THE AMERICAN LAND POLICY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1353, 14 April 1883, Page 4

THE AMERICAN LAND POLICY.

An article on the evils of, the,,public. land policy of the United v, States; appi-ars in the Century-nVa'Aiiaiite-; and we make the folkving extract; The whole article U well worthy -pf perusal:— >■■ •■' ■■■' ' The policy actually pursued has for its worst effect the concentration of . the richest lauds' and mines, the l>est ? town sites, and the most valuable: water privileges in the hands of a comparatively small number of the occn-. parts ofthecountry,leaving these todrive as hard a bargain as they pleas? with those who may arrive on theground somewhat later. A; (region, comprising hundreds of millions of acres, still belonging to the Government; has been brought largely into .use, for pasturago purposes, in which no com-: munities can be said •to have beort formed, the population— such as there' is—consisting almost exclusively of. raon without, families employed in herding. In the great wheat country-of Eskota there is a somewhat similar State of things, , the larcje farms, ihousands or even tens of thousands of acres in extent, being worked by hired men, varying in numbers according to -the season, and' haying no-permanent footing upon the land. The more extensively the Western country is converted into such farms, the .moro seriously will its settlement interfere with the interests of Eastern agriculture, • In this connection it is worthy of note that while the number of farms of more than 1000 acres fell between 1860 and 1870 from 5364 to 3720, it rose between-1870 antl 1880 from 3720 to 28,578. -During that decade the total number of farms in the country increased by 51 per cent,, while the number of farms comprising more than 1000 acres increased in the tame period by 668 per cent. A portion of the increase in the number of these large farms was probably due to the division of farms' of several thousand

acres each',' but in tho. main it un- IJ doiibtedly represents a tendency to a," 5- • rapid growth of., thesystem of large ' • '.farming In the Yr'ust, I think, this p. s especially the case, and it is in;-tfw# - gection that thepereentage in the.ntttftbier oflarge farms haisiieen grtatesfc'_y'While_ it; seems to jifftke 1 fact tha't-'th'e system of large -farming is attended by important; and desirable. . economies in the process of agriculture,, theinodicum ofadvantage'dMve jfioni these'economiesiby ? the ;pAiblic ;\vill .i(e. •". purchased far too dearly, if it-is-pnly to: "■ Tbo- had ■" by permitting <"gig|iitic^ ■' monopolies of the soil,under "which the lira's sharp of all:.'the;-..benefits . derivable frbm-the system'.' in; question must fall •.•into-the hands of a few. persons. Another' consideration' which has' favored large acquisitions of land is the commutation feature of the homestead law, This allows a money payment o|> 200dol to be.substituted for/four' arid; one-half years qf the five 1 years' residence, and renders"it .easy for a capitalist to acquire numerous homestead tracts of the nominal price of Idol 25c an acre, by hiring men to make a pretence of settling on them, who, at the end of six months, can take out ■ patents and transfer the titles to their employer. The pre-emption,- timberculture, and other settlement laws are successfully abused for a like- purpose', and there is, in faot, a general laxity—partly in the laws themselves and partly in their administration—which makes our public land the easy prey of the monopolist, In large proportions of the pasturage region the jaws appear to be openly defied, many ; of; "cattle kings" proceeding in the most high handed, manner to fence in vast tracts of Government land, barring up public roads which tun across their illegally appropriated ranches, and, at the point of the rifle and revolver, forbidding, intending Bettlers.to exercise their rights under the laws of the country. But apart from abuses and violations of low, our public land laws are themBolves far too liberal to the settler; that is, they are liberal to the settler of the present, at the expense of the settler of the future. In an official document submitted to Congress in February, 1880, it was pointed out that, under existing laws, 1120 acres of public land may be taken by one person; and although this may not often be-prac-ticable, it .is practicable in many cases to take up 480 acres—l6o as a homestead, 160 under the pre-emption law, at Idol 25c an-acre, and 160 under the Timber Culture Act, for the trifling labor of planting and caring for 10 acres of timber—a labor which might well le exacted from every homestead settler in the regions wherein timber culture is desirable, and one which the settler might profitably perform on his own account, even though it were not required,

Some men like a spice of danger in their iport, The other day a friend nf mine (says " Ulysseß" in the Leeds Meroury) who was shooting small game tin a German estate mentions this view to that class of Englishmen who seek tho dangers of sport on tho American prairies. " Ahl' 1 responded one of the company, " you likt danger mid your spot 1 1 Den you go out shooting mit me. Ze last Mme;l*shoot mine brother in-law in ze stomach" The Civil and Military Gazette (Libore) of January 13th gives a brief aocount of the robbery of 11200 worth :of ; money and valuables from the room of Mr Thomas Hudson, the well-known theatrical caterer. It says :-Mr Hudson, entrepreneur of the Surprise Party, sustained a serious loss on Thursday evening It appears that during the performance £342 in gold, 6220rs in currenoy notes, »b well as ; a 'quantity of jewellay' valued at 1200r«, were stolen from Mr Hudson's room at the Avenue Hotel, Lahore. Some of the hotel servants are now in custody on suspicion, Among the jewellery is a sapphire and a diamond solitaire broach. According to the Bairmdak Adverliw, there was'an unpleasant tetfminj ation to a tea meeting at< Meerlienj Victoria; somV 30 persons having been poisoned, including the.Mßishop of Melbourne, who was seized with a violent tit of vomiting as he was driving .from-the gathering. .It was at first thought that.the 1 tea was.poisned, but but it is stated, by some that arsenic have been used in some of the cakes instead of baking-powder. Several of.the. Dereonßattaoted were seriously ill for feiim9.: ":'.'.■..:::':' : :,', ...';, : ' i,

TEE CASTOR- 1 OIL PLANT -INi i~ NEW-ZEALAND." , .. ! ou v. ;• i . . i \ ' A London journal 1 earnest; ;adviws, New Zealand •Ool6mste to cadior-oil plant.-.,' 1 At ; {lte prtsfint* time' this: the'' valufe" -of' no, -less tKaii v i£?5,()00 is annually imported into Great Britain a10ne..,. France and Germany also utilise lirtgt)^quantities.