The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1886. CROWN LAND REPORT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2356, 26 July 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1886. CROWN LAND REPORT.

We have to acknowledge th» receipt of the annual report of the Crown Lands Department for tbe past year;and it is satisfactory ■■ to gather from it that a larger area was settled:during the past twelve, months than in the preceding period. Of freehold land some 75,000 ncres were disposed of on deferred pay-

ment and about 65,000 on cash payment. The area disposed of under uonditionu usually includes the picked land and consequently is placed more readily than cash, sections, which, practically represent inferior land. The principal dealings in the land department for tbe year ended March 31 are, us we gather from the, report, as folfollows— . ! Selectors, Acres. Rural lands , .-,... 1-150.. 122,834 Village settlements.., 147 821 Perpetual leases ... 138 28,166 Town sections ... 116 68 Suburban sections... • 85 . 532 Homestead sections 35 5,830 Goldfield leases ... 28 4,491 The disposal of the Crown lands on the

systems of deferred payment, perpetual lease, "special and village settlements, is now developed 'to such an extent as. to have become the principal work of the Land Department. During the year 1,009 selectors took up 115,257 acres, who, with - the selectors' of former year* whose engagements are still current, itakeatotal of about five thousand .settlers ih account with .hedepartment, mid holding an area of over half a million acres on conditions of residence and the improvement of the soil. So many different systems are now in' vogiie for the disposal of Crown lands that the department is a sort of tree which throws out branches in all directions, and the classes we have, tabulated above by no means exhaust, the catalogue dealt with in the report They, however, indicate that the work of settlement is progressing, and that during the past year nearly two thousand adults, representing, no doubt, a population of nearly ten thousand, acquired either freeholds, conditional freeholds, or perpetual leases, which will'no doubt in time be converted into freeholds. Much is said about local ■industry, but this annual return of settlement on land is the best local industry for New Zealand, and is almost the only guarantee that the increasing burdens which are falling upon the colony will be borne, As long as we'can plant two or three ■thousand persons per. year on the soil, the creditors of the colony will be sure to get their mGney.