WHO ALIENATED THE CROWN LANDS?

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9585, 27 November 1896, Page 4

WHO ALIENATED THE CROWN LANDS?

During the present campaign the Premier has brought many charges against the present Opposition party, many of them quite irrelevant and most of them not supported by the real facts of the case. Amoug these unsupported assertions is tho statement that the " Conservatives " are chiefly responsible fOi.* the " alienation" of the Crown lands. In passing, we may remark that when the " Liberals " sell Crown lands, it is called " settling the people on the land," and is held up by Mr. SjKddon and his satellites as being highly commendable. When the so-cailed " Conservatives " dispose of the public estate for settlement purposes it is called " alienating" the Crown lands, and held up to public opprobrium. We have no wish, however, to nmko too much of Mr Seddon's delightful inconsistency in this respect. We assume that what Mr. Seddon wishes to condemn is the* practice of selling the public estate in large blocks for cashi Now, the worst offenders in this respect were undoubtedly the Grey Government, who have been held up recently to our admiration as the great forerunners of the " New Liberals." The following table, compiled from the Parliamentary blue books', shows the Crown lands disposed of for cash for the twenty years 1872 fco 1891 inclusive :—

It will be seen from this table that, except at the outset of the Public Works boom in 1873-4, far more land was alienated in the two years of Sir George Grey's reign than in the same period under any other Ministry. In point of fact, considerably more land was alienated in the two years 1877 and 1878 than in the thirteen subsequent years under the Hall, Whitaker, Atkinson, Stout-Vogbl and Atkinson Governments. What is more, the Grey Government gloried in their wholesale alienation of the public lands. It will be remembered that they treated the proceeds as revenue, and it formed the principal item on which they relied for their finance. Following are extracts from Mr. Ballanoe's Financial Statement of 1878:—

" The land revenue has far exceeded the different estimates formed during last session, and is the largest amount yet collected in any one year. "Comparing the revenue received last year with that of the previous year, the result is equally favourable, the net increase in favour of the later period in ordinary revenue alone being £429,919, and in territorial £580,707, or a total increase of £1,004,626.

" Estimated revenue, 1878-79. —The next great head is 'Territorial Revenue, , from which, keeping our expectations fairly within the Bounds of moderation, we hope to receive £1,229,677.

" ExuptionaUy favoured ye&r? in respect of land sales will mean simply that a large auxiliary aid to, the prosecution of public works will be forthcoming."

Mr. Macandrew, in his Public Works Statement of the same year, drew ro3eate pictures of millions 01 acres of the public estate being sold, and the proceeds devoted to building railways all over the colony. He proposed an expenditure of no less than £8,885,000 for the two islands. Of this sum he expected to derive no less than £3,500,000 from land sales, and proposed to borrow the rest. Of course, those anticipations were never realised, the bottom fell out of the '" Liberal" finance, and the Hall Gov«" ,r, -n'"> f l coming into ■power, onb' iUdC jiiAUftged to tittvo ths

cjolony from bankruptcy. Still during their short and merry career the "first great Liberal Government "managed to " alienate " close on ona and a hall million acres of the publio estate; and successive Conservative Governments in the next six years combined, did not in their land sales reach muoh more than half of that total.

rinisl <ry in Ice. 'ear. oca From Oot., 1872V —Waterhouse I Fifom Deo., 1872 f —Fox . .J From April, 1873— .. .January to December, 1872 332,315 " 1873 1874 . 1875 786,250 643,976 315,605 .. From Sept., 1876— Atkinson From Oct., 1877— Grey .. , 1876J 1494,216 ,, .. ,..'1877 !. 1878 775,928 639,483 From Oct., 1879— Hall .. „ „ „ 1879 Jan., 1879, ta March, 1880 March, 1880, to March, 1881 „ 1881 „ 1882 „ 1882 „ 1883: 77,399 49,488 193,630 195,390 » » From April, 1882— Whitaker From Sept., 1883— Atkinson From Aujfusfc, 1884 —Stout-Vogel .. „ 1883 „ 1884 164,337 144,589 , „ 1884 „ 1885 „ 1885 „ 1886 „ 1886 „ 1887 6*,975 43,381 » From Oct., 1887— Atkinson .. „ 1887 „ 1888 „ 1888 „ 1889 „ 1889 „ 1890 28,229 68,7<3 46,641 » From" Jan., 1891— Ballance ..| „ 1890 ,; 18911 199,545