expenditure has been purely political, and out of all proportion to the valne of the land. If the Government have been guided by the expensiyepess of the land in submitting it to public competition at such an unconscionable upset price, why do they nor treat other native lands similarly/ The native lands as a whole should be made to pay, either directly or indirectly, the expense that has been incurred in acquiring them. But what do w.o find? That, whereas this principle appears tn have been applied in dealing with the Waimate Plains, other { large areas are being permitted to fall iinto the hands of speculators at a few. shillings per acre. The public will, it is understood, eventually purchase these areas, but they will have to do so at pric«3 that will include the value that has been given to them by the processes of colonisation. Thus the public not only have to suffer taxation to pay interest on the money that has been expended in the maintenance of the native and public works policies, but they must, if they want land, pay into the pockets of speculators prices that will include the additional values that aech an expenditure h 33 given to colonial lands. When will this patchwork policy cease and give place to an equitable, honest, and universal treatment of tbo Colonial estate? Nowthose who have borne the brunt of the battle of colonisation for years have to pay the penalty of such suffering by being precluded from an opportunity of making Advantageous land purchases. Such things reserved for English companies and promoters fit settlements, and pure >

speculators. We raise no objection to Colonial lands being sold at such prices to companies who are established on, : the mutual, and not the speculative, aystemy that will enable us to compete with the other countries th;it are norso energetically offering special inducements to small capitalists. What we object to is, that the same facilities for acquiring land should be denied to Colonists. How can they compete successfully with those who pay but one-fourth what they are called upon to pay for land ?