THE MINISTERIAL LAND POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4525, 29 November 1884, Page 2

THE MINISTERIAL LAND POLICY.

A Special Settlement Schema,

(BY TELECIBAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Christchurcii, this day. The Wellington correspondent of the "Lyttelton Times" telegraphs :—" Your readers will have noticed that during the course of his speech at Wanganui last night, the Hon. Mr Ballance, Minister of Lands, referred to the proposals of the Government in regard to the establishment of Land Associations that may take_ up land to the extent of 10,000 acres. This ia the scheme for special settlement to which I alluded in a telegram a few days ago, the particulars of which I am now able to supply you with. The regulations will probably be gazetted in the course of a week or so, and I understand the proposals of the Government will be as nearly as possiblo as follow :—Any association of persons of not less than 25 who may be desirous of settling on Crown lands adjacent to eacli other may arrange with the Government for a block of land on the following general conditions : The block shall contain not less than one thousand acres, and not more thaii ten thousand acres, to be surveyed into areas of not more than one hundred aoros or thereabouts. The surveys will be conducted under the superintendence of the Surveyor-General of the colony, the cost not exceeding two shillings and sixpence per acre, to be paid by the Association in four instalments, three months to elapse between each payment, and the first paymonttobe madewhen the Association has agreed to takoup a special block. The Minister for Lands may reserve such portionsof the block as ho may deem necessary for education, recreation, or other public purposes. The allotment of the Association shall be made at such time and in such manner &s tho Association may, with the consent of the Minister, determine; the price of the land will be a matter for arrangement botween the Minister and the Association, and will bo payable as follows:—One-tenth of the price of the whole block Bhall be paid prior to the allotment of sections. This will be in satisfaction of two first half-yearly instalments to be reckoned as due from the next first day of January or July. Following thereafter, the payments shall be made by each purchaser every 6 months in advance at the rate of onetwentieth of the price of the land until the whole price has been paid. One-third of the price of the land will, from time to time, as paid to the Government be, repaid to the local body of the district or to the Association for expenditure on roads in or leading to the block. The purchaser shall be entitled to a Crown grant of the land selected by him, provided he has been continually in residential occupation of the land selected by him, either personally or by a registered substitu c, for a period of six years, and has fulfilled all the conditions. Tho purchasers shall be registered members of the Association, and shal} not bo under eighteen years of age; each purchasor shall, within two years from the date of his purchase, bring into cultivation not lees than one-tenth of the land purchased by him. Within four years he must bring into cultivation not less than one-fifth of such land, and within six years he must, in addition to the foregoing conditions, effect substantial improvements of a permanent character on the land to tho value of one_ pound for every acre of the land held by him, "Cultivation " is understood to mean fencing tho land with timber or other durable material, not being a brush fence, breaking up and laying down the land in English or other_ cultivated grass, or breaking up and planting or sowing root or other crops therein, and in case of tush lands, tho felling and clearing of timber and sowing ofgraes. "Substantial improvements of apermanentcharacter "may mean and include reclamation from swamps, clearing of bush or scrub, cultivation, planting with trees or live hedges, the laying-out and cultivating of gardens, fencing, draining, making roads, sinking wells or water-tanks, constructing waterraces, or in any way improving the character of the fertility of the soil, or the erection of any building. In the event of the death of a purchaser before having received a grant of his land, his interest in tho allotment will revert to his legal representatives, who may dispose of it to a bona fide settler approved by the Minister, and the purchaser shall be deemed to stand in the position of tho original ooaupant, and a similar provision will be made for any purchaser compelled to leave the district previous to his being entitled to his Crown grant, before completing the requisite terms of occupation. It will be a proviso that no purchaser shall be allowed to hold more than one hundred acres. Failure to comply with the regulations involves forfeiture of all interest in the land selected, and the latter may then be sold by public auction to a bona fide settler who, Bhall be deemed to stand in the position of the original purchaser. No person who is a holder of land,'on deferred payments, or who has acquired any freehold under that system, or who is holder of ftsy land under perpetual lease, or who holds more than three hundred, and twenty acres of freehold land,, shall be entitled to become a purchaser under the new regulations.

The Local Government Sojie^ic.

Mr Ballance also referrojd. to, the subjects of local government a,n,d, ta.xa.tian, but only to. inform, his constrtuenta and hearers that they woulti be fully dealt with shortly by the Premier when visiting Dunedin. As this may give rise to some anxiety as to what the Government are doing in the direction indicated, I may state that consideration of the local government scheme still proceeds, but nothing has yet been definitely settled or anything like it. Ministers recognise that the subject in of too much importance to be dealt with except m the most careful manner, s^n'd only after very minute and deliberate, consideration. The question of. th,e incidence of taxation has not yet bejen dispugsed in Cabinet. I undmtafld. that it fe JftQt altogether im.prababfe th,as Mr Mtanoe may visit the Mokflu, before r«t«rning to Wellington.