The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1903. HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLV, Issue 251, 15 December 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1903. HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENT.

Mr Setddon is evidently keenly alivo to' the 'difficulties of administering the present land policy of the Government in districts where the land i« of but poor quality. That he in prepared to do all in his power to sweep away any doubt as to the sinceie determimation of the Government to throw the Crown lands open to all is evident from the important declaration made in his speech on Friday at the social tendered him by the Auckland branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation. The portion we refer to is that dealing with the mtro'duction of the homestead setotenient system in the lands north oi Auckland. The Premier is reported to have said that last year there were. (562 selectors in the Auckland district, the total number for the colony being 2247. H e had conn to tile conclusion that if the lands of the fsortih of Auckland were to be scuttled the existing legislation must be amended They must give terms not provided for in existing legislation ; t'hey must reduce the price of a na y. was prepared to auplv to certain parts of the North of Auckland the homestead system namely, to allow setttlers to take up poor tared, and on their maki'mr a certa,n amount of improvements they would be entitle to occupy the and. I hat wast the next step the Government would take in respect to la'nld settlement in the Auckland ptovinrral district. This heme- * system 'wis a great deal to lecommund it, and not the least potent argument in its favour is tho feet that it is carried out without the insane gamble so noticeable now wliefli Crown sections are thrown open for selection by ballot. It has been ti led amid proved in several countries but perhaps the best example is to be louwd in Queensland. There the country was cut up into small holdings of approximately 16,0. acres of pastoral or eighty acros of first-class •agncultural land. Very easv conditions were lmposod, and thus it wa/i possible for a nwn to get his holding into working order without very serious* directing, his duties ws

a wage-earner. Thus, it was only imperative that a lessee under this system s'liould reside for six months on the land, and 'he was not asked , to do amy vast improvement, though', of course, a certain amount had to be exacted. A peppercorn rent was payable for ten years, and at the end of that poriad the selector was entitled to assume the freehold. There wwo leased in Queensland in 1882 Crown lands to the extent of 27-1,000,000 acres, out. of a total area of 427,663,370. The result has been that roadmen and others who have taken up their sections on such •easy terms lmve birch enabled to make homes for 'themselves in proximity Co thoir work, and this could hardly have teen managed under any otiher system. There are lamds in this colony which are not rich enough to pay a small holder were his conditions of l«as& too strin'gv-wt, but where there are Government works Such as the construction of railways it seems to us

a wise decision to introduce the scheme now flavoured by the Premier. One thing we know that this matter must have been seriously thought out, and that it will meet the wishes of many hurelrohs of people who will thus# be emaiilcd to 1 take up Crown lands in fh« "trackless north." ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Borough Council. A Sensibly Minister. Condensed Oalbles. American Politics. The Abattoirs. War Risks. Vagaries of Words, Municipal Baths.