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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1337, 2 August 1883, Page 2

The report on Crown lands for the year ending 31st March, 1883, has been laid before Parliament. The report states that the history of the dealings with the Crown lauds during tho past year, has been similar to preceding years, the object being not so much to derive a large revenue from the disposal of the public estate, as promoting the settlement of the country. This object has been very well attained although there has been a falling off in the cash sales of the year. In consequence of the extensive sales of runhold leases in Otago, Southland, and Nelson, no large dealings of a similar nature will take place there for some time to come. The advantages to be derived from the first opening up of the country for sale by meahs of roads is fully recognised, and .might in this district, be practically tested. The stringency of tho money market during the past year, has made itself felt in the Government land sales. The aggregate revenue from the Crown lands for the past year from all sources is about £450,000 from sales, deposits, leases, &e. Taking all things into consideration the Colony may well be proud of its Minister of Lands. The lion. Mr Rolleston has attended ably and without parading his services to the duties devolving upon him, and he keenly perceives how important to I the Colony, both for its present and I future, is the wise and intelligent i administration of the public estate. I “ The value,” e lys the report," especially | of the agricultural portion of the Crown i lands, keeps increasing. It is therefore easy : to see that if no restriction was placed on tlic | sale, the prime agricultural portions would be i immediately bought up by wealthy indivi- . | duals and companies, to hold for aft >r I I disposal at a greatly-enhanced price to I lie ] settler whose labour is to make the soil

reproductive. The future increasing value of hind in New Zealand i- s 60 well assured that if the Crown lands were exposed for sal? like ao much Hour or sugar the powerful <’Vg»nisnt ion of capital would push fhe individual industrious settler aside, who would never have a chance of dealing directly with the Linds Department for an acre of Crown lands ; hence the argument for the disposal of Crown lands on settlement conditions, and the just ideation of the Department in giving so much prominence to that way of dealing with them. The functions of the Land Department is not to raise so much revenue—it is to settle Iho Crown lands in the manner most likely to be mutually beneficial to tho settlers and the country, and to prevent as much as possible any middleman coming between tho Department and the scltier. It will, therefore, be unwise to afford facilities to anyone to acquire large areas merely to hold for after-disposal possessor has tho capital ami employs it in I improvement of tho land. On the contrary, I there are instances in nearly every land disI trict where the drainage and reclamation of ■ swamps and other waste places has been done, : and could only be done on an extensive scale lor not at nil, in which, case settlement on a I scale of a few hundred acres would have been I wholly impracticable j but; as a rule, it will I best promote the future settlement of tho | country if Ihe remaining land is so disposed iof as to ensure its o •cupation by a resident population bound to cultivate a certain porI tion as one of the conditions of holding the I land. This principle is by no means new, ! and hitherto it has had its exemplification in I the system already alluded to. Up to data i fully 10,000 persons have selected in all over I, acres. After deducting the area made freehold by fulfilment of the condition and that forfeited, there remains 3,016 selectors on deferred payments, holding, on the 31st March la>;-t, an area of about 456,861 acres, on which £220,900 has been paid, and a further sum of £603,634 has been paid, and a further sum of £603,668 will accrue in future instalments. Of these 867 selectors, holding 140,900 acres, are in arrear in payment of instalments, £19,273, being nearly £22 Os 5d each, or, stated in time, about an average of nine months in arrear of due dates when the sum stated should have been paid The law requires the prompt payment of instalments every six months, but some of the land boards have hitherto assumed a discretion in not pushing settlers for payment under certain circumstances. This clemency has undoubtedly been carried too far in those cases where selectors have been allowed to fail behind two or three years with their payments. The following is a summary of the results of the leasing system as regards Otago Crown lands : —Number of sections offered, 103 ; area offered, 20,614 acres ; number of sections selected, 13 ; area selected, 2,908 acres ; average upset price per acre of runt, 2s 7d j average tender rent por acre, 3s 4d. The total receipts from rents of runs last year were £128,463, being £54,417 less than the receipts of the former year, due to the large sums paid as advance rent in that year for leases, which only begun on the Ist March last, and from which no rent is given in this year’s returns. Similarly, the runs sold this year have paid in advance the rent for next year, so that it will be the Ist March, 1885, before al) the runs have got back into the normal condition of paying rent for the then current year. The rentals will then bo according to the leases now current, and to begin on the Ist March, 1884, L 1.76,000 for 11, acres, or an average of very-nearly 4d por aero. Of that rental from Crown lands the Otago laud district will contribute fully L 106.000, and if the rents from tho runs let by educational and other public institutions in that district be added, the total income from the natural pastures of the Crown and public lands of the Colony will be close on L200,00U a year from the Ist March, 1885. Tiiis is a greater pastoral revenue than any of the Australian colonies can show.