Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1887. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7913, 30 November 1887, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1887. LAND SETTLEMENT.

TnE summary of the Land Bill forwarded by our Wellington correspondent, and which appeared in yesterday's i. c sue, will give an accurate idea of the nature and scope of the measure. It is, in all respects but one, a complete reversal of Mr Ballance's policy of " fads,' It pro2>oses to allow anyone to select Crown lands anysvhere, under certain necessary conditions as to survey, and to elect whether he will buy a freehold for cash or on deferred payments, or take a leasehold with a purchasing clause. No particular tenure is to be forced down the throats of would-be settlers, nor will a man who wants a freehold be offered a leasehold, or vice versa. The two biota on the measure are, in our opinion, the restriction of holdings of ordinary land to 640 acres, or of second-class land to 2000 acres ; and the absence of any conditions of improvement in the case of freeholds sold for cash. The problem which (he State has to solve is bow its lands, now lying waste, can best be utilised for tlie benefit of the State. That, we take it, is the sole interest and duty of the State. It should insist on the utilisation of all land sold, and enforce improvements either by conditions of sale involving forfeiture in case of neglect, or by a land tax so levied as to fall lightly on improved land, but so heavily on unimproved that it would not pay anyone to bold it. We do not care how the desired object is achieved, but by some means or other it should be made practically impossible for anyone to hold land in a state of nature, merely ns a speculation on which to make a profit. That condition assured, what earthly reason is there why a man should lie restricted as to the area he takes up, or why should he be compelled to reside on the laud? It he is bound to improve the land he buys, what does it matter whether he has a hundred or ten thousand acres? On the larger holding he must employ' so much more labor in complying with the conditions of improvement, and so help in relieving tho congested labor market. It is a curious fact that land in small holdings, ami hampered with residence conditions, have come to bo considered "Liberal" measures in New Zealaud, while in truth nothing more detrimental to the interests of the wage-earning classes could be devised. Largo holdings are nceeded to give employment to laborers and small holders, and many a small holder is now prevented going to where he could obtain work by the hard-and-fast conditions of residence imposed on him by a "Liberal" Ministry. Tho House now has before it an ; example of the working of these " fads " in the petition of special settlers in the bush, who represent that their sections ' aro too small to give them a living, that ' without employment for part of their \ time they cannot live or make the im- f provements demanded of them, and that, i being far away from such employment, \ they are barred from earning money c because they are bound to leside on their holdings. In short, these much-vaunted | " Liberal " conditions must involve all q these settlers in absolute ruin unless j the terms on which they hold their land c aro relaxed— as no doubt they will be h now that a man of common sense, and f not a mere theorist;, is at the head of the I Landa Department. Nothing could pos- n sibly be more condemnatory of Mr Bal- r lanco's fads than theconeludiug paragraph v in tho petition of tho settlers, who repre- ■' sent that the success of the mnall'liolderg °, about Woodville and Pabintiui lias bsen f aololy due to tho employment afforded • 1<

hem in improving the land of large n lolders and " absentees "—the said ab- n entees being generally merchants or " iradesmen living in Napier or elsewhere c n Hawke's Bay, who, with the money p sarned in their several avocations, have h .111 proved their bush farms, to which they *' iope to retire in their old age, or on * which they look forward to settling their D boys. The very, things so warmly de- \ nounced by Mr Ballance and his admirers I are now held up by some of Mr Ballance's \ own special settlers as the only things 'j which have enabled Woodville and \ Pahiatua to progress 1 No doubt these men once threw up their cans in admira- , tion of Mr Ballance's theories, but they | have been taught by crnel experience their t utter fallacy. Tens of thousands of pouuds j have been paid away as wages by nonresident owners of land in and around ] Woodville, and this money enabled the j resident small holders to tide over the 1 difficulties of the first three or four years, 1 until now, with their land cleared, they ' can live without such employment. Un- : fortunately the conditions under ■which they managed to succeed exist no longer, or only in a limited degree, thanks to Mv Ballance's land administration. Of late land has been sold or leased only on residence conditions, with the result that those who must work for others part of their time if they are to succeed have been multiplied greatly, while the employment offering has become less and less. The settler of to-day cannot get work at much more than half the rates paid three or four years ago, thanks to this nonsensical system of land settlement, and the position is daily becoming worse. The only hope for the numerous settlements recently planted in the bush is a complete reversal of Mr Ballance's policy and the sale or lease of land unrestricted in area, and accompanied by no conditions save that so much per centshall be brought into cultivation each