SETTLEMENT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1816, 1 June 1874, Page 2

SETTLEMENT.

[XO THE EDITOR.] '■ Sir, — As the Provincial Council are now considering the advisability of amending the present Waste Lands Act,j it may not be altogether unseasonable toj offer a few remarks on it. The present; Act wants thorough revising, because it ! does not offer inducement for parties with- ■ small means to settle on the land, and i 4 also requires amending, a3 there ia no in J ducement for the mining community to 1 make a home here. On these two important points I contend that the future' prosperity of the Province depends. Goldl is getting scarcer year by year, and if| nothing be done to enable parties co make; homes for themselves they will have toj leave. Why is not a man already here! as much entitled to make a home here as; a new chum immigrant? Why should, there be special settlements set apart for the latter and inducements held out by the G over nmen t in finding him labor tp enable him to make a living for a time,! and every obstacle thrown m the way of a man already here to obtain a few acres' to form a homestead? If this part is always to remain a mining country till the last. European miner is worked; out, and nothing done to induce hint to make a home, then I say let the present Act remain as it i 3. If, on the other hand, it is desired to encourage settlement, offer more facilities than is now done. Let a miner be allowed to take up Im five or ten acres of ground, and let the rent that is charged, for it go towards the payment for the land, reserving the right of all miners to go on the uncultivated portion of that land to search for gold without any compensation. If the Provincial Council wish to see the Province permanently populated, they will have to initiate a liberal Land Bill, not one that will hand over all the land for the benefit of the capitalist, but such a one that can be taken, advantage of by the '/mining: community, who would settle down where they could make a living. ; To my opinion) the present Act requires thoroughly amending if it is intended that working men should settle, and if such be not done it will only be a question of time for the population to decrease, and very little left for those reraainining to do. Let there be a liberal .Land Act introduced that will induce one and all to make homes in Westland, and then a permanent population will be found. This must be done if the country is to be prosperous. I am, &c., Marsde^. May 26. :