The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1185, 31 January 1880, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and'exact justice to all men, Or whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

SATURDAY JANUARY 31, 1880.

As we have said on a former occasion the Te Pake block could nob have been disposed of to better purpose .than in being granted to Mr. Vesey Stewart, for special settlement purposes. Mr. Stewart met with the most determined opposition from the Auckland Waste Laads Board in his application for the block — why we cannot say, but the fact was so. Nevertheless the present Government-, and we cannot see that it could have done otherwise, carried out the implied promise made to Mr. Stewart by its predecessors at the lime that the latter wUhdrew these lands from the administration cf tbe Waste Lands Board. Nor can we see that blamo should be impnted to them for so doing, or that the action shonld be denounced, as it is in our Auckland contemporary, the Herald, as developing a vicious system. " Ore of the great advantages derived fiom the Waste Lands Boards," saya the Herald, "is the suppresion of influence and the creation of perfect confidence that all is fair and above board." Such audoubt- | edly should be the advantage of such institutions, but unfortunately it is noc so. A very growing feeling of discontent prevails throughout the Colony against the present system \ under whioh the Waste Lands Boards are created. Their members are wot the representatives of the people but the nominees of tbe Crown, and, as constituted just, about as much represent popular feeling in the matter of Waste Lands i administration, as the Legislative" ! Council does the political and social go a - head progressivenes9 of the colonists. It the principle of government interference be a vicious one, ifc is at least a consistent integer of bhe system itself. The Boards we presume are not infallible. To whom then are they answerable bub to bhe power which creates them ? When the system has been altered, aud the members of the Waste Lands Boards are elected by the people— and this reform is close at hand — then we conld uaderstend the virtuous indignation which, now without cause inflames tho pure breast of our contempary. Yet but a little while ago, and that journal was the ardent supporter of the Brownhale special settlement scheme Nor, abandoning the general argument and adopting the specific, can we allow that the system of granting lands for special settlement is a vicious one. We are quite willing that the system should be judged by the results. There are not many cases in this provincial district, to judge [ from, but the balance ot fevideooe is strongly in favour of the system. The first special settlement we can call to mind was that of Waipu in the north, settled some twenty years ago. The land was fairly good and the immigrants, Nova Scotians, of the righ*- ckss. The settlement was an unqualified success from the very first. Then came the great Albertland settlement, the members of of which were for the most part men of neither means nor experience and they were located back in the bu9h with the most imperfesfc means cf communication to their sections of land or to a market. It would have been a miracle indeed if the Albert-land settlement had been less a failuro than it was. The only other two special settlements we can call to mind in this provincial district, and we believe they are the only ones are the No. 1 and No. 2 | settlements of Mr. Vesey Stewart, at Katikati, and we need not say again how satisfactory the result of these settlements has been to all concerned. If we compare these ef. forts of individuals with those of the Government in the same direction, we shall have reason to be thankful that popular opinion is setting I

steadily in against the direct administration of the land by Government. The forty-acre system affogd^ to this day a striking exampje/of the mis-management of the Gayerntnent in such matters Thousands of persona utterly unfit for a bash 'lift?; were introduced into this province, and a large amount of land grunted to them, which they never utilised, locked up from bona-fide occupation to this very day. Then again, we have the military settlements, suqh> as those fn Waikato an/3 on the east' coast, and who will say but that they have prospered not as the result of Government administration, but in spite of it. The truth is, wherever the Government interferes directly with the special settlement of the land everything becomes muddle and confusion, or worse, and failnre is the inevitable result. Where can we have a more glaring instance of this than in the Jackson's Bay settlement? Where a dealer result of the success of working-, not directly from the Government but indirectly through individuals, than in. the Fielding special settlement 1, And this will naturally be the case. Men liko Mr. Stewart and others who are the promoters of these special settlements are men who at home were possessed of social influence and standing, and who are known to and who know the people from whom they seek to enlist volunteers for their scheme. The agent whom the Government may employ goes as a stranger amongst strangeis He carries no weight with him ; the contrary, indeed, for as the paid servant o£ the Colonial Government he represents, his utterances are looked upon with a certain amount of suspicion and distrust. So long, they think, as he performs his misbion to the satisfaction ot the Government that employs him he need care little for the after opinion of those whom he may have misl ed. And this is no doubt often the case. The Gcnm Eidgeway is not yet extinct amongst paid Government immigration agents. The Jess tne Siate interferes in these matters the better. Its doing so opens the door to abuse in every variety of form, while the result, whether as concerns the colony or the unfortunate immigrants themselves, is more or less a failure.