The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1880. OUR LAND LAWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 19, 16 June 1880, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1880. OUR LAND LAWS.

The Statement delivered by the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer last week is not interesting literature for the already over-heavily burthened taxpayer. In the concluding portion the Treasurer remarked :—": — " I would also emphatically point out that we ought to connect far more closely than we have ever yet done the idea of additional taxation with further borrowing. As soon as it is actually realised by the people of the colony, not only that each new loan has to be repaid, but that, until repaid, it imposes yearly a burden which must be met, if not by the increase of a tax-paying population, then by increase of taxation itself." When writing last week, before the Treasurer made his Statement to the House, we drew particular attention to what Major Atkinson so strongly emphasises in the concluding portion of his Budget speech. Had the people of the colony, and their representatives in Parliament, not become, so to speak, intoxicated in consequence of the continual influx of foreign capital, they would have paused and considered more carefully than they have done what effect this wholesale borrowing was likely to have upon their future position. Had the scheme of . peopling the lands of the colony, which was a part of the original Public Works policy, been carried out in its integrity, no sensible man can doubt for a moment that taxation would be lighter than it is now, because there would be more shoulders to bear the burthen of it. But the peopling of the waste lands has been done in such a half-hearted way, that many of the small capitalist class who came to New Zealand from Australia went back again, and large numbers of those who came from Great Britain found their way to Australia, because of the difficulty of acquiring land in this colony as compared with New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia. People are at length waking up to the fact, however, that it is not a wise policy to screw as much as possible out of the intending settler; that it is better for the country to have unproductive lands made productive ; and that every bona fide settler is a decided gain to the country, because he contributes his share of the general taxation through the Custom House. The land question, we freely admit, is a ticklish one to deal with : it is easier to see the blemishes of our land laws than to supply remedies, so as to render them more workable. In Victoria the most liberal terms have been offered by the State, in order that the country might be settled ; but whilst the land has been taken up in large quantities, and places that were only sheep-walks a few years back are now thickly-popu-lated, still it cannot be denied that the State has not received an adequate return for its liberality. Thousands, and tens of thousands of acres, have fallen into the hands of the very class against whom the laws were expressly framed. Dummies were employed to occupy the land for a few years, and as they were permitted to transfer their leases after a three years' residence, it became more profitable to squat upon the land .for that short space of time than to work at a trade or upon a station. What we wish to lay stress upon, "in Waectioj&.witb the

subject of our land laws, is the system of putting land up to public auction when two or more applicants happen to apply for the same block. In the abstract, nothing can appear to be fairer ; but those who have been in the habit of attending auction sales will have no difficulty in realising how it comes to pass that men, in the excitement of the moment, give prices for land — and for merchandise, for the matter of that — which they would never think of doing were they buying privately. The Land Boards, however, cannot be blamed for the auction system : they are only administrative bodies, and therefore can only administer the land laws to the best of their ability, and according to the amount of discretion vested in them by the Land Acts. Great stress was laid in the Governor's Speech — and very rightly so — as to the desire which existed for land amongst the working classes of the colony, and it behoves those who have been entrusted with the reins of Government to foster it in every possible way. Can no better system be substituted for peopling the waste lands of the colony than putting them up to auction ? Has that system been a success ? Has it tended to place bonafide settlers upon the land ? Has it shut out the speculator, or has it worked into his hands? These are questions that are frequently asked. The general verdict, we think, would be, if a plebiscite could be taken, that the auction system has proved a failure. It is the duty of every statesman to try and remove all obstacles which lie in the path of settlement, and if a better method can be devised than the one now in vogue for selling the waste lands of the Crown it ought to be done without delay. The statesman who grapples with' this matter, and satisfactorily solves it, will earn the gratitude of thousands of people. We command it to the attention of the Hon. Mr. Rolleston, the present Minister of Lands — a man who, we honestly believe, has the settlement of the country, and consequently its ultimate prosperity, thoroughly at heart, notwithstanding all that has been said against him by political opponents. He can, at all events, point to his own Province of Canterbury as an example of the success of the much-talked-about free selection system, and to the results attained, in consequence, chiefly, of the absence of vexatious restrictions to the acquirement of land in that part of the colony.