The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1652, 22 October 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1872.

The Oiago Waste Lands Act, about which Mr Donald Reid talked so largely when he met his constituents at Outram some months ago, has again- passed through the House of Representatives under that gentleman's fostering care, and is now running the gauntlet of " fche Lords." Thanks to the manner in which the Lower House has spent the time which should have been devoted to legislation, in a prolonged and unseemly quarrel about who was to have the handling of the people's money, the Legislative Council is again in a position to do very much as it thinks proper with this or almost any other measure which may be sent up by the House of Representatives, but which may prove obnoxious to the more conservative Chamber. The session is now too far advanced to permit of any prolonged contest between the two branches of the Legislature, and as the question is one which only affects the Province of Otago, ifc is probable that the Bill will either pass as it has been amended by the Council, or if, as there is some reason to suppose may be the case, the amendments are such as will not be accepted by the supporters ofthe measure in tbe House, it will very likely be allowed to drop altogether for another year. The Bill, as our readers are aware, deals only with the Crown lands of the late Province of Otago, exclusive of those in the Southland district. Apart from some changes in the existing law, of minor importance, on which it is not our purpose at present to enlarge, the grand principle which it embodies is that of alienating land on a system of deferred payments, by license or lease, the Crown Grants being issued at the termination of a certain period, aud oa the fulfilment of certain conditions on the part of the licensee or the lessee, as the case may be. It will be seen at once that the principle thus sought to be introduced in the method of disposing of the public estate is one of the highest importance ; and inasmuch as it has been advocated as a step towards a more liberal land system, and a means of encouraging agricultural set-

tlement, it unquestionably deserves the most careful consideration. It is riot proposed to extend the system in the first instance to the whole of the rural land open for sale within the Province ; but tho Provincial Council is empowered to dcci ire from time to time certain blocks of land to be set apart for this purpose. , Thia power, however, is lodged with the Executive until the nest meeting of the Council, so that if the Bill passes the Assembly, a beginning may be made in trying the new system, at once. "When such blocks are proclaimed open for I selection, any person, not being under eighteen years of age, or a married woman, or tbe owner of a pre-emptive right, may apply for a license to occupy an allotment not exceeding 320 acres. The application must be decided upon by the Board within thirty daya. On the application being granted, the applicant pays a half-year's occupation fee, or fifteen- , pence per acre, and also the expenses j of surveying ; and a license to occupy j for three years, at a yearly fee of balf-a- j crown, and on certain conditions, is then issued. The conditions are somewhat stringent. The applicant must begin to reside on the land within six months, and continue to do so during the three years. He must not sublet any part of the land. By the end of three years he must have fenced the whole of it, and cultivated one-tenth part of it. He must also have made substantial and permanent improvements to the value of one pound per acre. Haying done all this, and paid his three years' fee — amounting at the end of the term, of course, to seven and sixpence per acre — his license terminates, and he is then offered the option of obtaining a Crown G-rant, on a payment of seventeen and sixpence per acre, making twenty-five shillings altogether, or, if he does not like that, he may have a lease for seven years, afc half-a- crown an acre, at the end of which he obtains a grant in fee of the land. He may have the grant at any time (luring the currency of the lease, on . payment of the difference between the amount he has already paid by way of rent or occupation fee, and the" total sum of twenty-five shillings per acre, tbe price fixed for land alienated under these conditions. The above are the main points of the scheme, although there are many other provisions regarding matters of detail with which we need not trouble our readers at present. Any proposal which has for its object the encouragement of agricultural settlement, and which is likely to facilitate the acquisition of freeholds by bona fide working settlers, ought, as we have already said, to have the mosfc careful consideration, and should not be lightly rejected • without a trial, if it seems at all practicable. Ifc may be as well thafc the experiment should be tried ; and it is to be hoped that the Upper House will not, without giving good reasons, reject the Bill. It is understood however that the feeling of many of the members of the Council is decidedly against it ; and thafc ifc will probably be thrown outatogether, or, at the least, deprived of the deferred payment clauses. And indeed the objections to the scheme as it stands are so numerous, and the advantages which ie offers to the intending settler are so doubtful, that there will be no lack of arguments against ifc. Without for the present dwelling upon these, many of which must be obvious bo everj one at first sight, we will only remark that if a real reform in our land system is desired, anrl liberal inducements to settlement are to be provided, it will never be by such a complicated and halfhearted scheme as this. Let it be afc once boldly proposed that a homestead allotment of 160 acres shall be granted at a nominal price of five shillings per acre to even*settler who will be at the trouble to fence the same, and live upon ifc for three years. We shall then have something to offer to immigrants, which, with our superior advantages of climate, soil, and settled government, cannot be surpassed by the inducements to be found in any country in the world. The revenue, we are prepared to maintain, would gain rather than lose by such a scheme, in comparison with that which we have been discussing ; and the prosperity of New Zealand will be established on a solid basis from the time when a provision of this liberal character shall be embodied in every land law in the Colony.