The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 149, 15 December 1870, Page 5

The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

A petition from the Clutha District was the origin of the Commission to enquire into the waste lands of the Province of Otago. That Commission visited Lawrence last year, and obtained voluminous evidence, the great bulk of which went to prove the absolute necessity for an extensive tract of country being thrown open in the Tuapeka District to meet the increasing demands for agricultural and pastoral land for the benefit of the inhabitants. The Hundreds Regulation Act of 1869 was then brought into existence, by the aid of Mr. Macandrew and his squatter friends. We look in vain through this Act to find one single clause or sentence which offers inducement to the honest and hardworking man to pitch his tent in the country, and become a -permanent colonist. On account of this Hundreds Act being so objectionable, the Council protested against it, which protest originated the amended Act of the present year ; but instead of this being an improvement on the original Act, it made matters ten times worse. However, having passed the General Assembly and received the Governor's assent, it became law, and is now about to be brought into operation. Certain Hundreds on the Goldfields were recommended by the Provincial Council to be thrown open, one of which was that known as the Beaumont Hundred, situated within the Tuapeka boundary. A survey was made, and all preparations arranged. In terms of the Act, a Commission was appointed to enquire into its position, quality of the land, &c, and to report to the Governor as to the necessity or other wife c of having it proclaimed open for sale. One would imagine that with all these preliminaries the Government were extremel} 7 anxious to let the people settle upon the land. Not so ; the Act itself is an abortion, not to speak of the unad visability of having Hundreds on the Goldfields at alt .No public intimation whatever was given of the intended visit of the Commissioners, and it was by the merest accident we heard that such a visit might be expected. The evidence, but for some trifling circumstances which transpired, might have heen entirely one-sided, and it was left to one of our industrious settlers who, we believe, was the last called upon, to disabuse the minds of the Commissioners on some very important points. One of the questions put to this witness was calculated to excite the risible faculty ; it was this : Are the climate and soil of the Tuapeka District suitable for the cultivation of that most wholesome and necessary of all esculent roots, the potato ? Fancy the astonishment on the part of the Commissioners when they were answered in all simplicity by the settler to the effect that he had himself grown fortyTfive tons last season of as fine potatoes as could be desired. The

Commissioners were evidently so surprised at this reply, that they appeared to distrust the voluminous evidence which they had obtained of a different character. The Commissioners did not remain long in our midst, but during their stay we have no doubt they gathered a few grains of truth and a few bushels of falsehood, and we trust they are gentlemen endowed with a full measure of the discriminating power, ' so much required in such work, of selecting the one from the other, and pronouncing upon the relative value of each. Should they think the evidence defective, they will find great assistance by referring to the minutes of evidence taken by the Commissioners on the Administration of the Crown Lands of Otago, as given in the appendix to Journals of the House of Representatives, C. No. I—evidence1 — evidence which, had it been taken advantage of, might have saved the Commissioners the trouble of visiting Lawrence. But passing from the Commissioners to the subject of their commission, we might ask what

position would the district be placed in, supposing the Hundred as surveyed were proclaimed? What benefits would be derived from it? The question is one for which an answer is easily found. In the first place, we may state, without fear of contradiction, that since the runholder obtained a lease of 640 acres of the Hundred, the portion of agricultural land remaining is very limited indeed. At the most, 600 or 700 acres of flat land is all that is left, and if that were thrown open for sale, it would pay the squatter well to run it up to a price which would make it altogether unprofitable for settlement. Fortunately the district has green in its memory the egi'egious blunder of Macandrew in selling the Island Block — a blunder which will remain a standing reproach to him as long as he lives — and is not likely to allow a repetition of it. Far better for us to get the covenant block of 5000 acres than to have a Hundred which would, without doubt, be monopolised by one individual — we say better have the covenant block; not that we believe in the block system, for we daily see the evils attending it in the impounding of cattle for trespassing over the boundary ; but better have that than see the only available agricultural and pastoral land in the district pass beyond the control of the people. Nothing will satisfy the wants of Tuapeka short of the two runs held by Mr. Smith and Mr. M'Lean, and while these runs remain locked up, the land agitation will not cease. A few thousand acres here, and a few thousand acres there, will do no more than quieten the tumult for a time. We do not know of any more profitable source of revenue for the Government than that of throwing open a large tract of land adjacent to every centre of population. Tuapeka, some years since, had a fair share in the form of commonage, but nearly the whole of the agricultural land within it is under occupation, and the remaining portion, suited only for pasturage, is, and has been for the last two years, considerably overstocked. The annual revenue at present contributed by the pastoral tenants of the two runs we have referred to amounts to the insignificant sum of £450, which, in comparison with the amount that would be derived from agricultural leases and depasturing licenses derived from the same country if thrown open, is a mere" drop in the bucket. There is " one thing evident, that if the Beaumont Hundred is proclaimed, the runholder will be obliged either to purchase all the available agricultural land upon it, and thus secure the sole right to depasture stock within its boundaries, or his run will be split in two and rendered almost unworkable. He would then have the option of surrendering his lease at a compensation of Is. 6d. an acre, or retaining it at great inconvenience and probably considerable loss to himself. For the 10,000 acres of a Hundred, at 2s. 6d. an acre, he would be paid compensation to the amount of £1250, and with that sum he might purchase every acre of arable land that could be found in it. If we have read the Act correctly, the surrender value of Mr. M 'Lean's run would be about £1500, which, with the compensation for* the Hundred, viz., £1250, would make a total of £2750 for the entire run. This, then, being the case, we would remark that if the Government entertain any real desire to make the country go ahead, there is one course open for them to adopt, a^d that is to borrow money to compensate the squatter for the land required for settlement, and thus nullify the suicidal policy initiated by Yogel, who has been

Otago's curse, and consummated by Macandrew, his satellite, of granting extended leases to the runholders, by which they possess a claim upon the waste lands of the Province, under the baneful effects of which the Province is now labouring. This course seems to us the only present solution of the land question, and we shall be glad to see legislation directed towards that solution.

"Turn again Macandrew, thrice Super, of Otago!!" The echo of these words from some secret voice must be stealing into the ears of his Honour the Superintendent, for again we find him turning with the popular tide. This political chameleon has again declared himself the people's friend. Within the last few days he sees things in quite a new light, and believes that after all it will be better for the province to carry out its own public works. Those declamatory messages which he sent down to the Council, and in which he expended all the wrath his misguided judgment had sanctioned, must now be considered as worthless scraps of paper only fit for pipe-lights. His Honour, at the eleventh houT, finds that public works in Otago, under the entire control of the General Government, is a bad election cry. He finds that provincialismn cialism will not " perish "without a desperate struggle, and rather than retire to his cabbage garden in Macandrew Bay, he prefers to try the attraction of a turned coat. We fear the apparently new rig out will not stand the heat of this summer's political sun, and will too soon show signs of " shoddy." Before his election, we looked upon Macandrew as another Arfcevelde forced into public life bj 7 " the loud call of the people as the saviour of the country ; but how wofully he has belied his friends and his creed are too well known to our readers to require any comment from us.