PUBLIC RESERVES.

Press, Volume I, Issue 13, 17 August 1861, Page 3

PUBLIC RESERVES.

We see by a recent announcement that His Honor the Superintendent has been pleased to reserve a tract of land for a township in the neighbourhood of the new coal field discovered by Mr. Haast. We wish to point out to our readers that the Superintendent has no power to make such a reserve—reserves for towns can only be made on the recommendation of the Provincial Council. Any one therefore who wishes to purchase land in the site of the proposed town near

the coal has only to apply at the Waste Lands Board and his application will be received. We also see that the coal field has been reserved. The Superintendent can only reserve land " for the uses of the Provincial Council and for other public purposes," and then only till the next meeting of the Council. We believe that this, too, is illegal: for what public purpose is this coal field reserved ? No court of law would interpret land reserved as property or endowment to be for the public use of a government; apart from this, the principle of public estates is one which is most objectionable. Government is always the worst landlord. Government, by monopolising these fields for investment tends to crush private enterprise. These coal fields if left for purchase would have produced more to the public manyfold than they will in the hands of the Government. Again, every Government Reserve will be a separate opportunity for a Government job. It is always so. And more than all, every government estate, placing independent means in the hands of the Executive, tends to make it independent of the people, and to frustrate that which it is the object of all enlightened men in modern times to enforce —responsibility. We make these remarks in order to call the attention of the public to the matter, hoping that a check may be put to the practico of making large reserves which exists at present.