Correspondence. OUR LAND LAWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 338, 14 March 1874, Page 3

Correspondence. OUR LAND LAWS.

(To Oie Editor.)

Sib, — Referring to the report of the sale of land in G-lenkenich district, jt is mortifying to every well-wisher of New Zealand,' as a field for immigration, ' to observe the manner in which the patrimony of the people is passing from their hands into those of speculators and capitalists. " Land for the people, and people for land," was the catching cry of his Honor the Superintendent and some of our Provincial Councillors ; but as soon as they got into office their tactics were completely reversed, and their actions showed that their belief was in "Sheep for the country, and country for the sheep." An observer cannot help noticing that whenever a squatter wants a few thousand acres of land, the ways and means of riding a coach-and-four through every land law are very soon discovered to enable him to gain his object ; but when a poor but pushing settler wants a few acres, every imaginable difficulty is raised up, every impediment conceivable stands in the way, and all the circumlocution of the land or survey office has to be gone through, and after all to no purpose. As^ias been wisely remarked, it is not so much the fault of our land laws as the bad administration of them that is to be complained of. The sales by auction of Crown lands, during the past few years, should be sufficient so call for united action on the part of the people- of Otago. Nothing will be properly carried out unless there is more unity of action— unless something in the form of a land league is organised, and the country properly agitated and ai'oused to cope with the squatting monoply. If the whole of the Crown lands are to be disposed of at £1 an acre, sutely they are worth as much to the people as they are to the squatters. • The plan adopted by this colony of selling the land in large blocks, and sending to the old country flaring accounts of New Zealand w a grand field for immigration, where comfortable homes can be secured, and where a man may become settled on his own comfortable freehold in a few years, is as complete a delusion as was ever perpetrated upon human beings. The system is rotten, and tlie poor deluded creatures, who are nbw ushered into the country,, will find it to their cost before they remain bere many years, unless a thorough change comes over $.c Government in- tieir

manner of disposing of the 'waste lands. If the Government would ttse their best endeavors to induce small farmers to come to this country and give the kind to them free in sufficient quantities, on condition that a certain proportion of it is fenced and cultivated in a given time, they would do a wise thing ; but as it is, they are simply introducing men to make serfs of them, as will he proved when the public works are completed,, and the labor market is glutted, and thousands of men unemployed are found in the country, cursing the day they left their native land. I sincerely hope with all my heart that the Government will pause before they attempt to sollthe blocks of land on Bellamy and Smith's runs, for if they do I am as confident as I am of my existence that they will pass into the hands of Mr. Smith or some other squatter, who knows too well the value of the land to allow such a splendid opportunity of adding to his broad acres to pass by without taking advantage of it. We have sufficient land in the district — indifferent though that land may be — upon which to settle hundreds of industrious families, and its disposal by auction in the manner of those lands recently sold in Lawrence, would be the greatest calamity which could befall Tuapeka. — I am, &.c. ' Limited L

iIABILITY.