THE CROWN LANDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 19 July 1884, Page 2

THE CROWN LANDS.

Some. interesting and Instructive information is contained in the report ju&t printed of the Crown Lands Department for the year ended March 31 last. Dnrng that period an area of 306,414 acres oi Crown lands has been disposed of on sale and 'settlement conditions;■ bat althougli that area is 50,634 acres more than was disposed, of in the previous twelve months, yet the revenue is considerably less for thp t period. This is due to a much greator proportion of the land being taken up on thosyntem of deferred payments than in any. former year, and also to the introduction of the perpetual lease system. The total receipts amounted to £384,925, lands sold on immediate payments realised £66,192; lands sold on deferred' payments,' £85,305 j and the pastoral rents amounted to £125,604. In regard to the deferred payment Byslem, the report dwells on its success as a means of settling the land. The greatest trouble in its administration is to obtain the prompt payment of instalments' at. the appointed times. On the 31st March last, of the 3,961) selectors then holding land on deferred payments, 991 were in arrears in the total sum of £23,898, being' an average of £24 each, or about nine months behind in time of du| payments Thjs, hoiyevga, is not regarded as very serious, • 'Wit}} reference to the perpetual leasing system; which, bus Ijeon on its trial in the two land diatrlots of Utago and West Coast, North Island, the report remarks that its success in attracting the attention of settlers in both has been conspicuous. Up to June 16 last a total number oj[ 159 selections, covering 35,039 acres, had been made, As all these except seventeen on the West Ooast'of'the North Island, have been taken up in the proolaimed goldfield of Otago, where there'is no right of purchase, j it would appear (says the report) as though the permanency and security of the leasehold tenure and valuation for improvements is a sufficient inducemnt for settlers to come under the system, without the option of purchase, Reference is made fo the work of Mr Federli in connection with the Establishment of sub-tropical industries, concerning which tt|e report remarks': - " It is on}y a question of time, and that not yery long, until Bilk, olive oil, wine, and suoh like products will be established and extensively used in the colony, for the country and climate are suitable, and there

is; a teeming population coming forward .many o whom will have a 'drifting aimlosss life unless there is a' greater variety of industries'whioh they oan folllow than at present,"