Page 11 Advertisements Column 2

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 15 January 1853, Page 11

—on. these accounts alone it is entitled to fair encouragement That encouragement I hold should consist of a tenure, which, whilst it throws no obstacle to the progress of freehold, should be a lease, renewable from year to year, granted and accepted in the faith that there shall be no dispossessal excepting for the public service on the one part, and a due observance of the laws on. the other part. I am no protectionist in feeling, and cannot consider that in demanding a certain security for an important interest, there is anything like, the spirit of monopoly. The nineteen years' leases in Scotland have raised a comparatively recent wilderness into a garden of model farms, and produced a class of earnest and progressive men, which it is in vain to look for in a country where a short and despotic tenure can only produce a race of apathetic political serfs. As to terms of tenure I hold the acreage system, (though convenient) to be unequal, and cutting unfairly in two ways,—firstly, the taxation is the same upon runs differing vastly in capability, whilst the expenses of management on the inferior ones increase in the inverse ratio of the extent required per headAof stock; and secondly, forming a practfeai veto to the occupying of the poorer descriptions of country. The Licence and Poll tax system is obviously juster, and really as simple, in the working. At present an assimilation to the Government terms would be most convenient ; and the course of time will point out any further revenue that may be fairly drawn from our resources, when we shall be able to form a better estimate of the intrinsic value of the country. In connexion with this question, I look with jealousy upon the office of Crown Land Commissioner, unless he can be made responsible for the faithful performance of his duties by some more accessible process than an appeal to the. Governor-in-Chief. The temptations of so virtually irresponsible an office are too great for weak human nature, and without perhaps any dishonest feeling on the part | of a Commissioner, subservient rascality is I too often apt to get the better of independent uprightness. On the subject of the upset price of land—difference of locality, demand, extent of block, and many other features point it out as one not to be dealt with by a uniform price, but by a Local Legislature, who will be guided by the circumstances which time only will develope. | The auction test I dislike as leading to overspeculation and to those crisises which have j: so often retarded the progress of the most promising young settlements. On other political subjects connected with this colony my motto will be "progress." A vigorous sweeping away of the. obstacles to our social, moral, and intellectual advancement, the procurement of regular inter-colonial steam communication, and ths reform of our present absurd mercantile tariff, shall be the objects of my endeavour, should you do me the honour of returning me as your representative. The duties and powers of the new Legislatures are at present but dimly shadowed out, and obstacles may be thrown in the way of much we should wish to see accomplished. With diffidence I offer myself as your Candidate ; and should you return me, I will endeavour conscientiously to do my duty. I have never been broken in to public hax--ness, and I must confess that the dread of the gall upon the as yet unwrung wither, has been the principal cause of my tardiness in responding to your requisitions. I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, Mark P. Stoddart. Rakaia. January 5, 1853.