THE LAND RGULATIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 317, 25 December 1862, Page 5

THE LAND RGULATIONS.

REGULATIONS. Sas {To the Editor of the Daily Times.) on £ Sir,—The conclusion come to by the majority of roa( ] the Provincial Council, that to prevent speculation in eX p ( Government lands, and to induce to the cultivation his ( of the soil, a tax should be imposed on all lands ft ou ] found lyiug waste in any ont.'s possession,''has asto- j,^ nished me, and must have done so to many more. ■ llla^ As ray views on this point do not coincide with those tliin of the honorable gentlemen, I will take the liberty, c.^. through the medium of your paper, to tell you and <j ra , thvm the reasons Why they do not. j.y^ 1. Because there has been little or no speculation - vvitl in the country lands' of this Province. A. land specu- eyei lator is one who buys land, holds it for a time, and q U jj sells it at a profit, without being at any expense in uuo improving it—perhaps without ever seeing it. The wn i largest purchases of land here have been made by the \ 0 \ agents of companies at home, but clearly nob tor speculation, but as an investment. On the estate of oue t r yj ,of these companies in Southland at least L 15.000 has ti|j r been spent in htocking and improvements. They are J£ the largest owners.of cattle in that Province, and no^ eighteen months ago had more land under cultivation a j, ( than had the rest of the settlers combined. On the „.;{] property of the same company, in the north of this a tj c Province, some 15,000 or jlß,ooo sheep are running; any while they offer to lease on very reasonable terms, to >\ lonajlde settlers, portions of sheep ground for farm- va [, ing or grazing purposes, g pa 2. But supposing there had been speculation enough to call for legislation to suppress it, I submit that, in following the course proposed} a wrong ] principle has been gone upon. For speculation to exist at all, the price required by Government for land must be less than its value in the market. It must surely be evident then that the simplest remedy for this is to raise it to the speculator's price. 3. In imposing this tax, the Government assume ■ to themselves a right I cannot conceive they have any : ] vat claim to, to ' Does a storekeeper, after advertising hi 9 goods for 20s sale,.presume, when selling some pt them to a cus- —^ tomer, to dictate to him how he shall use them ; if a M* bag of flour, how it shall be baked ; a chest of tea, [ how it shall be infused'? Will then the Council, com- of i posed largely of merchants and others, ignorant alike of of land and its cultivation, presume to force the settler aft whom they have enticed to the country, to grow on ths his land what they think fit ? Where do they get str their right to ask whether it is used for grain grow- he ing, or for cattle and sheep breeding and fattening 1 dei The scheme, viewed in this light, is most odious, but tio it is equally so in another. we The title given to purchasers of land in this Pro- ha vince is a certificate of occupation, and till certain ou conditions are fulfilled, the Crown grants have hitherto ws been withheld. A« every one knows, through some ha oversight, no penalty is eriactel 'should these endi- th tiona not be fulfilled. Nearly all will admit also, gt that they are of such a character as cannot ba complied with, were a penalty of the fiercest kind legally eh erforcable. Now how, I would ask, can this agree- ur ment (rendered null, it is true, but through no fault se of the land-buyer) be coolly set aside, and another pi substituted, such as they pi opose. hi 4. It seems t,o have been ior^otten that there are ar Town lands lying waste, as well as country ones. In h< the first there has been assuredly much more specu- cc lation than in the last, and if the country is to be st cultivated or taxed, the townships should be built di upon or taxed. If a law is to till our fields, why will- ac it not also build our towns ? . y< 5. Many pieces of land are wholly or partially un- n improvable by any known appliances, or it is such a3 V ■would entail a heavy loss on the owner were he \o n attempt it. Is the unfortunate individual in this po- si sition to be taxed when his luckier neighbor having si and that it will pay and be profitable to improve will n escape harmls&s 1 d 6. It strikes a blow at the interests and welfare of ii the grazier on his purchased land. It must be known y that there are many who own from 1.000 to 2,000 or 3,0U0 acres, and who have turned this land chiefly to g account in cattle aud sheep farming. In almost d every case they have executed considerable improvemeuts on their properties. Now, if the tax be at all f a heavy one, this branch of farming will be com- t pletely put a stop to. How can the runholder be s competed with 1 And is it not rashly unjust that the f one who has paid his thousands of pounds for the i benefit of the country and LI for every acre of the ( grass he makes use of should send his stock to market, loaded with a tax, while the other, who does nothing of the kind, is charged the merest iota tor as- i sessments 1 < T7. It will have the effect of keeping capital from i coming into the Province. Un>old land in a | country is what the inonied man naturally looks to ; i not for speculation, a-i is generally supposed, but as j an investment. When it becomes known that its nominal price here is some 20s an acre, there is a habit extant of making afterwards sundry undefined charges, or the investment, I fa.no>, mu-t lose much of its charms. Nor can money be advanced with safety on the security of land liable to be put under burdens, and thus lessened in valu^, at the caprice of a few. These, Sir, are a few of the evils that will doubtless fjllow thi3 plan of taxation—evils worse in nature, and with worse results, than the malady it is intended to cure can produce. And the whole, as it seems to me, arises from the first principle _in commercial economy being ignored,—that the price of an article should be regulated by the supply ol it and the demand for it. I would urge the necessity of raising the price of land. It is undoubtedly worth more at present than 20s an acre. "What gives a value to land in a country is the population and the capital they are possessed of. If, then, two or three years ago. when the people of this Provincel only numbered 12,000 or 14,000, land was worth LI aa • acre, surely, with the population nearly trebled, and the capital fully as much increased, a rise in the price charged for it is advisable. Another thing to be considered is that acres cannot be multiplied like most other commodities. With a demand for them rapidly increasing, the supply of them as hopelessly decreasing, by what law in commercial practice are they kept on sale and at ,the same price? Again, the present low price of land is a main cause, why more of it is not put under artificial grasses;. The settler finds it very much easier and cheaper to •' purchase ready wade by the hand of nature his grasses .j than to co-operate with her in their production. An acre of grass land costs L3or L4. This buys 3or 4 acres of land and grass, and the only trouble he is put to in acquiring the same 13, perhaps, a journey; to Dunedin. . # ; It i% further, a mistake to suppose thatthe raising the price of our waste lands will drive population and capital past us. Men know that the price could not have been raised without an increased demand, and the cause of the demand could only have amen from the community on the spot being on the increase in numbers and wealth. The3e periodical risings in the price of our land* are therefore the surest signs of our prosperity, and the most reliable advertisements of tjiem to the world, and there is little fear but that people in prosperity will find many visitor's willing and ready to share with them in it. I am, &c, A. L. Tokomairiro, December 20.