THE PEOPLES HERITAGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 452, 8 March 1890, Page 4

THE PEOPLES HERITAGE.

We learn by cable that there is every possibility of Western Australia having a constitution given her and taking her place among the other self-governing offshoots of the British Empire. We are told in addition, however, th • t there is still much dissatisfaction felt and expressed at such a small number of people (the population of Western Australia is at present only 45,000) being entrusted with such a large area of land. It will be highly interesiing and instructive to watch what use the W’est Australians will make of their vast territory when they have uncontrolled management of it, and whether they will look upon it as the people’s heritage, to be held by those in power in trust for the coming population of that colony for all time, or whether they will set to work and carve it out in convenient blocks tor the benefit of the present handful of settlers and their descendants alter them also for all time. In the meantime, whilst waiting for the denouement in Western Australia, we shall not be doing amiss if we glance for a moment at what has been done and what isstill being done with the people’s heritage, the land, in this country. The time is very apropos, as the Government has just published a new edition of our “ Crown Lands Guide.”

We need hardly point out that of all the volumes, and Blue Books, and statistics published in the course of the year by this or any Government, that particular one which is supposed to treat of the way in which the people s heritage has been and is to be dealt with —that heritage secured to them through the wisdom and bounty of a beneficent Creator, without which their existence on this planet eouhl not be sustained—E far and away the most important one. and were matters wisely ordered with us in this particular, there would be no volume more anxiously looked forward to by the public than this one, and none th <t would be more eagerly read and studied by the people at large. At present, however, no one, except journalists and members of land boards, take the smallest interest in it—the former bt.cause it is necessary to take note of these matters in their papers ; the latter, because in the exercise of their duty they are compelled to have some knowledge of Ihe tricks being played with the people’s heritage. The figures and fac’s given in the new edition of the Crown Lands Guide are, to those who read them rightly and intelligently, fraught with the gravest interest to our population. Jt must be remembered that, it is dealing with our inalienable heritage, the land, that element from which all wealth is produced, and that e'ement without free access to which, we must either die, or pay tribute and serve another. It must, be remembered also that this edition is published in the vear of the colony’s jubilee, when, if the people’s heritage had been held in sacred trust for the whole people, and only parted with to the bona fide occupier, our population would be numbering in all probability millions instead of thousands, and immigrants would be flocking to our shores instead of leaving us.

Let us glance at this new edition and learn how much o? the people’s heritage is now at tho present moment available for settlement. Auckland heads the list with 201.000 acres ; Hawke’s Bay next with 17.00 C ; Taranaki, 48,000 ; Wellington, 173,000 : Marlborough, 2,000 ; Canterbury, 112.0C0 ; Otago, 89,000; Southland, 25,000 ; Westland, 86,000. The latter is described as heavy forest. However, in the whole colony it appears that there is only 753,000 acres of the people’s heritage immediately available for settlement. This on the face of it seems cunou -, seeing the colony comprises about 77 million acres, and the population all told is only a little over half a million. If after fifty years’ colonisation with such a small handful of population we can only offer 753 000 acres for sebtl merit, what is the reason of it, and how can we possibly cxt'ect. to make any progress, if this is the true position of the country ? The reason is this, that nearly eighteen million acres of the best agricultural and most accessible land in the colony is monopolised in large blocks by sixteen hundred people. Supposing the c e sixteen hundred people had, instead of greedily grabbing the people’s heritage, been contented with SCO acres each, an area quite large enough if profitably worked to keep a family in comfort, what would now be the position ? Instead of a paltry 753,000 acre 3 situated outside the bounds of civilisation I eing all the land available for settlement, outside the 500 acres given to each of the 1,600, winch would reach a total of 800,000 acres, there would be at the present moment seventeen million two hundred thousand acres of the richest and most accessible land in the colony open for settlement, and with such an inducement we should only have to open our arms, and thousands would rush to take advantage of and embrace tho opportunity.