SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, MAY 29, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4430, 29 May 1893, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, MAY 29, 1893.

Last Friday the Minister of Lands delivered an address at Palmerston South, There can be no objection .'to his stumping tbocountry on the eve of a general election, if his proper work, the administration of bis department, has been despatched. _ This, however, is said to be very much in arrears and as ha is paid to doit, we should think more of him if he brought! it up to date before making his wanderings through tho land, In the course of bis Palmerston address, ho said that: "Respecting land administration, he found that 8071 selectors had, during tbo past year, taken up land under various disposal systems, that being an inoreaeo of .552 selectors on the number for the previouß year, a,nd.'of 651 over tho selectors for the year 1890-91. Exoluding town and village lands and othor small ureas and small grazing runs, and pastoral runs, .the actual results showed that 446,800 acres had been disposed of during the past year to 2345 selectors; whereas, in 1890-91, 425,500 acres had been disposed of to 1616 selectors,' and in tho preceding year 860,000 a'ores.to 1350 selectors," The number of selectors is satisfactory, and the acreage disposed of is gratifying; but we want something more"than selectors, we require settlers, and a :■ very large proportion of the 8071 i men are merely land speculators. They [have eeleoted sections without the moat remote intention of oconpying them,'hut on the contrary with the avowed intention of disposing of them at a profit when an opportunity offers. The main business of the Wellington Land Board for seyeral years past hie been to'register transfers from selectors to settlers, and the business of buying and selling Government land has been considered a leading induetry in the bush districts. Members of the.Honse of* Representatives, ;; and at least one Minister, have dabbled in it, Justices of the Peace and;other 'dignitaries have taken a turn at it, and there lr'hardly'a : camp follower of the Ministry in the P&hiatua County who has uot bad a vbotat it. The contrast

between selection'and' settlement, is j very ■marked.;-A Mraister'roay well be proud of/tho selection which has be'en acqiompHslied, but if he came to measure tho real'genaine.settlement which has been effeolod'hn would bays to draw in his horns. Tho major portion of real settlement has taken, placo when tho land, sold by the Government to selectors, has bren resold to.eeitlers.lmi (or such settlement, the Goveniment can olaim no credit, because , they , have delayed and hindiirediit by not.putting the land in the first instance into the hands of the real settler who clears and improvesit. The Minister of Lands has been a splendid Minister for thego-betweenß, for factors, hndjobbers, arid traffickers at the Waste* Lnrida Oftico buta bad one for the honest settler, who, when he enrao on to his landhad to take it saddled with the expenses and profits of the numerous ventures of all these gentry. At lost, of course, the land of the Crown comes into the right hands and is occupied by those who hum the Biennis to clear and stock it, but it comes loaded with heavy and Unnecessary charges which have accumulated in its .passage from the Crown through tho hands of the Ministerial middleman. Theoldplan of selling bush land at ten shilling in acre to the man who wanted to go upon it was ten times bi-tter than the present one which has creitcd a horde of land peddlars in the community, who do little good for themselves and none for tho country.