The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1873.

Southland Times, Issue 1690, 17 January 1873, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1873.

The consolidation of the land laws of th« Colony haß frequently been pointed out by candidates for senatorial . honors, and even at times by full-fledged legislators addressing their constituents in the recess, as a reform of pressing importance. The evils of the existing system, which comprises a different set of regulations for each of the eight Provinces, the County of Westland, and the District of Southland — in all ten different sets of land regulations — are so obvious as to require but little skill to denounce. One is inclined to take then* for granted. It is remarkable, however, that although a good deal has been said on the subject outside of the Assembly, no serious attempt has been made for years to bring about the consolidation which is affirmed to be so desirable. There are reasons, no doubt, for this. It is easier to criticise than to reconstruct, and private members are doubtless aware of the fact. Provincial jealousies, of course, play their inevitable part in retarding this as well as every other reform based on considerations of the welfare of the Colony aa a whole ; so it is certain that no Government will voluntarily attempt the thankless task. It appears probable, accordingly, that until the entire political system of the Colony has been remodelled, as sooner or later it must be, the tendency of legislation will be to increase rather than to diminish the number and variety of our local land regulations, and that our emigration agents will year by year be able to offer the intending colonist a more extensive choice from which to select. Even if there were no other obstacle in the way, the actual difficulty of the task itself, arising from the varied circumstances and conditions of the different Provinces, would probably prevent its completion for many a year, even after a beginning had been made. So leng then as w« have practically the making of our own regulations, it ia incumbent upon us to obtain the greatest possible amount <>f advantage from the natural resources we are permitted to administer fur our own benefit. Of the differences we have mentioned perhaps no better illustration can be given than a reference to the amounts realised from land sales in different Provinces during a given period. Take, for instance, the two largest Provinces in the Colony for the year 1871. Auckland, in the North Island, and Otago (incl«d>ng Southland) iv the South Island, each contain, roughly, 16 millions of aews. During 1871 the land sales for cash in Auckland amounted to £353 ;in Otago to £51,823. Wellington, containing over 7 millions of acres, sold during the same period waste land to the cash value of £13,448 ; and Canterbury, with over 8 inilJious of acres, sold to the extent of £38,693. The difference in the case of A ackland and Otago is too great to be expressed fairly by the arithmetical ratio which shows that the South Island Province obtained from the same extent of territory 147 times as much as the Frovince in the North Island. The average price of country land in Auckland in 1871 was 10s per acre, while in Otago it exceeded 20s. In the case of Wellington and Canterbury, we find that Canterbury sold land to the value of nearly three times as much as Wellington, the average price of country land in Wellington being a little over 17s per acre, and in Canterbury slightly over 40s per acre. During tbe first six months of 1872, the latest period for which returns hare been published, the discrepancy is even greater, Auckland realizing £47,

and Otago £83,064, the price being the same as the previous year for Auckland, and for Otago a little lower. Wellington, during the same six months, effected sales to the amount of £13 V 483, and Canterbury to the amount of £58,314, the prices being nearly the game as before, while the proportionate amount realised was in favor of Canterbury as 4£ to 1. These figure* are sufficiently suggestive of the varied conditions under which waste lands may be sold in various parts of the Colony, to show that the task of framing a uniform land law, which should be Applicable to the whole, is one not likely to be soon undertaken. They also throw some light on the views which have lately found favor in the North Island as to the propriety of the Land Fund being , treated as Colonial and not as Provincial revenue. The origin of this idea is eyen more strikingly illustrated by a comparison of the total amounts received in cash for land sales in each Island, duringthe 18 months ending 30th June, 1872, being for the North Island £33 583, and for the South Island £241,661. Taking the comparison in another way, and setting the total amount received fof land sales in both islands in 1871, against the total received for the first half of 1872, we find the amount realised in 187 i. had been tar exceeded in .1J872 before more than half the year had gone by, leaving us fairly to infer a very greatly increased condition of national prosperity in the second and shorter period as compared with the first. The figures are, for 1871, £110,973, for the first six months of 1872, £164,272. Many other interesting facts might be elicited from the returns which haye furnished material for the . above remarks, but to state them here might only serve to bewilder the general reader with a multiplicity of details. Two or three things however appear to be pretty clearly shown by the figures we have quoted. One is that a merely low price will not of itself ensure a good sale for land. The converse is also true, that a bigh price will not always prevent it, witness the Canterbury foriy-shilling land, apparently selling freely, though not on the arerage any better $han much of what we are now offering at twenty shillings in Southland. Another, and perhaps the most impertant practical deduction of all, is that we- iv the South, and particularly in Otago, are so incomparably better off than the rest of New Zealand, in respect of waste lands, that it must be the fault of our own manage* ment if "we do not attain a proportionately superior condition of prosperity, by means of the advantages they confer, so long as we are permitted to continue to use tbem for our own benefit. To do s.> to the fullest extent it will be necessary that in future our politicians should learn to regard the waste lands less as affording the means of raising a revenue from their sale, which, once spent, is gone for ever, than as enabling us to increase >our settled and reproductive population, whose contribution to the public income will always be in an increasing ratio year by year. Fortunately for the prospects of a practical solution of the question, Otago has a landed estate large enough [ to admit of both methods being adopted at the same time.