The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3025, 7 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1881.

The centers tinder the deferred payment system are so numerous in the colony of Victoria that they have become a rfr.ngt rous power in the State. Under '-'CUfiaiisra political unions can make themselves felt; and the Victorian deferred payment settlers contemplate an organisation for the purpose of wringing from the Government modifications of the tenure upon which they hold tbeir lands. According to a contemporary these settlers unblushingly announce their intention of discontinuing their payments, defy the Ministry of the day to put the law in force against them by refusing thsm their Crown grants, or expelling thsra from their holdings, and, what is more, it is to be feared that they con do this with impunity. Neither Mr Berry nor Mr Service, nor any other possible Premier of Victoria could afford to incur the hostility of the deferred payment settlers, because, if the latter choae to combine for that purpose, they conid, in the present state of political parties, make and unmake Governments at their pleasure. The Wanganui Herald not unnaturally says that what is happening in Victoria may happen in New Zealand when the deferred payment settlers are numerous enough to feel their own power as a class. The preventitive suggested is Decentralisation. If the administration of the deferred payment system did not belong to the Central Government, there could be no danger of the settlers under that system following the example set them in Victoria ; and if Governments had nothing to apprehend, in the way of increased work, from the extension of settlement on deferred payments, they should have no motive for opposing such extension. It would be ridiculous to continue the administration of the deferred payment settlements in the hands of the Waste Lands Boards because they, being composed of nominees of the Government, the Ministry of the day would be held responsible, and pressure brought to bear through Parliament to secure the desired concessions. The only way to sever the connection between the settlements and the Government would be for the County Councils to have the entire administration of the deferred payment system, due care being taken that the settlers under the system were located in one riding. If this precaution were not taken the Councils might be swamped by the representatives of the one class. There should be no possibility of " packing" the Council. The Government, whose duty it would be to proclaim on deferred payment, might be compelled by statute to adopt the above precaution, and so obviate the danger indicated, s>t the same that they secured to the County Councils the revenue from deferred payment, to enable them to carry on the important work of opening up the country.