The Press. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7,1895. "LAND FOR CHRISTCHURCH WORKING MEN."

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9177, 7 August 1895, Page 4

The Press. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7,1895. "LAND FOR CHRISTCHURCH WORKING MEN."

At length the land acquired by the Government at Woolston is about to be opened for settlement, tho 14th inst. being appointed as the date for receiving applications. There hasbeen a good deal of. dissatisfaction expressed at the delay in throwing the land open for selection, and now we doubt whether the terni3 on which it is offered will meet with approval. Certainly those enthusiasts who pictured the Christchurch working man making a smiling home on land of his own, and living quite an Arcadian life on one of these Government sections, will be doomed to disappointment. It seems to us that unless some of the conditions are materially altered the working classes, to use a colloquial expression, will not be able to look at it. The property consists in all of 41 acres 86 perches, and is dignified by the name of the Eoimata Settlement. It is subdivided into twenty-five sections, varying from 1 acre to about 3£- acres in area, and is to be let on lease in perpetuity at rentals of £8 Is 6d per acre, excepting one section, which is to be offered at £2 19s per acre. It is officially described as " splendidly adapted for occupation " by market gardeners, and other {f small settlers," and this, we always understood, was the class for whom it was especially intended. The conditions, however, would lead one to imagine that the officer who drew them up thought he was dealing with farms of 500 acres or thereabouts. We pass by the stipulations—which are stringent enough—as to residence on the land, fencing it, stubbing up gorse and putting improvements upon it to a specified value within a prescribed period. Then we come to the following clause, which we venture to think under the circumstances highly absurd:— «' 10. The lessee must not take more than three crops, one of which must be a root crop, from the same land in succession ; and either with or immediately after a third crop of any kind tha land must de sown down with good permanent grasses and clovers, and be allowed to remain as pasture for at least thiee years from the harvesting of last crop before being again cropped." How a man who takes up an acre or two of this land with the idea of market gardening is going to make a living out of it with such a condition imposed upon him, the Department omits to explain. He may take three crops off the land, providing that one of these is a root crop, but after that he must take a spell of at least three years watching the grass grow on his section. In another clause he is solemnly informed that— *« At all times during the lease the land must be so farmed that not less ihan onethird of the farm be maintained in permanent pastures." In yet another and another clause he is warned of pains and penalties if he burns any straw upon his land, or if he ventures to "cut the cultivated grass or clovers for hay or seed during

the first year from tho time of sowing as aforesaid." All this seems to show that either the Department has very vague ideas of what constitutes market gardening, or else imagines tha people of Christchurch to be a race of Nebuchadnezzars . The only other alternative solution is that the Government does not want the land to be taken up by -working men at all, and is especially anxious that the Chinese marketgardener shall have nothing to fear from European competition. The conditions which seem to us to shut out the working man would not, so far as we can see, interfere with a prosperous citizen who desired to build a fine suburban residence for himself and to get the land at a very low rent. He could put on his improvements, lay down his permanent pasture for his pony or his cow, and observe all the regulations to the letter. Roimata, covered with the villas of elderly city gentlemen, who are either doing well in business or have made a competency and " retired," would no doubt present a •• highly desirable " appearance from a house agent's point of view, but this is hardly the purpose for which the land was supposed to be acquired. We feel really sorry for the supporters of the Government who are being so bitterly disappointed in one way after another. The working classes realise that they have been cruelly treated in the matter of the tariff, and now it appears that the Government is prepared to fool them over the " land for settlement" which was to do so much for the artisans and mechanics dwelling in towns. For some time these classes have patiently submitted to being taxed for the benefit of spoonfed settlements on the Pomahaka model. If they ventured to remonstrate they were told that their turn would come by-and-bye, when the Government acquired land for settlement close to the large towns, and placed them and their families upon it, there to thrive in happy contentment. Well, now that we havo the Roimata Settlement before us, we see what all these fine promises amount to. Coming immediately upon the tariff injustice, the working classes of Christchurch certainly have strong ground for complaint. If these absurd conditions are merely the result of blundering, and are not inserted of set purpose, then tho sooner they are rectified the better.