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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5426, 16 January 1889, Page 2

It has pleased certain of our contemporaries, whose writers mistake vulgarity for smartness, to refer to the Hon. Mr. Kichardson as " tho Minister mjaiust Lands," and thus ill-informed readers have been led to suppose that tie policy of the Government is not favorable to settlement. It is, therefore, with much pleasure we notice that the Otugo Daily Times does justice to Ministers in this respect, and says that the present Government, whatever may bo their political inerite or failings, which must be a matter of opinion, bivo without doubt done the Stato good service by the policy adopted and pursued in respect of- the disposal of tho public estate. It has boon with them over sinne they took office a main object of solicitude thtt settlement of tho right stamp should by every legitimate means be pronioted, and in every part of • tho colony this object has hien vigorously as well as intelligently pursued. We "have noted ou occasions within tho last few months some satisfactory rjsults already patent in tho occupation of country hitherto waste or unimproved, and there is good reason to anticipate that the report of the Secretary of Crown Lands for the current year will disclosu a state of things iv respect of tbe agricultural industry which will be a surprise to the public mind, although in some measure preparwd by what is known from time to time as tho land transactions in tho eeveruV districts. Tho Crown Lands Department is not only directed by excellent principles, but is fortunato i» being most ably adininistrc-d. The responsible Minister, the Hon. G. F. Richardson, understands tho business tkorough.lv, aud has exceptionally able coadjutors in the permanent officials, the Survcyor-Gentraland tho Under-Sccrc-tt-ry, who are by no means of tho red-tapo typo, bat apply themselvos to carrying out the letter of the Land Acts in tho spirit intended by tbe Legislature It has been a subject of complaint in bygone years that no one of ordinary intelligence could comprehend, without special instruction from an oxpert, the land legislation. of New Zealand; and without doubt this legislation had grown to be exttemoly complicated, so much so as to muke investment, except perhaps in tbe way of immediate purchase for cash, a somewhat hazardous experiment. Settlement was undoubtedly thus rotarded and capital repelled. The Acts of 1880, 1887, and 18S8, read as they are together, constitute a comparatively simple code, and are easily understood in their scope and tenor when their principles are taken as the key. The Department has recently, in conjunction with a new edition of tho "Crown Lands Guide," which contains detailed information as to, all land open for sale or selection, prepared and .issued a "Summarr of tho Land Laws" in the form of a small pamphlet, which embodies in some fourteen pages all thnt is really required tc bo known by intending settlers and others who. have an eye to obtaining land mulct any system of purchaso or occupation.