Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 351, 29 April 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1874. " MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Nothing haa given rise to greater controversy, awakened more bitter class and party contests, and nothing can be more important to the general future welfare. of the Colony, than the Land Laws ; and yet ib is not saying too much that no part of our Statute Law is in a niore^ disgraceful . condition: '■• Every- candidate for Parliaineiifcary honors refers"to if; ; eyWy" visitor " to - "buy ' Province, ( including Anthony, Trollope and Mr. Hollo way, speaks or writes on the subject ; and yet, out of all, these, results' nothing but: chaos. Again and again it has -been, pointed out that the success of the scheme of public works, that the future prospects of the Colony depend upon whether or not our Land Laws favor settlement; j and yet the very last land" sale proclaims the alienation of another valuable part of the small, remainder of our arable land, simply to meet the exigencies of the Provincial Treasury, and add to the wealth of speculators. A few sessions ago, a large blue book — a monstrously large book — was printed by tho Government at the instance of Mr. Travers, shewing in parallel columns the various enactments in force in the different divisions of New Zealand on this subject. Since that time, there have been additions made to the bulky ' mass — conspicuously the Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872, the worst digested, the most capable of maladministration, and the most unintelligible that ever was or' ever can be. enacted on this subject. , As regards Ol ago, this extraordinary condition of the law is owing to our old identities, who, finding that a particular system answered well in former times; when there was no speculative demand for land, or greedy squatters to monopolise it, and could not bo made to see or provide for an altered condition of things when the system became inapplicable, and failed for all but evil purposes ;, but chiefly to Sir Francis Dillon Bell, the present Speaker of the House .of Representatives, ay able and plausible man, who always affected liberal principles most strongly when he was assiduously or insidiously working in the interests of a certain class. To him we owe the unholy compact which resulted in the Otago Waste Land Act, 1886, and

the sacrifice of the future settlement of the Province to secure security for the pastoral tenants, and an income of £60,000 a-year to the Provincial Govern : ment." At tha time, the bait was a tempting ,on^. Provincial credit was at the, lowest ebb ; public works and immigration -were at % a standstill,; and it men of "clearer sight and firmer principTe than the Taieri'and Tajkomairiro cockatoos, who then liad an overwhelming preponderence in the Council, to withstand it; but now it is easy to see that the birthright of the people has been sold I for aineßS.of pottage.. Again, it- was to Sir Francis Dillon Bell that we owo the Hundreds Regulation Act, which effectually and completely shut up the only door left open for obtaining land for settlement, and remitted the virtual power of doing so to three irresponsible Commissioners appointed by the General Government. That Sir Francis ia still laboring in the same cause can easily be inferred from his recent address to his constituents, and his proposal to sell the roughest part of the country at ten shillings an ac^e ; and it is far from improbable that, as the time approaches when the terms created in favor oi the pastoral tenants by the Act of 1866 draw near a close, that a strong effort will be made to carry out this or some similar device to enable the lessees to obtain their runs in perpetuity ; and, if the representatives of the people are not on the alert to prevent it, they will again find themselves outwitted, and the interests of settlement, and the interests of the Colony, sacrificed without their being able to perceive what is about to be done. And, in fact, it is to the want of capacity and public spirit on the part of many of our representatives heretofore that the present calamitous state of the Land Law is chiefly owing. It is said the character of the laws themselves is unimportant in comparison with the way in which they are administered ; and if the Land Laws of Otago are, and have been, bad, they have in addition been administered in a way that can ouly be characterised as infamous.