The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1886. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1504, 26 October 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1886. LAND SETTLEMENT.

It was our custom to say three years ago that no two men in New Zealand could fill the positions of Minister of Lands and Native Minister so well as Messrs Rolleston and Bryce, but we find now that the Hon. John Salience is doing the work of the two ten times better, and more satisfactorily to both Natives and Europeans, than ever they did it. Where Mr Bryce kept a standing army to suppress a non-existent rebellion Mr Ballance’s “ one policemau policy ” has aecured for him not only the confidence but the affection of the Native race, and to the one person Mr Rolleston settled on the land Mr Balance has settled 100 persona. Thus Mr Ballance has reduced the cost of the armed constabulary and increased the number of persons settled on the land enormously. The Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times of the 18th instant says that ho has been on a lour through the Forty-Mile Bush with Mr Ballance, and in terms of astonishment at the progress made he describes what he saw as follows :■ — “ Pahratua, a settlement in the bush, which twelve months ago only contained six houses, has now 75 stores and dwellings, aorae of them of a very substantial character. Twelve months ago only 25 children were going to school there, now the attendance is 103 children. All this is attributed by the settlers to Mr Ballance’s land laws. Mr Ballance was received everywhere with acclamation, and the whole settlement turned out to give him three

cheers. The number of persons settled on Crown lands during the ..six months ended Sept. 30th, 1886, was 1148,” Mr Rolleston made a tremendous amount ot noise about wbat he bad done in the *way of land battlement, but when he was asked at a meeting in Terauka bow many he had settled under the perpetual leasing system he said about 125 persons. Thus in six months Mr Ballance has settled more On the land than Mr Rolleston did in all the years he had been, in office. In one week in Auckland Mr Ballance settled 170 persons on ■ land, And the superior capacity, the practical intelligence, the sound common sense, the honesty of purpose,' and the indomitable energy with which Mr Ballance has been carrying out his work is not being passed orer without recognition. The settlers in the Mungo Park Village Settlement, near Masterton, Wairarapa, testified their gratitude to him by. -giving , him a banquet, at which 50 persons, wereUpresent. The Chairman—Mr McCardle—in proposing his health said—“ Of all leading, men in the colony there was none he admired so much as Mr Ballance, and in saying this be believed he was expressing the sentiments of friends and foes of the Government,': A few years ago it was impossible for this part of the country to get justice in regard to laud settlement, but 1 Mr. Ballance’s administration bad altered that state of things, and the country had advanced for the last (wo years more than it had done in the previous 20 years. Any one who would visit the Forty-Mile Bush would join him in saying there was a practical man at,the. helm. The salvation of the country depended on a liberal syitOß of land laws, and that the Minister of Lands was endeavoring to bring about, Whether supporters of the Government or not they were hearty supporters of Mr Ballance in his noble efforts to settle the people on the land.” One of the Wellington papers referring to this banquet says:—“ The , kindly feeling which has everywhere. been shown to our popular Minister of Lands clearly proves that by bis practical aid and ready grasp of the requirements of his official position he has enshrined himself in the hearts of the people, With a few more honest men like John Ballance this growing colony would jsopn shuffle off; the mortal coil of un- , employed which, like a grasping octo-r pus, is slowly isapping. pur vitality.” The Woodvilis Examiner' ,bf October ;15ih' says The Hon the Minister of Lands has succeeded in. acquiring a further portion of ten thousand acres of the Mangatainoko Block. This leaves only some tep or fflteeh thousand acres remaining of the original block of seventy-five , thousand acres.! That Mr Ballance should have acquired and opened for settlement such a large and important block in the short time he has been in office speaks more than we can toll for the success of his administration, especially as it is remembered that previous Ministers bad been ten years in trying to acquire this block and had failed;” We could fill the paper with similar extracts, jail of which bear testimony to the excellent work Mr Ballance is doing in The way of land settlement, and also in the management of .Native pffairs, but we think this will suffice to give a good idea of what is going (om It was a favorite argument with the Atkinson 1 party that men would not go on the land if they got it for nothing ; in fact, in the great speech which Major’Atkinson delivered in Auckland just before the last session, this was one of his strong points. Mr Ballance’s practical work gives the lie direct to these magligners of the working men. There is nothing working men desire so much as to settle on the land under favorable terms, and the splendid results produced by Mr Ballance proved this. It is therefore useless for the Atkinsonians to throw dust in the, eyes of the people any longer; llieir calculations have beep upset; they have been found out. Thp people would not settle on the land for them because they 1 did ! nbt want the land to be settled. They were too mupb mixed up with the monopolists to do any good, and all the ; pretentious noise they made was only sham —makebelieve. They deceived many, but they can do it no longer, os their-work contrasted with what’Mr Ballance has been doing has their condemnation stamped indelibly o^p’its face.