THE LAND PROPOSALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 311, 18 December 1862, Page 3

THE LAND PROPOSALS.

(fuoji the otago witness.)

In.a late issue we priutcd a communicated article upon the subject of the Land Proposals submitted by his Honor the Superintendent to the Provincial Council. With the opinions expressed in that article, we were unable to agree, any more than with the " Proposals' of which it was the eulogy, but we did not feel justified in refusing it insertion, as no doubt it embodied the views of a certain section of the community. But although allowing the article a place in our columns, we took care, by marking it as " communicated," to avoid identifying ourselves with the ideas of the writer, and we reserved to ourselves the right to reply whenever we might deem it necessary to do so. Since that date the subject has been pretty well ventilated in the columns of our daily contemporaries and in the Provincial Council; but we regret to notice that a degree of acerbity has been imported into the discussion, which can hardly fail to be prejudicial to the cause which it is to be presumed both sides desire to advance, the welfare of the Province—the increase of settlement —and the enlargement of the revenue. Without ourselves falling into the error which we deprecate in others, we cannot more particularly indicate the modes in which this acerbity has been manifested. We prefer therefore, to leave the combatants to fight out their own quarrels, and in a quiet dispassionate spirit, to point out wherein we disagree from the Land Proposals of his Honor, and from the article upon them to which we have above referred.

To take the proposals seriatim :—We find that the first starts with the statement that "in order to secure the finest agricultural " land from immediate sale, it is absolutely " necessary that lands of a secondary character '' should be thrown into the market in blocks " of not more than 320 acres, in order to " afford means of investment to the farmer of " capital who wishes to enclose and lay down " the land in artificial grasses." Upon this our correspondent, in the article referred to remarks that the danger indicated (that the best land should pass into the hands of large holders) is not imaginary. Granting that it is not, and granting moreover that it would be an evil, we fail to see how it can be averted by the plan proposed of offering inferior lands for sale, specially for the man of large means to buy. It is an old saying that one man may take a horse tp the water, but twenty cannot make him drink. The Government might offer their poor lands to the capitalist, but it is extremely improbable that he would be disposed to buy poor land land of them when he could find better investments for his money elsewhere. Capital is essentially free, and will as assuredly seek out the best investments as water will seek the lowest level. Yet it is taken for granted that the capitalist would be eager to layout his money in land "of a secondary character;" for the means to be derived from this source are already in the same " Proposal" devoted to the objects of opening up the country by the formation of roads and the improvement of river navigation. Like Alnaschar, his Honor appears to be counting his chickens before they are hatched.

The second proposal is that areas of the best agricultural land be laid off in blocks of from 10 to 50 acres with adjacent temporary commonages, for small capitalists and laboring men. With respect to this proposition we would ask what is a small capitalist ? Where 13 the line to be drawn ? Is a man possessed of more than a "small" capital to be debarred from buying ? What .is to be done, supposing that by any accident the man who bought as a small capitalist should become a larger one? Upon this proposal our friend remarks that its object is to promote the peopling of the

country, and to check the sale of the best agriculturalland at half its market value • good objects both, no. doubt, and which every hone&t well-wisher of the Province must concur in, but it appears to us that the means proposed to bring th<?m about are not merely inadequate, but perfectly futile. If land, or anything else, is to be disposed of at less than its market value, the man with most money will, in one way or another, obtain the lion's share, and, on the other hand, if poor land is to be got rid of to raise funds, the rich man is no more likely to let himself be taken in than other people ,- indeed, less so, for the mere tact of a wan being wealthy in a new country, argues a certain degree of acuteness and business aptitude on his part. The third " proposal" is to the effect that it be made obligatory upon all purchasers of land to lay out £2 an acre on their land, on pain of being taxed, so much an acre, until such condition be fulfilled. This is merely the old "Improvement Clause" redeemed from being a dead letter, by the sanction of the penalty of a special taxation. So far the "proposals," however impolitic or objectionable, do not propose to attempt anything positively wrong, or to meddle with existing rights save in so far as every new system must of necessity disturb old arrangements. But the fourth proposal dashes °at once into what we cannot but call an attempt to commit a grievous wrong. It is proposed to make all lands previously sold, and which may not have been improved to the extent of L2 an acre, within four years ot their purchase, liable to the same tax as land sold under the conditions kid down in proposals I and 2. In other words it is proposed to pass a penal law with a retrospective effect, which is, on the face of it, monstrous. Our correspondent says that this is only a legal method of enforcing the conditions of the existing law ; but we submit that it would be a very cruel and unjust one. People who bought land under the old "improvement" conditions of purchase, and who may not have complied with the improvement clause, may be blameable ; and it may be a matter of regret that no legal method " exists for enforcing the provisions of that clause ; but that can surely not justify the Provincial Legislature in proceeding to the length of penal taxation, and with a retrospective effect. The fifth proposal, for the Provincial Government to acquire laud for the purpose of leasing it out in blocks of fifty acres to immigrants, is so hedged with provisions of one kind or another as to reduce the boon to the immigrant to the smallest possible dimensions, if not to make it a minus quantity. The lessee of fifty acres is to be bound to improve it at the rate of £2 an acre within three years, or failing this, his lease to be forfeited without compensation. So that the lessee of 50 acres would be required to spend money on the land without having a titl e, and as of course he would be unable to raise funds upon what was not his own, he would always be exposed to the risk of finding that all hk money and labor had been thrown away, a3 after all he might lose his lease " without compensation." We do not believe that such a provision would be enforced, but the mere fact of its existence would be sufficient to deter any prudent man from embarking his little capital on Government land. Our limits will not allow of our analysing the proposals more at length on the present occasion, or we might have dwelt upon the political evil of the placing the Government in a position of creditor to a class, of a class taxation, and of clas3 legislation generally. We may possibly revert to the subject on a future occasion. In the meantime it is in the hands of a select committee of the House, and with them, we must leave it.