Hawke's Bay Herald, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1893.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9319, 14 March 1893, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1893.

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT. The land, policy of the Government is a curiously inconsistent one. With sereral million aoies of Orown landa yet in a atate of nature the Government rashes in and buys for over a quarter of a million sterling the Cheviot estate. When the property wai offered on a short) lease at i

only 4 per cent on the pnrclmse price there was nod a bitlder. Yet In tue face of this a Commlßßicn is inquiring into the advisabioness of purchasing other Canterbury and Otago estates similarly situatedIt Is the same with regard to native lands, Jnat now we are threatened with a serious difficulty over the surrey of a piece of native land, in the Urewera country, Apparently this land has not been through the Court, for the difficulty fttiaeo through them beiug two seta of claimant? for the land. Bo bhat aa it niiiy, there is no immediate prospect of purchasing the land, since the TJreweras still hold to their non-alienation polioy. Would it not be a more common-sense proceeding to set the surveyors on the Urewera block to subdivide for settlement the native lands already acquired ? According to a return Issued under the authority of Ministers 5,000,000 acres of native lands have been purchased. Thia land haa cost directly over £1,250,000, and if we reckon interest on the money expended, at least £2,000,000. The debit balance goes on piling up, for the interest on that sum at 4 per cent is £80,000 per annum, which haa to be paid on 6 of taxation wrung fiotn the people. Very little of that land has been sold. We are quite safe in saying that not nearly one-fifth has been settled. Why not endeavor to bring the remaining four million odd acres under settlement iostead ot devoting our energies to tho survey of other land which the natives tell us they will not sell after sutvey ?

The fact ia that) there is a great deal *f buncombe in the talk about the demand for land for settlement. For Crown lands, ■ offered in small seolions at a low upset, and a rental of 4 per cent on that, there is a fair demand. A great deal of it is no doubt speculative, but there are still plenty of men anxious to take up and settle on such blocks. They can work for part of the year for neighboring larger proprietors, and clear their own land when such work is not available. Such settlers are very valuable to the country and we would not rob the Minister for Lands of one iota of the credit due to Mm for encouraging them. But for improved lands there is comparatively small demand, because few of those seeking land have the capital to buy them. It is asserted by Government apologists that this is because these improved lands are offered in too large blocks. The Assets Company recently cut up several estates and offered them at upset prices representing in some cases less than the. amount spent in Improvements, but they did not iind purchasers. The experience of the Colonial Mntual Agency Company last week was similar. That company has become the unwilling possessor of many properties. It advanced money on them and bad to take them over. Perhaps the advances were not wisely made. In many instances, however, the whole of the money borrowed was spent on improvements, besides a good deal cf other capital. The company would be very glad to get its own money back, or even to sell'at a loss. Mr Dobson recently valued the properties, and ac cording to bis Otago criiics, much underi valued them, but when, they were put up to auction very little was sold. According to the Dunedin Star these properties inclnded desirable farm and pastoral lands in allotments of various sizes to suit all classes of settlers. Our contemporary draws the conclusion that there is not that t pressing demand for land for settlement ) which Ministers persistently assert. "It " is evident," sayg the Star, " that there is no genuine disposition to purchase real estate except at very low figures. This ia not at all surprising, since the declared . policy of the Great Liberal party, which the Government have intimated their inj tention of carrying out to the fall extend ■ »f their power, is to throw the main burden of taxation upon land. Already, through the land taj{, the land-owner is inequitably mulcted j and this, it is much to be apprehended, is but the beginning — 1 worse remains behind.' Whatever may be the intentions of Ministers— Sheol, we know, is ' paved with good intentions '— there is no question as to the effecb of their measures and proposals in depressing the agricultural interest in its most important branches, in depreciating; the value of property, and In checking expenditureon improvements. The consequences are , widespread and disastrous, The field of rural employment of every kind is contracted, mortgage moneys are being called in, and new advances can only be obtained on valuations utterly disproportionate to what properties have cost. The ' bona fide sottler,' so often quoted, j>is altogether in evil case ; but then we have the satisfaction of knowing, on the authority of the Minister of Lands, that the occupation of the country is rapidly progressing through the medium of pauper and speculative special settlements. Crown lands can be obtained for nexb to nothing under the new fperpetual leu&e 3ysteni, and the' delusion is fostered that they can be profitably occupied by men equally devoid of capital and farming experience 'Pat people on the land' is the grea l Liberal panacea ; but what they are to do when located does not appear to be worthy of consideration. These patent settlers, created to platform order, can hardly be anything else than Governmeat dependents, clamoring for assistance to keep them alive, and chronically in arrear with their rent. It is {or such a parody of settlement and the very equivocal farm homestead associations that the agricultural interests of the colony are being sacrificed and the most important productive interests crippled. It is, beyond doubt, desirable that opportunities should be afforded to men of Btnall moans, otherwise qualified for the laborious and self-denying work of the small farmer, to obtain land on easy terms, where he may found a borne and earn a living, and, in time, a competence from the ground. Bat it is mere midsummer madness to discourage—nay, endeavor to wipe out— as the Minister of Lands seems to be doing, settlement of a higher class, where science, money, and trained intelligence are directed to (he cultivation of the soil, the production of crops of higher quality, and the raising or stock. When Mr M 'If enzie has succeeded jn making sheep farming on a large scale impracticable, which manifestly is one of his aspirations, New Zealand must at once suffer in her most valuable exports. The honorable gentleman, however, cares for none of these things eo long cs he can vaunt hia special settlers by thoqganda on paper, and has in every township homestead associations strictly of the ' right color, 1 the members of which know not, it may be, the difference between a hoe and a harrow."

In the face of facts as disclosed uy the efforis of csmpany afier company to sell Improved lands it is mere political insanity for the Government to go in for the wholesale purchase of such properties. We are told that many properties have been placed under offer. That wa do not qneßtion for one moment. The land tax valuations have in some dlstrlots been so j excessive that many more properties would be offered at the valuations were it not for sentimental reasons. Men get attached to the lands they have brought from a state of natqre into cultivation, and they will ofteu pay on whab they regard as over-valuations rather than part with them. The mere fact that properties are being freely offered should make Ministers pause and think. If the proprietors coqld get more for them by j cutting them up would they sell their lands to the Government on the land tix valuations ? An answer in the affirmative must assume that these men are fools. They hare worked the land, they know what can be made out of it, and when they offer to sell it at the taxed valuation they do so because they know that they would make good bargains.