FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7. 1879.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 2984, 7 November 1879, Page 2

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7. 1879.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong tha needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the zocd that we can

The Laud Act 1877 Amendment Act now before Parliament proposes some important amendments in the law affecting the waste lands of the colony. Under the present Land Act, no land could be sold on deferred payments at a lower rate thau £3 an acic. As the minimum price of waste lands for cash is £1 per acre, the difference is excessive. On that ground alone a settlement promoted by tbe Working Men's Association of Tauranga to take up land on the Te Puke block fell through. Application was made to the Wa_.te Lands Board for a portion of the block to be set aside on the deferred payment principle and was .acceded to, but when the men learned the extortionate price demanded under the Act they gave up the idea. The late Government at the opening of last session introduced among their bills, which were shelved by the dissolution, one reducing the minimum pi ice of land oh deferred payments to 30s an acre, and this provision is embodied iv the Act now before tho House. The Homestead system of free selection is maintained, and made somewhat more favourable to the selectors by allowing in the case of bush lands further cjearjug to stand ia plasc of cultivation as required by the Act. Provision is al;o made for village settlements in suitable situations, the allotments being limited to an area of ono acre, aud to be sold at not less than £5 each, and small farm allotments of not less than lifty acres each. Power is also given to dispose of blocks not exceeding ten thousand acres for special settlements similar to that successfully established at Katikali. If these provisions are wisely worked they may be made the means of effecting a very large amount of rural settlement. In the present Acta man taking up land on deferred payments is objiged to reside upon it. But a number pf selectors at Napier represented to Mr Ormoii'd Jaf.tly that"they could earn such wages in town as wQuld'enablp tlipm'to cub tivateand stock their farms and fjt them for occupation. The Act brought down by the Government enables the Governor to make regulations declaiing residence optional. Large blocks of land north of Auckland are held by the Government, and have been kept cosed because there was no means of accpss to them. If such lands as these were opened up and the settlers employed on necessary road work two or three days a week while dealing their lands, au impetus would be giveu to lona fide occupation. Tho Government has hitherto been the biggest land-shark in the colony, keeping closed millions of acres of land suitable for cultivation,- and without making the slightest attempt to improve or settle it. For years past tho whole work ot advancing settlement has been thrown on private enterprise, and but

for that the colony would be in a very poor position now. The opening up and cultivation of tlte land, and the rapid extinguishment of the native title arc the great wants ot tho North, and every neno should be strained—every means employed, to facilitate those ends. While elforts are being devised to stimulate other industries, it must not lie forgotten that agiicultutc is the primary industry of a colony, the backbone of all the rest, and the true basis of all sound and lasting prosperity.