AUCKLAND TAKES THE LEAD.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 438, 18 January 1890, Page 5

AUCKLAND TAKES THE LEAD.

It was announced the other day from Wellington that in the matter of bona Jide agricultural settlement, nearly twice as many settlers have taken up land in the Auckland Provincial District in the past six months as in all the rest of the colony put together. To those in imately acquainted with the position of the land question in this colony, this will not be a matter of surpiise. Auckland always has taken the lead in the matter oi small settlements for severable notable tea?uns. In tiie first piace most of the Auckland district was ill adapted for large sheep grazing (arms, and sec mdly this Northern district has always been noted in the old provincial days tor being ruled by men holding advanced Liberal views. Those unaware ot the cause which makes settlement pro« eed with us at a pace much faster than with our Southern neighbours, may imagine perhaps that the inducements offered by the North are superior to those of the South, with respect to the nature of the soil, accessibility to markets, etc., etc. This, howevt-r, is by no means the ca.-e. The natural advantages of the South in the matter of land for raising agricultural produce are far superior to anything that wo can show of the same character. The Northern settler, if he takes up waste land, is heavily handicapped as against the man who takes up—or, to be more correct, who would take up if he could—wa.-te land in the fciouiheni districts. With us, if the land i-i good, it either is or lias been heavi'y timbered, and farming under such conditions is a work of time, and much patience has to be exercised. If the laud is open, the chances are that it is of a mote or less interior quality, and tor many years the occupier of such land has a hard and bitter time of it>, even if he does in the long run master his difficulties and lick the land into shane.

In the South, however, there are none of these difficulties to contend with. It is safe to say there arc at the present time mil.ions of unused acres (except for the running of sheep), of the very best agricultural laud that cou.d be desired, perfectly open, very rich soil, an t only waiting to be tickled with the plough to laugh with a bounteous harvest; and if it were only possible to open these lands lor settlement there w'ould bean immediate rush for them, and a boom, a proper sort of boom, for this country—an agricultural boom would set in that would for ever settle the question j of industrial depression. It is very many years ago since the Surveyor-General teported to the Government that there was no more good land available for settlement in Canterbury. Ot course he reterred to Crown land, and in reporting thus he did not by any means wish to infer that the district was fully populated. if we turn to tho land and agricultural statistics of the colony we note some very curious facts, but which, at the same time, fully account for settlement increasing faster in Auckland than elsewhere, notwiihstanding that, we in Auckland have actually parted with a far larger area of lan 1 than any of the other provincial districts. We have parted with four and a-quarter million acres, and received for it a little over half a million pounds sterling. Canterbury has parted with a million acres less than we have, butrealised for the lesser quantity over six mi lon pounds sterling. We have parted with a million and a quarter acres more land h m Otago, but she recei ed three m Lion pounds to our half million. Where we have the advantage of tho South is. however, in the fact that our lands are not locked up m l*rge leaseholds. Auckland has only 119 000 acres taken up in this way in blocks ot o'er 5.000 acres each, held by 23 peop e. Bub Canterbury has no lees than 2,869,000 acres thus monopolised by 423 people, and O ago 5,180,000 acres monopolised in tr.o same way by 475 people. As a matter of fact the aggregate of the big estates freeho d and leasehold, of over 5,000 acres in the Auckland district is 1,784,0 Oacres. In Canterbury it is over live million acies, and in Otago it is over six millions.

The intermediate districts between Auckland and the two southernmost piovincial districts are all monopolised in the same tashiun. It, therefore, cieaily stands to reason that practical settlement in those districts is an impossibility umil some great alteration is made in our land laws and p isolation allowed to replace sheepand rabbits. Practical settlement is sb-11, fortunately for the oouivry practicable with us, and it is a matter for congratulation that it is being taken ad\antage of.