THE Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1881. "ARE WE TO STAY HERE?"

Marlborough Express, Volume XVI, Issue 235, 6 October 1881, Page 2

THE Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1881. "ARE WE TO STAY HERE?"

No. 111,

The evil of bringing m large numbers of immigrauts without being able to settle them on the land, has thus been graphically described. The f»to, how.-ver, of the large estates of New Zealand is considered to be loaled by reason of the large amou.it of indebtedness, private as well as public, overhanging the Colony. Mr Sealet then proceeds to show that without the cutting up of these estates into farms ot moderate size, and the consequent increase of the producing population, it will be impassible for the Colony to keep up the payments of interest for any time. It is calculated that whilst ths population of the Colony at the census before last was 414,000, only 119,00 were males bptweon the ages of tweaty-one and sixty. The interest and sinking fund on the public debt is £1,535,000 per annum. Allowing for an increase m "adult male population up to last year of 11,000, the 130,000 males m New Zealand to-day have each to contribute. £11 15s towards interest and sinking fund. Adding to this £8 4s per head for Government expenditure, every adult male m the Colony has to provide £20. Over aud above these Government charges the total amount of money to be provided by the Colony every year, exclusive of Public Works, is no less than £3,911,000, or an average of £30 per. head. The exports of wool m 1879 represented a money value of £3, 126, 000 and grain £688,000, or altogether £100,000 short of the amount r.quirerl. The indebtedness of every man, woman, and chilu m New Zealand is stated at £100 a head as compared with £3 10s m theUuited States. In the States there is an increasing population, 'which every day lightens the individual burden of debt, whereas heie, from the want of land f»r settlement, our burdea remains the same, and if anything augments. "The really good land lit for grain growing," we read m the pamphlet, "is very limited m extent, and Battered m patuhes widely apart through both Islands, so that to render a largs scheme of immigration and Public Works really successful, every aero fit for cultivation ought to have been reserved by Government from the lirst promulgation of the immigration policy, for actual settlement m moderate-sized farms with numerous village centres, instead of which thiee-fonrths of this land is held m large estates, and consequently those farmers who were too late to get a share of the other fourth have had to content themselves with getting patches of inferior land such as sbingley plains, sandy river beds, or steep hill aides, or go without altogether. Uf-on this inferior land they now find to their cost 'that it is impossible to compete successfully fas wheat growers with the innumerable small holders of the good prairie lands of the United •States, and on the other hand they find it equally impossible to compete as stock raisers with the holders of the large estates of picked land m the Colony. "Many of the evils under which the Colony is at present labouring, are to be ascribed to absent' eism, In cases such as the Levels Bun, n?ar Tiraaru, some 80,000 acres of good agricultural lan'l are kept locked up m enormous paddocks. In Canterbury, Otago, and Southlaud, the New Zealand aud Australian Land Company hol.l 340,000 acres of freehold land, which being bought originally for £2 and £1 an acre, is now worth, owing to the large expenditure m those provinces of public money, £8 an acre. These are but two instances out of many. Mr Sealey then proceeds to suggest remedial measures by which the State may, hy being able to recover possession of some of the best land now lyiug unemployed, lend to the increase of the population of tbe Colony, and so prepare to lighten the share of the Colony's indebtedness which falls on each one. The latter pages of the pamphlet may be designated an expose of the Hall Ministry. So far as we have gone, we have only given a brief outline of the facts set forth m Mr Sealet's brochure, hut what outline we have supplied, will, we think, be deemed a sufficient warranty that the pamphlet is not only worthy of perusal, but that all persons interested m the futura welfare of the Colony, and anxious to assist m guiding it to a position of safety and prosperity, should acquaint themselves with its pages. Holding an appointment m the Survey Department as Mr Sealey did for many years, he had peculiar facilities afforded him for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the working of the New Zealand Land Laws, and therefore the facts and conclusions he has arrayed before hi 3 readers have more weight than if they came from soineene who could not properly be styled a specialist upon the subject he had m hand,