The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1884. SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1278, 16 December 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1884. SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.

The new regulations for settling people on Crown Lands are just to hand. They of course concern us very little in Canterbury because we have little Crown Lands to settle on, but as a colonial matter they possess sufficient interest to render a review of them not at all inappropriate. The first and third regulations run as follows ;

“ Any association of persons of not less than twenty-five, who may be desirous of settling on Crown lands adjacent to each other, may arrange with the Government for a block of land on the following general conditions :—Any block of land to be selected under these regulations shall contain nor less than 1,000 acres not more than 10,000, and it will be surveyed ihto areas of not more than 100 acres oi thereabouts.”

The meaning of these two clauses, so far as we can see its that if twenty-fire or more persons combine together and form an association the Government will sell to them land in lots not exceeding 100 acres each. Assuming that associations will be formed, which is doubtful, we ask the Government before they go any further, are they sure that a family can be brought up on 100 acres of land ? We entirely approve of disposing of Crown lands in small farms, if they are 10 be alienated at all. In our opinion to sell another inch of lands amounts to a crime of the gravest kind, but that is beside the question at present. What we want to know is this: Is it wise to huddle together in one district any number over twenty-five settlers on blocks of not more than 100 acres ? They may be less but they cannot be more. In our opinion 100 acres is too little. Some men may be able to make a living on 100 acres of good land, but others cannot and it would be wise to allow some of the settlers larger areas of land, so as to enable them to give employment to those seUled on the smaller plots. Perhaps it is contemplated by these regulations to realise the following poetic picture :

“Though poor the peasant's hut, lus feast* though small, He sees his little lot the lot of all 5 Sees no contiguous palace rear its head To shame the meanness of his humble shed ; No costly lord the sumptuous banquet, deals To make him loathe his vegetable meals.”

Poetic dreams are seldom realised, and we doubt whether the Special Settlement contemplated by the Government will at all prove successful. For our own part we should like to see farms of 200, 250 and even 300 acres laid out at regular intervals amongst the smaller ones, and we believe the result would be more satisfactory. Clause 7 is the next worthy of notice. It says : “ The price of the land shall be such as may bo arranged between the Minister and Association, payable as follows; One-tenth of the price of the whole block shall be paid by the Secretary prior to the allotment of the sections. This will be in satisfaction of the two first half-yearly instalments to be reckoned as due from the next first day of January or July following. Thereafter the payments shall bo made by each purchaser every six months in advance, at the rate of onetwentieth of the price of the land, until the whole price has been paid.”

It will thus be seen that the scheme is on'y a cross between the village settlement and the deferred payment systems, the chief difference being that instead of putting the land up by auction it is to be sold by private treaty. This course is rendered necessary by having to deal with an association or company instead of individuals. Other clauses may be briefly summarised : One-third of the purchase money will be returned to make roads ; a Crown Grant will not be given until the purchaser has resided six years on the land, the first two years of which he must bring into cultivation one-tenth of it ; next two years one-fifth, and the last two years put on snbstantif.l improvements to the value of £1 for every acre. One important provision is that any of the settlers can transfer their interest in their land to another, but it must not be to any one who already owns 100 acres. These are the leading features of the regulations. Our land laws will soon be so complicated and so numerous that not even the astutest Philadelphian lawyer will be able to understand them. It is on record that the Agent-General warned the Government that the extraordinary frequency with which we change our land laws was preventing men of capital from coming to this colony, and yet here is another change. Now supposing the perpetual leasing system were adopted in reference to these settlements, would it not be more simple and more effectual in settling men with small capital on the land ? Under the deferred payment system referred to above a man must pay one-tenth of the purchase money before he eaters on the land, and it is useless for him to go unless be has sufficient money to work it besides. Under the perpetual leasing he need not pay only 5 per cent on the purchase, and consequently a poorer man could lake up land under that system than any other. But it is useless to discuss this point any further. Our chief objection is that if any block of 10,000 acres is subdivided into sections of 100 acres, and less and people have to reside jhereop, that district will bo sbopooregt (

in New Zealand, and before long many will clear out cursing the system and the government that instituted it, just as some of them curse the village settlement system at present. But after all we think the regulations will remain a dead letter, because associations of 25 persons and upwards cannot easily be formed. It would hare been better if the land were open to the first to come to take up his 100 acres. In that case the land would probably be disposed of, but we are afraid that if it is reserved for special settlement until companies are formed to take it up it will be some time before the dream of the poet is realised.