REPORT BY THE COMMISSIONER OF CROWN LANDS.

Southland Times, Issue 1783, 22 August 1873, Page 4

REPORT BY THE COMMISSIONER OF CROWN LANDS.

Crown Lands Office, Invercargill, 4th July, 1873. The Provincial Secreary, Dunedin. ' Sir, — Referring to my report of date Ist May last, on the transactions of the Land Department under rav control, for the year ending 31st . March, 1873 ; and in connection with that^ part | of it touching on the necessity of amending the j present Southland Land Act, with the view of introducing the principle of the alienation of public lands by 6ale on deferred payments, I beg to sugeest a few amendments on the clauses effecting this in the " Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872," which, as altered, I propose to insert in the Southland Act. AREA. I think the size of the sections — viz., 200 acres — as determined by clause 53 of the Otago Act is too small, and will ultimately lead to the f-ustration of the desired effect — viz., the division of the Waste Lands amoDgst the many instead of the few. Unless the land is very superior in quality, after years of struggle, the farmer has to succumb and sell his holding for what he can get. Even where the soil is good, a few years cultivation suffice to prove the energies and requirements of the cultivator are cramped, more particularly if he has a family to succeed him. In either caße the result is, the properties fall into the hands of the capitalist ; and thus a district, peopled for a time, becomes once more depopulated. I would recommend that a licensee be allowed to select any number of acres, under the system of deferred payments, up to 800 or 1000. With such an area at command, the settler has scope, for he can combine sheep with agricultural fanning, and find room for his family to settle around him. Thus instead of being driven to re-emigrate in the autumn of life with his children after years of fighting, he can afford to stay where he had first planted himself. The only sound basis of colonisation is the means afforded the immigrant, not merely to settle himself on the Waste Lands, but also to find room ior his children when they are old enough to strike out for themselves. Unless, then, the original settler can obtain a sufficient quantity at starting on liberal terms, the time comes when his children are forced to seek homes in other countries where a wiser policy obtains ; and tbe father sells a holding which is too small to enable even himself to live on, and reI emigrates to join them.

Experience has proved that neither public works, nor even the richest goldfields, will secure a permanent population. Adelaide by its liberal land law obtained the real benefit of the Victorian goldfields in their earliest development.

If the Legislature really desires to encourage settlement, it cannot possibly offer objection to placing it on a substantial footing, instead of starving it out by a pretended liberality. It is difficult to imagine that an Assembly of intelligent men, desirous of exorcising honestly the most important legislative functions in a new country — that of ordering its permanent settlement — would prefer to see ten thousand acres in the hands of a land shark, or grazier, instead of being settled on by teu thriving families.

[ NATURE OT I-IPIIOYJMENTS. I Under section 3, clause 54, of tho Ota^o Act, j a licensee is compelled to fence in the whole of his land within three years, whioh is simply dictating to the settler how he is to exj-end his money. As a rule a man is better able to determine tliis th«n a Legislative body, moro , particularly as difference of loc dity, views, and means, alter ca«es ; and make an arbitrary stipulation as to the channel of his expenditure, a serious impediment to succesa. This condition, moreover, insists on a wasteful expenditure, ina-mueh as (lie (once will be rotten b'-fore the settler c-p.n bo in a position to benefit j by its erection. No man of .moderate means can j afford to build a house, fence in, plough up, and j cultivate two hundred acres in three years ; and if his land is not under cultivation, it does not J require to be fenced ; the money and time can be better utilised in other improvements. I think it would b 1 far be'ter to fix a ce-tuin sum to bo expended in improvements witiiin a certain time ; leaving the direction of the expenditure to the intelligence o the occupier. TOTAL AREA TO BE DECLARED UNDEE DEFERRED PAYMENTS. I do not see any reason for limiting the total area to be declared open for license or lease on deferred payments to 30,090 acre, a-yeat*. As regards the Southland District proper, I think tbe beßt policy to be pursued would be to proclaim — as soon as the Act admits of it — all the available agricultural land in it set apart for this purpose and special settlement, as I have mentioned in my former report I In view of the Southland Waste Lands Act being amended, I think it would be advisable to I embody in the amended Act th; following clauses of the Otago Act of 1872, viz. : — Clauses 65 to 72, having referenoe to water races ; clauses 73 to 77, goldfields ; clauses 78 to 80, issue of Crown grants ; clause 85, le-ise or sa.e of land, ot special value ; chimes 91 to i 95, occupation licenses for cutting flax, timb.-r, aud other purposes, RESERVING AND WITHDRAWING FROM SALE. In my report of Ist May last, I pointed out the necessity of importing into the Southland Waste ! Lands Act powers of reserving for public policy. The powers of withdrawing from sale Waste Land9, or refusing to grant applications for such, conferred on the Waste Lands Board under section 29 of the Southland Amended Act of 1867, are, as recently determined by Mr Justice Chapman in a case of appeal against the decision of the Waste Lands Board, confined to where the sale of such land would, in the opinion of the Board, render other land less available for sale, or would injuriously affect the value of other portions of the Waste Lands of the Crown ; a point, the difficulty of determining which, can only be rightly estimated by those who, hearing all the arguments for and against pleaded, are called on to decide. If it was simply a question of selling timbered land, or valuable water frontage, the matter would be clear enough ; pr if the clause had been worded to the effect that the Board might, with the consent of the Super* intendent, withdraw from sale, or reserve any lands, the sale of which would in their opinion pn judice the public interests, as provided for in the superseded Otago Land Act of 1866, and under clause 35 of the present Act of 1872, the Board could not have any hesitation in doing what it so earnestly desires — stop the wholesale alienation of the public estate to large purchasers. But when as a rule the sale of one piece enhances the value of the adjoining lands, the wholesale reservation of Crown lands, under such a pretext as that afforded by clause 29 of the Southland Amended Act of 1867, places the Board in a very difficult position, one which it ought not to bo required to fill. The body in which I consider the power of making reserves should be vested, has been explained in my report of May last, already referred to ; although, in addition, I do not think it would be unadvisable to meet a sudden emergency were the Board authorised to make reserves of lands, the sde of which would appear to them to be prejudicial to the public interests, as expressed in the latter part of clause 35 of the Otago Land Act of 1872. LAND REVENUE. The necessity for some such power of refusal to grant applications will be estimated by a perusal of the appended Return A, from which the Government will gather that from the first of April to the 30th June, 1873, there were about ninety-four thousand acres of land applied for, which with the run rents paid on the first of May gives a revenue from this source alone of one hundred and one thousand two hundred and thirty-nine pounds (£101,239) for Southland proper for the first three months of the current financial year. A revenue so largely in excess of a legitimate demand for land for agricultural settlement augurs unfavorably for the future prosperity of the district aud consequently Colony. Nor does there seem to be any falling off in these sales, but rather an increase, as during the month of June there wero over forty eight thousand acres applied for, being more than was sold during the two previous months. The sooner this wasteful dissipation of the public estate is stopped tho better. Return B shows the land sales in the Extended District along the east bank of the Mataura River for the three months, April, May, and June, to have reached twenty-two thousand six hundred odd acres, which proves more conclusively than even the sales effected during the financial year ending 31at March, 1873, as detailed in my report of Ist May last, the folly of reducing the price of land to ten shillings an acre in the Tuturau, Wyndham, and Toi Tois Hundreds — the sales for the three months having more than doubled those for the preceding twelve. Twelve hundred acres have been applied for to lease under the deferred payments clauses in the five thousand acre block proclaimed in the Toi Tois Hundred, although the lan 1 has only heen proclaimed uuder these clauses for about five months ; and I think the demand will steadily increase, notwithstanding the fact that a large part of the block is not very fit for settlement. Were the whole Hundred proclaimed under the deferred payment clauses, as I recommended, I have little doubt but that a large part would be speedily Bettled on. I have the honor, &c, Walter H. Pearsok, Commissioner Crown Lands. —^—— I P.S. — In altering the Southland Land Acts, I forgot to mention that it would be advisable to alter clause 30 of the " Southland Waste Land Act, 1865," having reference to the shape of rural sections, as follows : — After the words "of a depth of," delete " half a mile (or 40 chains) from such frontage line," and insert instead the words " not less than twice the length of the frontage." W. H. Pearson, Commissioner Crown Lands. Returns of land sold and applied for, also Bun Rents received at the Land Office, Invercargill, from Ist April to 30th June, 1873. RETURN A. — LATE PROVINCE OF SOUTHLAND. April 25,366 May 20,255 June 48,358 ■ 93,979 Run Rents paid Ist May 7,260 £101,239 Waiter H. Pearson, Commissioner ot Crown Lands. RETURN B.—INVEECAROHLI. lAND DISTRIOr. April 7891 May 7985 June 6767 22,643 22 643 Walter H. Pearson, Commissioner of Crown Lands.