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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2484, 12 June 1888, Page 2

Thk question which has for some time back occupied first place in local polities in the borough of Hamilton has been the erection of public buildings for municipal and general Government purposes. When the burgessea decidedby a targe majority to raise a loan of £0000 for local expenditure, £4000 of that sum was set aside for the proposed pile of buildings. Accordingto the plans of the original scheme, the estimated cost of the structure, which was to be in brick or concrete, was £6000, and • advantage was taken of the presence in the Waikato of the Hon. J. Ballance, late Native Minister, to obtain from him the promise of a grant of two thousand pounds towards the object, and that certain Government departments would occupy the buildings , when completed. The defeat of the Stont-Vogel Government, however, prevented the fulfilment of Mr Ball.auce's promise, and their successors did not feel disposed to sanction the'grant, in vie.w of theembarassed state of the country's finances and the urgency of a strict exercise of rigid economy in every direction of public expenditure. ■ The scheme has been kept in abeyance all this time pending the final decision of the Government in respect to the vote, and that decisiou has now been given to the effect that the proposed vote has long since lapsed, and that the Government virtually declines to entertain the matter again. The question that has now to be solved is ; What is to be done with the £4000 ? The money has been on fixed deposit, bearing interest at 5 per cent, since it was obtained from the Insurance Department, and according to poll of the burgesses, it can only be devoted for the erection of public buildings, unless, by a fresh plebiscite, that decision is reversed or transferred to some other scheme. It is not at all improbable that, were a fresh poll taken, public opinion would be found to have changed iu the matter. Since the scheme of public buildings was first promulgated, the increasing stagnation throughout the colony has brought about alterations in our local conditions to an extent not then foreseen. People have left the district, and various public departments have been so reduced or removed that, under such circumstances, the wisdom of carrying out the proposed expenditure would be open to serious doubt. There is a strong feeling iu ' the borough that the outlay is now uncalled for, and would, to say the least, be very indiscreet and unproductive. Some other way of expending the large sum in hand has to be considered, and, bearing in mind that it is a large responsibility which the burgesses have to bear, and an engagement of no small magnitude which must bu kept and provided for out of the rates whatever manner of utilising the money is decided upon, it should be of a thoroughly reproductive nature and of a permanent character. The chief desideratum of the borough, in common with every other portion of the colony, is papulation, and not only to attract fresh population, but some means to retain amongst us that which we now possess. The Waikato County Council have in mind to convert the Peach Grove into a model farm and establish an Agricultural College there. Is it not possible for the Borough,. County Council, and Domain Board, to enter conjointly into a scheme by which the unoccupied lands of the two latter, cogethcr with the Peach Grove, or any other laud that could be secured, could be cut up into agricultural allotments, somewhat in the fashion of special settlements ? The principle of this suggestion is taken from the Allotments Act, recently introduced iu England, and from other similar plans put into operation by private lauded proprietors iu the Old Country. The lauds referred to might be subdivided into five or ten-acre allotments, and let to labourers at a rental equal to the assessed annual rateable value of the land, free of all other taxes. Conditions stipulating residence and a certain atnouut of yearly improvements should be provided. Cottages costing about fifty or one hundred pounds each should be erected on'each allotment, if desired, and the occupier charged, by way of rental, a sum equal to five or six per cent, per annum on the cost. Occupiers could be encouraged in their operations by advances of seeds, fruit trees, or implements, the cost of which would be secured by liens, including security over any crops. This idea is put forward without elaboration ; it may provide a basis upon which something can be built in shape that will be greatly beneficial to the borough and district. Occupiers of the lands would be of the labouring class who could engage in farm operations, eontracts, and other local works, from /time to time, but in slack periods and in their own time could devote their energies to improving their homesteads and creating a source of certain profit and income that would remove them beyond the pinch of distress, enable them to support their families in greater comfort, and keep them contentedly in the district. Indirectly the trade of the town would be better aud healthier, and the value of the lands around us would be improved and rendered more attractive by the presence of a settled aud active population, whose ranks would be increased by the operation of such a scheme. This would, at least, be a reproductive method of using the loan at the present time. No doubt, after a few years experience of the one scheme there would arise a real necessity to revise the other aud erect suitable public buildings in the borough.