THe Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2486, 16 June 1888, Page 2

THe Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1888.

We havo frequently urged upon public attention the absolute necessity there is for increasing our population, particularly in respect to the occupation of the waste lands of th« colony. We can never succeed in equalising the national burdens, which fall so weightily upon the small handful of inhabitants at present in the colony, if we do not enter energetically into introducing suitable classes of immigrants. It is generally recognised that immigration must be the great economic factor by which we can obtain relaxation of the strain of taxation under which the country groans. Retrenchment, however drastic, and economy, however sincere and comprehensive, will have but sidereal influences on the scheme of national recovery without organised immigration. The work of financial recuperation must, be based as well on the benefits which will assuredly accrue from a steady influx of new blood from the Mother Country, as on our own abstenance from further extravagance and waste. In the Local Government Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Mr Ritchie, President of the Local Government Board, large powers are bestowed upon County Councils to organise a system that will facilitate the emigration of agriculturists and others to Her Majesty's possessions beyond the seas. As this measure, which has been eulogised by Liberals and Conservatives alike, is certain to become law, it would be as well for our legislators to provide means by which the Colonial Government could act concurrently with it, and enter into joint arrangements with the local governing bodies in Great Britain toestablishastream of people suitable for the work of colonization between the ports of the Old Country and the shores of New Zealand. Notwithstanding the common assertion that the State no longer possesses land sufficiently good to attract settlors, and we are willing to admit that to far too great an extent we have unwisely parted with the better portion of our inheritance, yet it is a fact that there are large areas of publfc lands throughout the Worth and Soutli Islands suitable for profitable settlement, and capable of maintaining large populations. We will take, for example, this part of the North Island. To outown knowledge, and that gained through reliable information, there are around us many thousands of acres of Crown lands fit for settling upon them thousands of people. In the Raglan County alone there is a vast extent of virgin country awaiting occupation. The Akatea Village Settlement established by the late Government on a part of this land has every element of success about it, except want of means on the part of the villagers themselves, They have shown pluck, perseverance, and adaptability to the life of 'oush settlers, as the work they have already done and their cultivations will testify. But these people were placed there under peculiar conditions; they possessed no means of their own, and were dependent upon road work, etc., promised by the Government in order to enable them to

continue on their holdings. Want of sufficient independent capital of their own is the sole impediment to the success of these villagers. The land itself is of very fair quality, with bush and open country. It is easy of access and within reach of the main line of railway and district roads, which afford facilities of communication with the Waikato centres of population and within reach of local markets for the sale of produce and purchase of provisions and live stock. There arc several thousand acres of this land surrounding this settlement already accessible, besides which there are twenty thousand acres of similar land in the neighbourhood now being surveyed, but not yet opened up by roads or tracks. Now, here are opportunities of the most favourable character for advancing the settlement of the country. These blocks nlone, if thrown open to hardy British immigrants for occupation under the most liberal terms and regulations that can be conceived, would absorb many hundred families. There are blocks of lands of similar suitability in other parts of New Zealand which can bo utilised to encourage population to the colony, and we say emphatically the Government will be guilty of culpable negligence if they fail to provide active measures to effect tliis object. By throwing open our waste lands in a liberal manner, and with the facilities of ocean transit now established between England and the colony, there is no reason, that we are aware of, why twenty thousand people at least should not be introduced into the colony annually. If we adopt the modest computation that each would bring an average of ten pounds of ready money we shall have an annual increase of two hundred thousand pounds sterling added to the current circulation of the colony. The influence this would have on trade and industry, and therefore on the country at Urge, must be obvious to the dullest intellect, apart from the more important consideration that it would widen the compass of the tax-bearing portion of the population.