PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1176, 15 May 1874, Page 4

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.

[WESTPOKT EVENING STAB.] The terms upon which the more easy accession of landed property is to be secured to present or intending residents in Nelson Province are as yet indefinite, and beyond the setting apart of certain blocks for the location of immigrants, and the obtaining of an advance from the General Government to make such lands accessible, nothing has been made publicly known of the intentions of the Executive in this respect. Possibly any new regulation will be based upon others already in operation in other provinces, and looking thereto for possible information, the official correspondence between the Superintendent of Wellington and the General Government, relating to the setting apart of land in "Wellington Province, and obtaining advance of money thereon, presents, as a parallel case, some points of interest. Tho correspondence has appeared as an appendix to the published address of the Wellington Superintendent at the opening of the Council, and tho gist of the argument, as pointed out by the Minister of Immigration, is that " the plan will in effect enable any one to go into the Land Office, and go out at once a laud owner." The details of the plan, as proposed by the Superintendent of "Wellington, may be thus summarized : Pour blocks, of 20,000 acres, to be set apart for sale, tho price to be not less than twenty shillings per acre. This land is to be divided into sections of from 50 to 500 acres, and alternate sections opened for free selection at an upset price, to be determined between the General and Provincial Governments. The laud to be paid for thus: —20 per cent on selection, 20 per cent at end of second year, and 20 per cent at end of each subsequent year until the fifth. The superintendent suggests that road works to facilitate setllement on the land should ho pushed on, and also asks if the General Government will sanction negociations with Bankers, Loau companies, or capitalists to advance money on mortgage of such blocks for a period not exceeding five years. To this the Hon. Julius Vogcl replies that he is pleased to find the provincial authorities ready to supply land in small quantities to any one wanting it, without resort to auction between rival applicants, and suggests a step further, viz:— •" That when of two applicants for the same piece of land ono has already secured by selection five hundred acres, the preference should be given to the oilier applicant without drawing lots " lie states also that the Government will support in the Assembly a bill enabling the Province to obtain by mortgage, within the Colony, an advance on the security of the lands set apart for settlement. In ono respect Wellington has an advantago which Nelson has not. In the former province there is ample extent of land to pick and choose from. Yet Nelson, needing population, is dependent on such un-

alienated lands as she yet possesses to yield such population support, and it is only by affording facilities to small capitalists to invest in land that the people of Nelson Province will re linquish their present migratory dispositions.