The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1877.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 5010, 10 March 1877, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1877.

The subject of Native land purchase by the Government since 1870 is one of serious moment to the Colony. The original intention of the policy of 1870 was that £500,000 should be borrowed for the purpose of effecting Native land purchases in the North Island, the expenditure of that sum being a charge, on the Province in which the lands purchased were situated. Practical effect was given to that intention; but, in 1873, Sir Julius Yogel, who seldom adheres to principles of policy for two years together, induced the House of Representatives to dispense with that very important condition of local charge, and to add to the Native Land Purchase Fund the sum of £200,000, and this condition was dispensed with retrospectively as well as prospectively. Accordingly, the whole Colony has to pay interest for, and will have to repay the principal of, a loan of £700,000 for the purchase of a landed estate for the North Island, such estate, when acquired, being for the sole benefit of that island. It is, therefore, a matter of no slight importance to settlers in the South Island to know how this money has been spent, and what prospect there is of some beneficial result accruing therefrom. The larger, if, at the same time, the more valuable, the area of Crown lands in the North Island becomes, the more populous will it bo, and the loss will be our proportion of the payment, of which we share the burden but not tho benefit. And there is another most important consideration, to which wo cannot shut our eyes. If tho fund of £700,000 is wisely and reproductivoly expended, tho land revenue of our northern neighbours will proportionately increase, and they will bo less anxious to make a common purse of tho land revenues of both islands. Communism is a great attraction to poor men ; “ Am I not a brother P” is their cry. Rut when they become rich, their fraternal sensibilities subside. With a comfortable and increasing land fund at their Bank, northern colonists will bo in n better frame of mind to appreciate localisation of land revenue us tho principle of true colonisation. But if the fund of £700,000 has been wasted, our case is indeed hard; wo have thrown our money, which created that fund, into tho sea, and wo shall be shortly called on to throw after it our land revenue. To tho North Island tho question of tho expenditure of tho fund is of more immediate interest. Their surest prospect of progress depends on it. If these Native land purchases turn out to bo merely purchases on paper, a Barmccidian territory, or if, when actually effected, they only take form and substance in tho shape of barren and unavailable land, they will not only have to mourn tho loss of their share of the cost, but also the loss of their chief hope of better things to come. We find from tho Ministerial Statement of the late Native Minister, last session, relative to land purchases in the North Island, that on June 30 last there remained out of tho £700,000 an unexpended balance, omitting shillings and pence, of £251,505, less undistributed advances and imprest advances amount-

ing to £23,050, or altogether available £231,545. The expenditure of the amount already spent, namely £445,404, in the Provinces of Auckland, Hawkcs Bay, Wellington, Taranaki, is classed as follows ; —Negotiations completed— £241,077 for 1,700,072 acres purchased, and 830,400 acres leased. Negotiations in progress —£120,438 for 2,005,8(57 acres to bo purchased, and for 1,818,411 acres to bo leased. General expenses, £83,286. It will bo scon that in the “ Negotiations completed ” the proportion of land leased is about ono-fifth to the extent of land purchased, while in the “ Negotiations in progress ” the proportion of land to bo leased is more than one-half to the extent of land to bo purchased. Wo are not able to gather the terms for which the leases have been made or are still in negotiation, but it is evident that a large liability for a number of years must, under that head, have been incurred, and be about to bo incurred, and that the available unexpended balance must be pledged to meet that liability. The serious question on the whole subject is, of what quality is the land purchased or leased, and how far is it available for reproductive purposes in the shape of land revenue, or of land for settlement P Wo have grave misgivings with reference to that question. The official reports from agents employed in negotiating the purchases and leases are, on the one hand, too vague and general on the subject to be relied on as guides to a conclusion. On the other hand, we have before us the significant fact that the aggregate extensive acquisition of all these lands has had little or no effect in increasing the land revenue, or in adding to settlement. Let us take the Province of Auckland as an illustration. Completed negotiations for the purchase and lease of Native lands in that Province have been made since 1870 up to the end of June last of 1,175,127 acres. Every such completed negotiation has been so much territory added to the available landed estate of that Province. And yet we hear of no land revenue derivable therefrom, and when Mr Broomhall lately desired a special block for his proposed settlement, he was obliged to select land the Native title to which has not yet been fully extinguished. This unfavourable presumption is fully corroborated by the Press at Auckland. In a leading article, Feb. 24, 1877, in the Weekly Neios, a journal by no means unfavourable to the present Government, we find the following passage:—“ We suppose that “ it will now be confessed on all hands “ that that part of the Public Works “ scheme which related to the purchase “ of Native lands las been a complete “ and utter failure. Looking forward “ from the stand-point of 1870, there “ was a good deal to be said for it. The “ arguments were very plausible; the “ theory was good, but everything went “ wrong in the administration. The “ value of the land was to bo improved “ by the public works to be constructed, “ and the Government were to have a “ monopoly of purchase, so as to prevent “ largo capitalists aud load-sharks from “ obtaining any advantage at the ex- “ pense of the bond fide settler. * ’Twere “ long and sad to trace ’ how this scheme “ has failed in every particular. The “ large capitalist has not been got rid “of in every otse, but certainly the “ bowl fide settler has been utterly ex- “ tinguished, or rather has not been “ allowed to come into being. The “ Government proceeds to purchase “ before the Native Lands Court decides “ as to the ownership of a block, and “ pay one set of claimants after another “ —one liapu turning up after its pre- “ decessor has been disposed of—in a “ succession which threatens to be per- “ pctual, culminating, when everybody “ has been paid over and over in a de- “ mand to have all the best of the land “ back again in the form of reserves. “ Every block will have to go through “ the Court again, and the signatures “ will have to be got to the deeds “at an enormous expense. It would “ have been far better to have allowed “ private purchase under the sanction “of the Native Lands Court.”- This statement, we have too much reason to fear, conveys an accurate description of the case ; and that what has happened in the Province of Auckland has happened, in a modified degree, in the other Provinces in the North Island.

And yet the Government has bad every facility at its disposal for the purpose of adding valuable land to the estate of the Northern Provinces. It has had under its absolute control ample pecuniary means; peace has prevailed ; and the law allowed the Government, when it chose, to exclude private competition. The administration of the Native Land Purchase Department during the last five years is, os wo have before pointed out, a grave blot on the general administration of the late Native Minister. There has been no proper supervision, no adequate control, no judicious selection of agents, and a fatal facility of concession to the greed of land-sharks has been shown. At the same time there has boon undue anxiety to acquire quantity, and not quality, of land. The whole system, moreover, has been vitiated by the union of tbo purchase of Native land and of tho administration of Native affairs in one Minister. And now, wo want to know what is doing to remedy, as much as possible, tho deplorable result of these errors, and to secure a bettor order of things in future. Wo hour that tho present Native Minister has not undertaken tho charge of Native land purchases. And so fir so good. Bub some Minister must do it, and tho sooner ho sots about it in earnest, and unweaves tho present tangle! skein, tho bettor it ■will be for the interests of tho Colony. Wo have, we fear, wasted much of the quarter of a million expended on completed negotiationi, as they are called, but we shall waste all tho £120,000 expended on negotiations in progress if their administration continues to drift.