Election Notices.

West Coast Times, Issue 213, 25 May 1866, Page 3

Election Notices.

with Mr Moorhouso, and it was my intention to bavo expressed my opinions on that occasion; but the late hour to which the meeting was prolonged rendered it impossible. There are three principal topics on which I wish to be heard i— 1. The proposed alteration ia the price of the Waste Lands. 2. The financial circumstances of the 1 province, which have been stated to have rendered that alteration necessary. 3. The pre-emptive rights. 1. Disposal of the Waste Lands — I am opposed to any alteration in the price or mode of disposal of the Waste Lands of Canterbury. At the time our regulations were passed into law, every known land system was fully discussed ; the comparaadvantages of a high and low price — the system of cash payments or deferred payments—the question whether a uniform price should be charged, or different prices in different localities— all these were fully considered and debated. Sir George Grey's Land Regulations, which were based on a low price, and a different price for agricultural and pastoral land, had been in force for nearly two years in all parts of the colony outside the Canterbury and Otago blocks. The Provincial Council had therefore an opportunity of considering the probable effect of that plan, not only as a theory, but by the light of actual experience ; and the price of L 2 per acre with immediate cash payment was adopted,almostexclusivelyuponthegroHnd that that was the only mode by which the land could be prevented from passing into the hands of large monopolists and speculative purchasers, to the exclusion of amall farmers. We have had the advantage of seeing the working of that scheme for ten years, and I believe lam right in saying, that in no part of the colony is there a larger proportion of small farms than in Canterbury.

Mr. Travers has proposed that we shall recur to Sir G. Grey's land system, so far as the division of the province into two districts, the agricultural and the pastoral, by a line drawn along the base of the hills, to the eastward of which the present regulations are to be left in force, and to the westward of which as far as tho dividing range, the landis to be sold in large blocks for £1 per acre. I object to this for many reasons. I think any such alteration would materially affect the credit of the province. We are borrowing large sums of money upon the security of an estate which we have told the creditor is worth so much money at £2 per acre. I do not say that if we sold the proposed block for £l per acre the whole OBtate would not far more than realise the debt; but it is obvious that if we announce to the world as the policy of our ' Government, that whenever temporary emergencies occur we will sell large portions of our property for what it will fetch to raise money, we introduce an element of insecurity which is destructive of credit. I believe it to be impossible to draw such a line as that proposed, which shall divide the land fairly. A great part of the land within the proposed district consists of barren mountain ranges, at tho present time not worth L 2, probably not worth 6s per acre ; but it is interspersed with valleys, which will at no distant date sell for L 2 per acre, as freely as the land in thoso parts of tho province which are nearer the centres of population. I can state from my own knowledge that sections have been long since, and aro now being, bought for L 2 por acre, within tho line proposed to be drawn by Mr Travers I am sure that no ono of common sense would purchase the ranges for LI per acre, unless such considerable quantities of the bettor class of land were included in the blocks as to bring tho average value of the purchase up to tho nominal price. As tho population and wealth of the province increases, and the supply of the bettor class of land diminishes, considerable quantities of land which is now deemed worthless will have risen by tho natural operation of the laws of supply and demand, and will come into the market, and be sold at L 2 por acre. This is, in fact, tho mode in which a fixed price operates, and large quantities of land for which no one would havo given L 2 per acre a fow years ago, are now freely disposed of, and are ©venre-sold by tho purchasers at higher prices.

I also object to this scheme because it proposes, by a specifio law, to stimulate the creation of large landed estates. This is opposed to the whole policy of our land scheme. The price was fixed with a view to prevent such monopoly. If capitalists choose 'to buy largo estates, we do not prevent them by any special laws (because such laws have been repeatedly tried, and are always practically evaded), and tho country gets tho advantage of tho revenue received ; but there is no reason why we should stimulate the creation of largo territorial proprietors by a law which at pnc.ee , "gives them, the land at a lowoy