Legislature Council and the Waste Lands of Otago.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 66, 14 October 1875, Page 6

Legislature Council and the Waste Lands of Otago.

While the Lower House has been busy with the Abolition Bill, and the attention of the public has been centered on it, the Upper House has been engaged in legislation which we regard as far more important in its bearings on the future welfare of the colony, A bill to amend the Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872, in some not very vital particulars, was passed some weeks ago in 'the House of Representatives. It was sent up to the Council, and it emerged from tne Waste Lands Committee there with eight new clauses, which we have no hesitation in declaring are of a most alarming and dangerous character. The effect may be very briefly stated. The rental paid for land taken up on deferred payments is raised from 2s 6d an acre to 4s, and the price from 25s to. 40s. These alterations alone are calculated to retard settlement, but they are as nothing to the change proposed in clause 8. The whole of the waste lands of Otago are to be classified as agricultural and pastoral land, and the former is to be open for application and sale at L2 an acre, and the latter at,LI an acre. The effect will be to throw the whole of the waste lands of Otago into the hands of capitalists, to prevent poor men from acquiring land under any circumstances, and to effectually put a stop to all settlement. The province or the colony will not even derive the advantage, miserable as it may be, of getting 20s an acre for its pastoral land. The pastoral lessees will 6rily~have to. buy all the agricultural land, that-is the low-lying lands on their runs available for winter feeding, and the remainder will be rendered utterly useless to any one but themselves. When their present lesses fall mA-and a large number do so in 1880— renewals will be obtainable without competition, and for whatever they choose to give. This is riot a mere Otago question. It is one affecting the colony. If the public lands pass into the hands of capitalists, if. the thousands of people whom we have brought here, and are bringing here, be not attached to and settled on the land, nothing but fearful ruin can ensue, so soon as we cease to be able to maintain a fictitious prosperity by means of borrowed money. We have ever since the great scheme of 1870 was introduced, pointed out that the only hope of ultimate success for it was in settling people upon the land, and that this was not being done; This was and is the weak point of the policy which now guides the affairs of the colony; arid now when Provincial Legislatures are abolished, when the whole regulation and administration of the lands of the colony is about to pass into the hands of the Colonial Legislature, one branch of that Legislature declares in the most practical and decided manner that the land is for capitalists and riot for poor men, and that every impediment possible shall be thrown in the way of the settlement of small freeholders, and every possible facility afforded for the acquirement of immense estates. We are glad the Council has thrown off the mask and proved that the suspicions long entertained regarding its views and opinions are true. The public wili do well to ponder over these facts before and during the coming elections. As Mr Luckie once declared, the cry must be, " Land for the people, the people for the land." In the Council Sir John Richardson has made a noble and gallant, though unsuccessful, stand for public interest and the people's rights in the matter. We hope, however, that the House of Representatives will ab* solutely refuse to endorse the unjust, dangerous, and absolutely iniquitous proposals contained in the new clauses 7 introduced by the Council in the Otago Waste Lands Bill.—* Evening Post.'