The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1662, 15 November 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872.

What shall we do with our waste lands ? | The question is at once important and i suggestive. The mere fact that we have waste lands to dispose of is in itself a legitimate subject for congratulation, an advantage which, as colonists, we possess over the inhabitants of many countries in other respects more highly favored, and in virtue of which we are enabled to compete with them on a superior footing in the race for material prosperity. "We are all 10 familiar with this idea that it can scarcely be expressed in words without presenting the appearance of a truism, for the enunciation of which no one is the wiser, and which, for all the practical good that is likely to arise from its consideration might as well be left unuttered. Everyone knows that the landed estate of the Colony is the foundation on which are built all hopes of its future prosperity, and in which are even now contained all the germs of its future wealth. There is nothing new in this ; we have heard it before, a thousand times. Still it is not amiss occasionally to recur to first principles, which from their very I familiarity, strange to say, are apt to be | lost sight of. No one will think of denying, for instance, that our territorial estate must be the source of all our future wealth as a community, and that without it we should be no better off than those older, aud as we call them, overcrowded countries, from which we are daily seeking to attract population to this more favored land. So far all who speak and write on the subject are in accord, but when we proceed a step beyond this point, and come to consider the manner in which we should deal with this source of undeveloped wealth, we are confronted with differences of the most serious kind. The only thing in which politicians and writers on the subject I Beem to agree is the condemnation of the ' existing system, whatever it may be, of the place in which they live. We have hitherto been accustomed to consider the money realised from the sale of our waste lands as part of the ordinary revenue of the State, and to expend the sums obtained from this source in the accomplishment of whatever object it might seem most desirable for the time being to attain. It cannot be denied that if this view of the question is tiie true one, the policy hitherto pursued in Otago and Southland has been pretty consistent. The land revenue has generally been spent as fast as it came in, and sometimes drawn on in advance. When, in spite of all the aid so afforded to the Provincial Exchequer, it was found that heavy obligations had been incurred which could not otherwise be met, there has been no scruple in cancelling them by enormous sacrifices of the public e«tate. We need hardly refer to the means which were adopted, before reunion, to gefc rid of the public debt of Southland, and since that period, by the Government of the United Province of Otago,to satisfy urgent demands for money by the series of transactions which commenced with the Moa Flat sale, and of which we have not yet seen the end. It must be admitted that the temptation of paying off a, pressing debt by the sale of a few thousand acres of land, while bo i much still remains behind, and it is still possible to make a virtuous resolution to start fair and never do the like again, ia almost too much for ordinary politicians ito resist. The expedient, unfortunately, is so easy and agreeable, that it is almost sure to be repeated, as long as any land remains to sell. Then if the land should not be very saleable at the price fixed by law, there is another way of arriving at nearly the same end, by the alienation of large tracts of country in payment for public works. The prices at which the contracts are tendered for are of course adjusted especially with a view to this mode of payment, and the result is that in many cases the public estate passes into the hands of private owners at little more than half its nominal value. Should even this pJaa prove insufficient to meet tbe craving for immediate expenditure which a popular Government must be prepared to satisfy, there is yet another method, which has been tried in Otago, and was lately proposed for Southland, but fell through, for this year at least, from the leisurely manner in which the Legislative Council are accustomed to consider «uch innovations — a reduction, namely, in the upset price of land which has been exposed for sale for a certain time without attracting a purchaser. There is a certain air of liberality about this idea which is very taking at first sight. Cheap land, every one knews, is an attraction which a new country is glad to present to intending settlers, and land at ten shillings an acre is of course cheaper than land at a pound. But if it were attempted to defend the proposed reduction on • this ground, no one would be for a moment imposed on by the pretext. The real object sought is to gam a revenue for the Provincial exchequer from the proceeds of the sale. Thiß purpoge, while it hag not been openly avowed, has scarcely been eren decently

disguieed. And yet we are accustomed to hear the very men who have been foremost in advocating such methods of dealing with the public estate, ostentatiously declaring that the waste lands are tbe inalienable heritage of the people, and that the settlement of the country is the object dearest to their hearts. Brought fairly to the "point, there are few perhaps wbo would aasert that the unrestricted Bale of land in the Hundreds at ten shillings an acre would do much to encourage settlement. But unfortunately everyone cau see that it will probably for a year or two do a good deal to increase the funds at the disposal of the Provincial Government, and in this result many of those to whom we have confided the management of our affairß are much more ; directly interested than in the settlement of the country. It has even been said, without any appearance of shame, that as tbe land fund must sooner or later, fall under the control of the Colonial Government, it is quite aa well for the Province to take all that can bs got out of it, at whatever sacrifice, while the opportunity lasts. These ideas are of course quite intelligible from a certain standpoint. But it 6eems somewhat absurd to hear them advocated under the name of a liberal land policy. Some, no doubt, are captivated by such phrases, but there is another and more numerous class who understand what they really mean. If the settlement of the country by areally liberal land law is desired, why 6Vo we not hear our Provincial politicians proposing to give & limited freehold to any settler who would undertake to fulfil certain simple conditions as to residence and improvement ? Or if thia j proposal were thought needlessly liberal, ] it is possible that the same object might be attained by the sale of such freeholds at a nominal price of say five shillings an acre, payable on easy terms, and accompanied by the same conditions- — a plan which we ourselves should prefer. But even if the land were given away to bona fide settlers, surely the annual contribution to the revenue of the 'Colony made by a family who might be secured by the gift of a freehold of a hundred acres, would be better tban the fee simple of the Bame at ten shillings an acre. The first, according to our present financial system, would amount to some £10 or £12 a year, and would always be increasing ; while the other would be simply worth the interest on £50 at six per cent., or £3 per annum. But it is clear enough that £50 in hand is much more agreeable to a certain class of politicians than a permanent revenue of even half the amount. We need not wonder therefore that schemes for realising the capital of the Colony, represented by the waste lands, and spending the proceeds by way of iacome, are brought forward year after year ; while the professions of a desire for a liberal land law, and making the Colony an attractive field for settle, ment, are fulfilled by the production of such a cumbrous and useless piece of legislation as the deferred payments clauses in the Otago Waste Lands Act of last session.