CORRESPONDENCE

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 138, 27 August 1853, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. f Permit me, Mr. Editor, before the approaching election takes place, .to make a few remarks upon that topic which appears most prominently to engross public attention—l mean the waste lands and their price. It is not that I am about to name a sufficient price ; I would rather endeavour to find out in what its sufficiency must consist: nor do I here propose to consider how long, for the good of the two divisions, employers and employed, it is right the latter shall exist in relation to the first, before they, in turn, healthily assume the position of employers to other new arrivals. But it seems to me, under correction, that in all those settlements founded upon the understanding, that some portion of the fund derived from the sale of waste, wild, or virgin lands, should be devoted to the provision of assisted passages to those of the labouring classes, who could not, by their own means or resources, command sufficient to emigrate in search of profitable employment. A principle has been tacitly assented to, which, expressed in words, will stand somewhat as follows: "The waste lands.of the colonies are the'patrimony of the poor." While the mere speculator will be content to buy large tracts at a low figure, it can only be the intending occupant in his own person, or in that of some of his family, who will consent to pay such a price as shall find the transport of the labourer to the new market for his sinews and his intelligence. Amongst those who now join the popular cry, are there none whose first appearance on this stage, is owing to this silently expressed principle, who received either a part or the whole of their passages ?..... Are-these individuals then, prepared, to. siiy^thaj; since their turn has been served, the principle shall be ignored, and land shall -be sold for the future at a price ithat shall pay.little more than its surveys,' and a very \small percentage to a/oad ? Are they prejpured to say that land" shall not be charged Uvith some 10 or 15s. an acrfe as a labour fund, for the introduction of those who, remained behind when they came ?.' 'Did those Mho , i. \ .

now clamour about cheap land, ever yearn for some scene, some fair play stage, where kissing went not by favour, in which their energies and labour should be more in proportion to the price of the sweat of their brow ? Did they not so yearn at home ? Have our healthy breezes, and our elastic atmosphere, then, worked this sequitur, that those who are at home had better stop there for their own interests, and that here they are by no means wanted ? Is all our labour done? Go to„ Why all sorts of persons have of late been pledging themselves to all sorts of popular things—but the pledge everywhere given in Christchurch, Lyttelton, and Akaroa, is inter-district communication, better and better, till it is good. Shall we then pledge and be pledged to roads—and sell the land these roads are going to bring into value, at a price that shall not produce what may be called a subsidy to their making, or bring the labour into the field through which they are to be cut? What, neither labour for the road, nor money for the road, and yet take and give pledges! Go to, now. When are we going to have a ship in again? is a common question. A friend of mine answers, when we sell some land at a price that will find us labour. Ah, how so? Why, simply, merchants at home, and merchants here, cannot afford to have fifty tons of goods in a ship of 700 tons; but if fifty labourers and their families accompany them, there is in the latter live freight an earnest that as production^ is always going on, never at a stand still, we shall be able to pay well for the goods. Would you raise money on a loan on debentures, on security of the revenues ? Is it not more likely to be obtained if the lender shall see, that by a judicious price on our own wild lands, we are introcing that class without whom capital must lay idle ? If our loads can be made, our land is safe to sell. Those who make the roads will save and buy, and all become cottier farmers.

And now about compensation ! there is a something very pleasing about that word : do not let us, however, be so taken up with it, that we shall cease to discriminate between what is right and agreeable. Those who bought land at the price of £3 per acre, —which it appears always necessary to remind some bullet-headed talkers was not the price of the land, as mere land, but was divided into six portions, each sixth of which they have received, (although the church and education might be better), bought it knowing, pre-warned,- fore-advised, that the association —failing to sell a certain quantity—-the whole district would revert to the Crown for disposal, and be subject to the Crown regulations for the time being. Knowing this where is the plea for compensation ? Is it because land is about to be sold round them at a much lower price ? Original purchasers must, to receive compensation lands, have their compensation awarded to them before land is sold at this reduction of price. Will they put this land into the market when awarded ? Why should they ? If they sell not their unoccupied land that cost them money, are they going to sell that which not only cost them nothing, but which will make their original property as valuable again ? and if they only get 25 acres compensation to. every 50, there Avill be sufficient land taken up to drive your cheap land purchasers so far back that it will be found to possess the quality generally supposed to accompany that cheapness, namely nastiness. If I was about to commit matrimony, and yet hovering on the brink of the. single state—undecided, and wanting yet a little testimony in favour of that dual state, to whom should I apply? To the single man ? No. To the married man—living with another's wife ? No ! To the married mail—living with his own wife ? Yes. Not, then, to those noisy clamourers, who,

after some 15 years in the country, never were found farther inland than a gull's flight. Not to those who live by the shortcomings of their fellows, and write themselves their champions, shall I with all due deference submit these my stray ideas—which I have sent you, Mr. Editor, to bail up : but rather to those who are used to reap and to sow ; to hedge and to ditch ; to saw and to cleave ; to load and to unload ; those who —be it under broad cloth or homespun—are used to produce. I am, sir, Your obedient servant, Phii<o Metoikos.