THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY FEBRUARY 5, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2522, 5 February 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY FEBRUARY 5, 1877.

The- question of opening up lands for settlement in the Thames district, or rather the action of the Waste Lands Board in reference thereto, was discussed at some length in ,lhe Theatre Eoyal on Saturday evening last. The conclusion

the meeting came to, with hardly a single dissentient voice, was certainly not the one which the convenors of the meeting had anticipated. At the same time we think they came to a wise and just one. Bnt il is not of that we would now write, but rather notice certain points which cropped up during the discussion. The first and most important point was that raised concerning the manner in which the people should be allowed to acquire land. That those who wished to settle ought to have every opportunity of doing so, and instead of being shut in and confined to a very small area of land, have lands open to them for selection in the immediate neighborhood, was agreed on by all as being a necessary provision. The question, as we have said, was on; what terms they should be allowed so to settle. One speaker considered that the lands, when thrown open, should be offored to public competition; and that he who had the longest purse should get most land, no matter whether he got; more than he required, if he could pay. for it he was to have it, and keep his poorer brother out in the cold. Another speaker deprecated this method of acquiring land, and spake strongly and well in favor of having the land thrown open to intending settlers- on the system of deferred payments, extending over a period of ten years. Regarding the first of these; plans—that of paying cash on the fall of the hammer—there is this to be said, that where possible, that is,; where the intending settler or purchaser; is a man of means, and can afford to lay down his £500, or what sum is required,; at once, and yet jleave himself sufficient' to stock the land and work it until such lime as he may reasonably expect to ' derive profit.from it, the plan of paying; the whole sum down at once is the best one; it saves interest, and leaves the owner unfettered by having to make annual or quarterly payments. ;Oh the other hand this must be considered : that taken as a class the people who desire to settle on; the land will not be capitalists, or at any fate not large capitalists, and for them to expend the whole of their capital, or even the greater part of it, in the purchase of land outright; leaving themselves but a small or insufficient sum to stock it and improve it, would be .simply giving them no' chance at all of making a fair living by their own; exertions and the return of their capital. The deferred payment system seems to us to be in all, save a few exceptional cases, the one to be adopted, as being both best for the land and best for those who occupy it. Take for instance a man with a small capital, say of £300 or thereabouts. He is desirous to settle, and having selected a piece of land attends the auction and bids for it. There are others there bidding too, perhaps some who do not want the land themselves, but, being capitalists, are glad to buy ifc in the hope of letting it to others and getting a good return for - their investment. By their bids the land is run up to, perhaps, more than its fair value, and the would-be bona fide settler either does not get the land at all, or if he gets it, gets it at such a price as absorbs the greater part of his £300, and by the time he has made provisions for his family, if he has one, and settled all the small contingent expenses suc,h as moving, &c, he finds < that he has almost nothing to stock the land or make improvements absolutely necessary if >' the :iahd is to be^ of any .value at all. On the other hand, if he were allowed to , have it; on the deferred payment system, he would have j to pay say: about £30 a year for interest, and debt, and after providing for the first year's rent and sundry expenses he would have, considerably over £200 to lay out in the necessary stock and implements, and at the end of one or two years the land would be reproductive, and would year after year become more and more so. The fact is that farming, more than any other business, necessitates some ready money. If this be not forthcoming the settler is frequently compelled to sell at a loss so as to meet his engagements, whereas, could he hold out for a short time, the same sales might be made with profit to himself. This is one point, viz., the very great advantage the deferred payment system has over the cstsh-on-the-fall-bf-the-hammer plan. If there were nothing else to be said in its favor, there would still be this, that the deferred payment system is calculated to foster a race of men whose interests are bound up in the land they occupy, the improvement of which means their own improvement financially, and who it may be reasonably supposed, will. do all in their power to render the land as fertile as possible, with a view not only of benefiting themselves, but their children also, knowing that every pound judiciously laid out will bear fruit,' if not in their own time at any rate in the time of those who may come after. Whereas the ready money system tends to further increase that race of capitalists who sub-let land, making, of course, a by so doing, and thus cutting down the profits of the real cultivator of the soil until he is at the best, little better, in some cases not so well off, |as a laborer on wages. The landlord does | not care to invest more capital provided he gets his rent regularly ; the occupier cannot spend money on improvements because he either has none to spend, or if he spends it he is but spending it to improve land not his own, and which he may at any moment be called upon to give up, and so the land is neglected, and by . consequence the industry, resources, .and therefore the prosperity of the country suffer. Yet another point did the debate of Saturday night bring prominently before us. That is the objection there seems to be in some quarters to what are called specie! settle-

merits. Now we can well understand that if any preference be shown to any one individuaLthere is ground for complaint. If one person resident in or near a piece of land applies for'that land, and is willing to do all that is by the Government required of him, pay a fair price, and cpmply:with all the conditions attached, and his application is overlooked, and the land given to another at an equal, or perhaps a less price, then we conceive there is just cause for complaint. But in our case this does not appear to be so. We are told on apparently good authority, that by the time Mr Broomhall can occupy the land with his special settlers • there will be enough, and more than enough to satisfy the wants of the Thames people. Surely this ought to satisfy the most carping critics. If there is enough for them without touching that block, which, it is proposed to sell to Mr Broom-' hall, surely it is to.. the advantage of the whole of this district, that Mr Broomhall and his coadjutors should, have the: opportunity given them of introducing a class of settlers many of them possessed of some capital who will by their industry and means tend to develop! the sources of the country and render New Zealand more able to supply her own wants without having recourse to imports' as is now so largely the case.