THE NEW LAND LAW.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1391, 25 April 1865, Page 6

THE NEW LAND LAW.

(From the Argus, March 25.)

The Bill to amend the Land Act or 1862, which was brought before Parliament on the 30th November last, having passed through bo t h Houses eceived the Royal assent two days ago, and s now rie law of the land. The following are the leading principles of the measure: — 1. Free selection after survey in proclaimed agri- ' cultural areas. ~ „ n 2 The distinctions of "white and blue, pro Tided by the Land Act of 1862, abolished. 3. A selector to have the right to select; from to 640 acres, in one or more allotments, at £i per a T To hold as lessee, for a p eri odnot exceeding seven years, at 2s per acre, payable half-yearly ad c 'iv, m „ke improvements to the value of .£1 per fined to be cultivation, fencing, bearing gaining, making dams or reservoirs, the erection of habitable 'tee years, and after making improvements, selectors may ask that the allotinents be put up to auction at an upset price of £1 ner acre, with a valuation for improvements. 9 A selector residing on his allotment for three years may have the land at XI per acre without C °loTseieetion to bo determined by priority of application, and priority of application to be determined by lot within an hour from the opening of the land Selector not to have the right of impounding until he has fenced in his allotment. 12. Certificate holders under Cummin's clause ol the Act of 1862 to be allowed twelve months to make their selections, with the option of buying at auction, their certificates being taken in part-payment, and treated as equivalent to 4s per acre. Persons entitled to certificates to be allowed three mouths to obtain the same. , 13 Lands not proclaimed open for selection to «e soldW.«ion,the quantity being limited 10200,000 acres per annum. , 14 No lands in the blue (except those reserved or to be set apart for towns and villages) to be sold by auction until they have been proclaimed, and shall have remained open for selection and leasing for a period of three year?. . . , 15 Not less than 4.000,000 acres of agricultural lands to be open for selection within three months, and not less than 2,000,000 acres to be constantly kept open for selection. 16. The Minister of Lands to lay before Parliament every session an estimate of the quantity of land proposed to be sold by auction during the en, suing year. . 17. Commons to be granted in proclaimed areas. jg. Increase and reduction of squatting rent provided for, in cases where the awards as to grazing capabilities may have been " fraudulent, erroneous, or . COLONIAL EMPIRE. (From the Times, Jan. 9.) It would be a hard condition of human life if our brightest instincts, our most generous thoughts, and our most pleasant imaginings were all invariably fated to terminate ia loss and ruin, and if nothing were ever profitable but the results of a dull unswerving reasoning It would be a heavy existence if everything were to bf measured out by line and rule, and if we were never to do anything which we could not gravely defend by a catena of There is that question of our great Colonial Empire, It enters very much into the category of sentimental matters. Jt is very difficult to argue. When nar-row-minded lynx-eyed logicians demonstrate that a live colony is a dead loss, and show us a balance at the end of the year of many; thousands of pounds sterling against us. we have nothing to answer that they can understand. To be sure precisely the same arguments might be enforced against any prodigal papa who allows himself the luxury of keeping a son at school after he is of an age at which he might get hisown living asa clerk. Soasimilar line of reasoning would be logically conclusive against any perverse young heiress, who might insist upon marrying & curly-haired scamp fleeing to her arms from pursuing creditors, when she might not o»ly avoid the costly connexion, hut ally herself with a quiet, prudent gentleman, with a large balance at his banker's No doubt, iE we acted upon the strict rules which some people think ought to govern human action, we ought to put our sons out at an early age to light trades and marry our daughters to the oldest and richest of our friends, and so we ought as a nation to repudiate Canada, cut New Zealand adrift, sever all connexion with the Cape of Good Hope, and wash our hands of Australia. We lose a great deal of money by not doing this, and all we gain is" a mere sentimental gratification, which is a sort of thiug which some people cannot think of or speak of without impatient contempt. But if we were to do all this, is it quite certain that either as individuals or as a nation we should be happier, or more respected, or more undisturbed, or that we should even ultimately be —what, according to the creed of our logical friends seems to be held to involve all possible happiness, respect, and repose—richer ? Mr. Cardwell, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, has lately been addressing his constituents at Oxford upon this theme. It is given to other countries," he says, " to be great and powerful Empires, but it has been given to England alone to be also the mother of great and free communities." We confess that we agree with Mr. Cardwell in thinking that this is a reflection which may be made with considerable satisfaction by every individual Englishman. He may be a very stupid person not to think or know that he has lost half-a-crown last year by New Zealand, and perhaps a groat by Cape Town, and several halfpence by Australia. Some of us, however, do feel a pride we do not mind paying for in being able to reflect that we are the free subjects of a frie Monarchy which extends over an Empire which is never all in darkness, and that we have for fellow-subjects and fellow-countrymen powerful populations speaking our own language and promising to be the world's dominant race in the next age of history. There is a grandeur in that thought which will appear to some minds to be a special folly; but your commonsense man must forget his common sense if he does not see that there are sterling material advantages to be obtained from the extension througout the world's wilds of English freedom, English habits, and the English tongue. Every colony created by England is, for all the purposes of English enterprise, a new district added to England. It is a fresh field for our enterprise, and a new chance of fortunes to our sons. Paterfamilias, who with a fixed amount of income and an advancing amount of family, is now calculating his Christmas liabilities with a serious countenance, must admit that there is a money value to him in every place which offers a cheap start in life to one of his boys. Yet we cannot have those colonies and bring them to any degree of usefulness, any more than he can rear his boys, without considerable expense. "I believe," said Mr. Cardweil,'" that England may be proud to be the mother of such colonies, and that the day may come in the future when they will be both able and willing to repay the assistance and protection which they have received from the mother country, and when England, speaking as the parent of those distant communities, may be glad to have her quiver full of them, for that she will not then be afraid to speak with her enemy at the gate." This is undoubtedly the official and Colonial-Secretary view of the case, wafting amenities across the ocean, and soothing with soft words his rough and querulous clients. We put no great trust in the gratitude of colonies, and we hope we shall never have need to think of it, except to congratulate ourselves that we do not want it. It will be sufficient return to us for all that our fathers and ourselves have done in sowing Anglo-Saxondom over the earth if a hundred years hence our descendants, while other Europeans are strangers in habits and language among th» most prospering peoples, may find themselves fellowcitizens and friends wherever they may go. Even we, however, can claim no solid advantage from the possession of colonies unless there be a mutual good feeling existing between them and the mother country. Mutual sympathy, mutual interest, and mutual advantage will, indeed, or at least ought, to unite any two peoples together; and if Mr. Cardwell can convince us that these are the bonds which unite us to the mighty districts whose sturdy independence he so gently bridles, we shall be satisfied. Mr. Cardwell, however, admits, and we must insist, that no such mutual sympathy can last if a colony should imagine that it is a bondman to the mother country, cr if the mother country should come to believe that the colony is but a grudging and ungrateful burden. We should say, as Argan says in Molicre's comedy to his apothecary, Si vous en wcz comme cela, on ne voudra plus etre malade." The policy of coercion is, as Mr. Cardwell says, long since out of the question. There is nothing in a colonial connection which could pay us for a month's contest such as that which the Northern States of America are now carrying on to conquer an unwilling allegiance from their sister South. Allegiance

from Els no oSlel to the unselfish and costly labours whirh this country has for many years prosecuted in StoftolS UP kindred nations wh ch, in the natural course of events, nnndpnt of her donnnion. Yet she «Uj not •«< w, y' out her reward if, when- they grow into powerful ner rc . thftt in( j e pendencc Sbdongs to the British race able and willing to make sac?iflces in their own defence and ripe to take their place among the great nations of the world a kindliness of feeling and a love for the old iXnd'home may be a tradition universal in far future the hundred, of million. »to will people regions that are now scarcely mapped. Suchf unfortunately, has not been the case in the two Republics of North America ; but, if we may trust Mr. Cardwell, better prospects are before us in relation to our present colonies. We believe he is justified in saying that " there is no subject of the Queen of England who wishes now to depart from the British Constitition and we believe, also, that it is "in a spirit of loyalty to the British Throne in a close attachment to the British Crown, and.in devotion to British institutions that the Canadians have desired to form all the northern provinccs of the eastern coast into one great confederation, Wesec before us great liabilities and mighty possible difficulties in meeting this spirit of loyalty in an equally cordial spirit of chivalrous protection. Some of the more cynical of us may e-en suspect tha; if cer were less apparent the devotion might be less demonstrative. We are quite prepared,however, to defend the position thatsolongas our colonies desire our connexion, and so long as they are prepared to meet us with boon for boon and sacrifice for sacrifice, it would he no less blindness to our coarsest interests than it would be a derogation of our national grandeur to leave any one of them as a prey to the spoiler. If they showed that they cared nothing for themselves, we should have 110 reason to show that we cared aught for them ; for if the sentiment were gone on their part, neither sentiment nor interest would re- j main on ours. But so long as they are prepared to flght in order to remain British subjects, it is to our interest as well as to our honour to put our whole strength out to protect them. This is very much what Mr. Cardwell says, and it is upon these principles that England is prepared to maintain her Colonial Empire. .