THE PROGRESS OF LAND SETTLEMENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 351, 16 March 1889, Page 4

THE PROGRESS OF LAND SETTLEMENT.

[From the "New Zealand Farmer."] We have more than once called attention to the satisfactory race afc which settlement upon the public lands has progressed during the past year. We have prepared the table printed below to show the large increase in the number of settler© who have taken up land, and in the area ot land settled upon during last year as compared with 1887 in the Auckland district. If the acreage taken up during the quarter ending June 1887 be compared with that for the corresponding quarter in 1888, it will be seen that more than double the area of land was ser-t'ed upon during the latter period, viz., 15,700 acres as against 7,000 acres the previous } ear while the number of settlers was 122 *n 1888 as against 73 for the corresponding period of 1887. A large comparative increase is also shown in the September qnarler, while with respect to thoquarter ending December 1838 tho difleronce is still more extraordinary if the figures are compated with those for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, viz., iy,OUU -icres and 176 settlers for the first named period, as against 2 450 acres and 82 settlers for the same months of 1837. The returns for trie fiist month oi the piesent year show no diminution in the demand for land for settlement purposes, the figures for January being 54 applicants for 6,950 acres, while t e area taken up in the whole of the hrst three monthc ot last year was only 3,0u0 acres by 41 pet sons-, oi considerably le-n than halt the acreage acquired in-one third of tl c time this year. Of the 54 holdings taken up during last January, 26 were purchased for cash, two on defeir^d payment, and 38 are perpetual leaseholds. The«e figures would seem to indicate agrowing preleience for the latter form of tenure, which we consider far the most to be desired from a public point of view. The satisfactory feature about this lapid increase in land settlement is that the whole of this land may b u tegatded as having been acquiied for bonajidz settlement, and not lor specu'ative purpose-. We can'iot doubt, as we ha\e remarked en previous occasions, that this wholesome impulse towards settling upon the land for a living is in a great measme the result of the recent commercial and indu.'tiial depression, which fact naturally calls to mind Shfdt?i care's sentiment that "Sweet ate the uses of adversity." We need scarcely obsei ye that this rapid dispo-al of Crown land^ has caused a considerable increase of work in the Lands Department, and on the whole, from all we can learn, there has been little or no cause for complaint agains-b the officials on account of needless and vexatious delays of late. The extra woik has been energetically grappled with, and matters have been pushed through with all due expedition consistent with proper care. As an evidence of the mass of clerical woi k necessitated by these numerous land transactions, we may mention that upwards ot 8,000 letters have passed through the Crown Lands Office at Auckland during the past twelve months. The following is the tuble :—: —

The French (Jovernmenfc has officially refused to give any support to the Panama Canal.

Quarter j p ■, I Deferred I Perptl. | . ~ Ending. | Cash - I Payment. 1 Lease, j Acreage. VTarch 6 8 9 2,170 Tune 54 9 16 7.C00 ■Sept., 9 8 - 13 2,100 Dec, 72 6 4 2,450 Total I 141 | 31 I '42 I 14,020

1887. | Numbek ok Holdings. I

Quarter I r , I Deferred I Perptl. I . finding. I Oa3h - 1 Payment. | Lease. | A^eage. March Fune sept., Dec, 23 74 24 107 9 18 20 18 9 30 29 51 .5 000 15.700 7,800 19,000 Total I 228 I 65 109 05,500

1888. I Number of Holdings. |