The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 680, 24 October 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to nil men, Ol \*!iate\ri state oipeisuasiun, reiigiou* or 1.1111t1L.1l # # • # # Here shall the Tiesi the Prori-E's right in.imt.uu. Unawcil In influence and unbribed by gain.

TVES')AY OCTOBER 24, 1876.

The House is forging ahead steadily with the estimates, and thanks to the energy of our local members, has voted Hl>er<iUy towards the construction of the Waikato fi.iilway. In the lute Treasurer's Financial Statement, a sum of £163,0f0& was set down for the Kaipara and Punin Rnilwayjnow £190,000 has been asked for and voted by the Assembly. As the outside cost of bringing the Kaipara line into Auckland will be £80,000, thw ernntmust be intended to enable the Public Works Department to at once proceed with the construction of the Waikato line southwards to the frontier. We have, too ofteu advocated this undertaking, and pointed out the advantages to be derived both by the Government and by that portion of the public moie directly interested, from so doin#, that we have no need to allude again to the matter. Referring generally to votes passed, we find that a sum of £205,000 has been granted for immigration pur. poses — £52,000 for roads, of which £29,000 will be spent m che North Island, including £10,000 for roads North of Auckland— and£l,3oo,ooo for railways. A sum of £125,000 is voted for land purchases, £72,000 of which is to be expended in this Province, while under the goldfields expenditure, the Thames will get £6,000 for watersupply and£lo,ooo in aid of works generally. A very necessary work will be provided for. A sum of £1,000 has been voted for the construction of a telegraph line from Auckland to Mercer along the line, connecting each of the several stations with Auckland and the other stations. There is a disposition, it is said, among Southern members to get the work done by Thursday next, and prorogue parliament, so as to get away by the "Wakatipu" which leaves that day for the south, but even though the slaughter of the innocents be commenced never so early, and carried on with more than ordinary ruthlessness, so happy ii consummation is scarcely to be hoped for. A great deal depends, of course, upon the talking temper of the Opposition, and it remains to be seen whether the Provincial pavty will quietly take the" coup de grace" from the Lands of Earl Carnarvon, or prefer the more sensational u denouemeut" of ringing down tlie curtain to tl>e music of Mr Keea's bin ill falsetto, and amid the blue fire and nmokeofadiviaiononageneraldebate. SirGeorgoGroy has, wosee, postponed the second reading ot'his Provincial Abolition Permissive Bdl for another week, that is, till Thursday next Will Thursday biing, as it in hoped, the niorogation of the Assembly or the opening of the big gunß of the O, position, upon the Government and Abolition, from the masked b.ittery of the Permissive Bill I We shall see.

As we hud expected, theiv is aeon- , suleifiblo amount ol digs itisfaction ' felt liy the Nufaiuawalna settlers at the manuer in which the suburban lands about Newcastle, advertised for sale by the Government, aio about to be disposed of. These landi itre what originally were known as the Horotm Township, on the north si-le of the Waikato, between that liver and the railway, and i>ot the lands on the Wuipa, also suburban, about which so much controversy has of late taken place. Indeed it is earnestly loefieved by many that the Government has no wish to sell them at alt. They argue from the lestrictive price put upon them, £5 to £15 per acre; from the want of definite information, the pegs are not even numbered ; and from the shofct date, the bare month required lay law between the notification and the sale, that the Gov«rumentare really not anxious to sell, but on the con* trary would like to have the land thrown back into their hands that they might then say, "the Europeans do not want it, why then should they begrudge our restoring it to the natives." Now, without going so far as to endorse this opinion which, we regret to say, is very generally entertained by the settlers mostinterested, we are bound to admit that the action of the authorities in the matter goes far to encourage such a notion. The upset price is no doubt restrictive. Two pounds, to perhaps ten pounds per acre for the very choicest lots, would have been a fanoutside value ; aud if a few had only been offered at a time, or, as applications were made, competition would have arisen from thediawing together of buyers by the attraction of a reasonable upset price. Then, too, the sale should ha\ c been held in the district. No man of small means, the man of all others who buys a suburban lotas a homestead, can afford to go to Auckland to bid for the lot he may want and which even then he may not secure. Doing so would in many cases almost double the price of the land. The Government, too, has encouraged the idea to which we have alluded by mystifying the whole concern. Not a peg upon the ground is nutnle.ed, and [those who purchase must run considerable risk whether they bid for the actual lot they desire or some other, for they will have nothing but the position on the office plans and the shape ot the lots to guide them. Ko v these allotments, some 220 acres ul together, if offered for sale at reasonable prices, would be taken up and brought into cultivation by the settlers of the township. There are many small contractors and others who have saved money upon the Government works at Ngaraawahia and the vicinity, who would gladly, if they could, purchase a few acres of suburban land, settle down, and cast in their lot amongst us ; there are many again of the old identities in Ngaruawabia itself who bought their small town sections at high rates from the Government — at prices ranging from J-500 to ,£l,OOO per acre, who would now be glad of securing the luxury of a garden or a small paddock in the immediate locality if a fair chance were afforded them. The upset price, however, fixed by the Government is prohibitive in either case. In the first of these two cases, en pi tal in money and in labour is driven out of the district to seek a more favourable field for investment, and in the latfer the settler is contend with his first loss in purchasing dear land, and either will not or cannot afford to give a fancy price to add to his already extravagantly purchased homestead. And "why the Government should set so high an upset price uprJn the land we are at a loss to understand. Why ask the European a price that he cannot and will not pay, and have the lands offered passed at auction, aud yet at the same time be ready to give away these or equally valuable lauds in even larger quantity to natives who have forfeited all right to it, and who cannot show a shadow of a claim to any such consideration. It is not that the Government de&ireor expect to realise auy considerable sum by such sale, for probably the land sold will little more than defray the cost of survey and other incidental expenses. It is not that they set any real value upon it, for they would give it away to-morrow under certain circumstances. What then is the object and intention of the authorities ?