The Southland Times. TUESDAY, .JUNE 11, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1590, 11 June 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, .JUNE 11, 1872.

The powers of the Provincial Council, curtailed in many directions of late years, remain as extensile as ever with regard to the administration of the -waste lands No longer permitted to borrow in the money market, or even to draw largely on the future through the complaisance of the banks, the three-fiftha of the Customs' duties which they used to receive reduced to a pitiful 15s per head of population, not enough to pay the annual interest account, the Provincial Government look to the land reveirae a.s their mainstay. Mr Donald Beid distinctly stated, at the beginning of the late session, "that the amount available for public works would depend entirely on the amount realised from the sale of the wa.«te lands. It is not surprising then, at the close of the session, to find th.tt expedients should be proposed and sanctioned for raising money from this source which are alike at variance with the principles which have ostensibly furnished Mr Donald Keid and his associates for years with political capital, and, with some of the fundamental rufes which ought to govern the. disposal of waste land in a new country. The .\ Executive; in their original proposals for next year's expenditure, calculated on- a revenue fF6mthe~~sale~6fCrowQ lands of £70,000, to be obtained fro f ni land sales arising in the ordinary course aud ,j under the ordinary provisions of the' existing law, supplemented by what maybe described as forced sales, at a reduced j price, of land that had been exposed for ' sale in the confines of Hundreds f or more ', than seven years. Such land was to, be sold by auction, at an upset price of 10a.. This system, authorised by the Otago Waste Lands Act, 18G6, was originally entered upon for the sake of meeting urgent demands on the .. Provincial Treasury of the day, and was never defended on any other, ground than as a mere means of tiding over a temporary difficulty. It is well known that when such an expedient has once been tried, it is sure to be recurred to again, and the resolutions passed last session are an instance in point. The effect of the sales already made under this arrangement has been to transfer large tracts of country, previously used as commonage by the settlers, to the hands of speculative buyers, at a low price. The grand object of settling the country by the operation of a liberal laud law was entirely lost sight of, and-a course admittedly opposed to the ultimate interests of the community was sanctioned, on the plea o£ urgent present necessities which must be" met~~ and the assurance that it.wouLJ'be " only for this once," as the children say. But this expedient did not prove sufficient, J and another provision of the lajad laws j was discovered, which admits of the aliei3ation_qf laud held under squatting tenure, with the consent of the lessee. So powor was obtained -from the Council to sell 50,000 acres of land in this way. Il is to be understood that the law gives the power, but no Executive would dare ,td avail themselves oF.it unless previously authorised by a resolution of ; the , Council. That authority was obtained, and, heuce .the celebrated. -,Moa Flut sile^ in which over 40,000 acres of land were sold, by the runholder'e i consent, to the ruuholder himself, iv a

Mock. Now the legal jirico of 1,-uiJ in Ohvwo is 20a per acre, and the ?;\Io ha-1 I<> be made nominally at this figure, tbo Land A.t/t not admitting the acoeptan<-o of a lower price. But tho consent of the .occupier lk'inqjv/tequired to'the sale, this could only be f;obtaiued hv a'ati'sfymo; his demands for colnpensnliojvfor dist % arbancb. of ])i? Ica-^e, volue^of improreni^nt's^'niade <n\ tlie ground, refund of assessments paid for the current year, and so on. In the case of tlie Moa Flat sate, ifc .. ic< estimated that the amount received by the Q-overnment for the land, after i.hese deductions had be -n made, "was only 14---7^-d per acre. Now if the, policy of selling land by public competition at an upset price of 10s per acre be open to e;rave objection, what are we to say of this systeri. by which the whole transaction from beginniaix- to end is carried on by private negotiation between tho • Gfovernment and the would-be pur- , I chaser ? The committee of Council j : appointed to report on the IMoa Flat sale expressed their opinion that the interests of the public had been injured thereby. I Tet we find the Council passing over this I report in sileucp, and conferring the same powers on the Government again. The Treasurer's sanguine estimate of revenue was never questioned, and. bis- proposals for expenditure, greater, by his own showing, than even these sanguine estimates, were not only assented to. without., opposition, but largely increased, in- spite of the continued remonstrances of the Executive, who honestly" "declared that there would .not probably be/money far the expenditure proposed by themselves. This senseless procedure on' the part of members who wished to stand" well with their constituents, by pointing to votes in the Appropriation Ordinance for this or .that, pet local scheme, was regarded by some as comparatively harmless.' And -so : it •' mi^ht have been, but .for the astuteness of the head of tlie Executive, who s.iw in it a good ground for requesting" additional powers of dealing with the land. And so, under cover of providing for these Supplementary Estimates, which after all are only abdut £15,-000, the' 'F/xecutiv'e' 'request permission to sell another 50,000 acres of land, in blncks of-not—less—than--10,000 acres each. The request is r no. sooner made than granted, .more than one prominent member of Council stating in effect that it did not much matter what., we did with our waste lands now ; the sooner they were got rid of the better, for the General Government were sure to take them over for colonial purposes before long! So Mr Donald l^Ero — the .friend of the small settle?, and the uncompromising foe of those bloated speculators and capitalists whose lives- are' spent in scheming how they can rob the poor man of his heritage in the public estate, aud appropriate huge tracts of territory to their, own private, use— ris once more authorised to negotiate a sale of 50,000 acres in 10,000 acre, blocks, with one or more of these very miscreants who may possess the needful c:i«h, and show a disposition to enter into, the tJrain3aciioh, "on, terms to be privately arranged." This transaction shows pretty clearly what we are to think pf the po-' litical sincerity of, the "Exec'utiVtf, or the importance they attach in reality to the principles they s->-lotHJ4y -profess in-w-or-<l^-. But no one;, • unfortunately, c-'vres much about that, or perhaps expects much' sineerily from. them. What j 3 of more im portance for the public to understand is the convincing demonstration ■ tbQ Provincial Council has at last afforded of its utter incapacity to control the .-administration of the -public; estate. It is true that nothing -better could be expected from a body , so. constituted, but it. is, not less true that.it should be deprived of the power which it fhus abuses,, and .that without delay. • *