THE DEFERRED-PAYMENT SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Issue 5993, 27 May 1882, Page 2

THE DEFERRED-PAYMENT SYSTEM.

A meeting of deferred-payment selectors was held this afternoon in the hall of the D.Y.M.C. Association. About thirty-five persons were present, and the chair was taken by Mr J. Aitken Connell. The Chairman said that although the meeting did not appear to be very numerously attended, as a matter of fact a large number of selectors were represented, as many of those present held authority to represent other settlers who were unable to attend in consequence of their living considerable distances from town. Mr R. Cumming, for instance, represented fourteen selectors in his district; Mr Gardner, a large meeting of settlers in the Otama District; and he (the chairman) had received a large mass of letters from settlers in all parts of the country requesting him to act for them. He would give a brief review of the matters which had led up to the present position of the deferred-payment selectors. The deferred-payment system was brought about by the action of the Provincial Council about the years 1869 and 1870, but the head and front of the whole movement—the person to whom they were indebted for it—was Mr Donald Reid. —(Applause.) The system was that by which the greater part of the lands throughout the Colony were now being settled; but the settlers in Otago had ten times more substantial interests involved than had the settlers in all the rest of the Colony, because the system had been in force in Otago for five years before it was in the rest of the country. He therefore held that the expression of their opinions was entitled to the greatest weight with the Legislature, and he had no doubt that it would receive it. Engaged, as he had been, for years with Land Board business, itwas impossibleforhim to see proofs of the many grievances of the de-ferred-payment settlers without wishing the get them redressed; accordingly, he last year sent a letter to the Government on the subject. This letter he first showed to the Land Board, who, he might say, had the greatest sympathy with the settlers, and were quite in favor of treating them liberally. —(Applause.) The Land Board approved of the letter, and forwarded a recommendation to the Government that the suggestions contained therein be carried out; however, the Government were in their last session and had not time to deal with the matter. He had since framed a Bill, copies of which had been furnished to them, and he thought that if passed it would have the effect of redressing their grievances. He would now leave the meeting to transact the business for which they had met.—(Applause.) Mr J. C. Chapple (Tiger Hill) moved—- " That in the opinion of this meeting the existing land law affecting the alienation of Crown lands on deferred payments is defective and anomalous in many particulars, as well as unjust and oppressive to the settlers in others, and that the same ought to be amended during the present session of Parliament, so as to give relief to settlers who have taken up land under its provisions, and facilitate the future settlement of the country upon an equitable basis." In so doing he said that in the early days a settler could get only ten acres of land at a time, then it was gradually increased until at the present time one could get 320 acres. At each step a new Land Act had to be passed, and the result was that settlers were now under a number of different land laws. He thought they should be placed under one law for all, —(Hear, hear). He thought the present law oppressive for various reasons, one being that if a purchaser was behind in any payment the Government had power to confiscate the land. He held that if they exercised that power the purchaser should be entitled to the benefit of all he had paid on the land. He was in favor of altering the auction to the ballot system, of placing the recent purchasers of land at 60s an acre in the same position as purchasers at 30s, and of continuing the agricultural lease system. The residence clause should not be done away with, or they would get an

undesirable class of settlers ; he would almost as soon see the land sold right out. He thought they should make it a strong point that anyone who had not yet got his 320 acres should be allowed to go into any block and select the quantity requisite to make up that area; also, that after the residence clause had been once complied with the settler should not be compelled to carry it out again on taking another piece of land. He had suffered in this way himself, for after erecting a homestead at Tiger Hill he purchased a block elsewhere, and was compelled to put up a residence there also.—(Applause.) Mr Joseph Davies (who said that he acted for Mr John Hall, of Tuapeka West) seconded the motion.

The Chairman put the motion, which was carried unanimously. Mr Philip Brookes (Tuapeka) moved " That it is absolutely indispensable that the confiscation clauses of the Land Act should be repealed, that provision should be made for a re-selection of lands purchased under the deferred-payment system at prices far beyond the fair and true value during a period of artificial excitement and inflation of prices, and that some equitable provision should be made to meet the case of settlers falling in arrear of payments." In moving it he said that while at Home he had been induced by Government agents and Government pamphlets to come out to New Zealand, under the impression that here land was placed within the limits of poor men. Well, he came out with bis wife and six children, and met with nothing but disappointment—there was no system of ballot, as he had been led to believe, and he had to go to auction. There, having only small means, he was outbid. —(Hear, hear.) Then he had to go from place to place trying to get land, and now he had nine children —men with a long family could not compete with men of capital, and the end of it was that he had to purchase at 60s per acre. The price of land had meanwhile drifted up to 60s, and he had to take up at that price—and now he was not able to meet his engagements.—(Loud applause.) Mr David GAfrb'ltfEß (Chatton) seconded the motion.

The Chairman put the motion, which was put and carried. Mr Darton then moved '' That a petition, as drawn up by a committee of settlers, be circulated for signature throughout the district and presented to Parliament." The Chairman read the petitio to the meeting. Mr .Robert Cunningham seconded the resolution.

Mr Mervyn said it struck him that what the settlers required was a system by which a fair valuation of their land could be obtained—that the arrtount they had to pay should really represent the value of the land. If that were done the time provided by the Act was quite long enough for them to pay in. The Chairman explained that the Bill provided for a re-valuation of the lands. Mr Mervyn expressed himßelf thoroughly satisfied with the explanation. A Settler said that it had been stated by the Press that under the ballot system several persons could be employed to purchase for the same person, and a holder thus get two or three chances in the same way. The Chairman : I may mention in reply to that matter I believe there was a good deal of dummyism actually going on under the Act of 1872, which did not require any declaration to be made. Under the present Act and in the Bill which I have drafted there is a very stringent declaration which every person making application must make. Every person making application has to solemnly declare that the land is not directly or indirectly for the benefit of any other person, and that they will personally use and cultivate it; and I may point out that they are bound to reside on it personally. The resolution was carried unanimously.

Mr Mervyn suggested that, with a view of giving effect to the resolution, the deferredpayment settlers should send Mr Connell or some other person to Wellington to represent their views.

The Chairman said that he would not go to Wellington under any monetary obligation. He did not think the matter would be likely to receive more attention even if a special delegate went North. He was sure that Captain M'Kenzie and the other Otago members would do their best to further the cause of the petition.—(Hear.) If real grievances would not be listened to, what was the good of their representative institutions. They were not in Ireland, where they had to enforce their grievances at the point of the sword; but in a country where justice and right would be obtained. Mr G. Dawson moved, and Mr Chapple seconded—" That, by the voice of this meeting, the deferred-payment selectors of the Otagb District thankfully acknowledge the many kind services which have been rendered to them as a body by Mr John Aitken Connell, and especially his efforts to redress the grievances of many of them who are laboring under peculiar hardship, and also his untiring labors in promoting the cause of settlement generally under this system by devising measures for its better administration which are at once practical, just, liberal, and comprehensive, and in every way adapted to the circumstances of this district."—(Applause). The Chairman, in acknowledging the vote, said that he had always taken a keen interest in land legislation and in land settlement, and that if he saw anything wrong he would endeavor to set it right. The meeting then closed.