CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 148, 28 May 1885, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

MR BUNNY AND LAND SALES FOR CASH. (To the Editor of the New Zealand Times). Sin,— l see that Mr Bunny has tabled a motion at the last meeting of the Land Board " That no more land should be offered for cash sale." Such a, motion is what might be expected from a disciple of Mr Henry George, who advocates State ownership of all land. As this would be legislation opposed to human nature, it would not be a succes till an operation is performed on the human brain and the organ called acquisitiveness is extracted from it. While believing Mr Balance's special scheme may do good by setting people on the land, I would like to point out where I think it may act unfairly. When a block of land is thrown open for settlement, all the best portions can be taken up as. special settlements, where a man and his wife and four of a family above eighteen can get a grant of GOO acres ; while another man, with an equal or greater number of children imder the specified age, and with sufficient capital to buy and improve the same area, finds all 'the best portions taken up by the associations, and so many other obstacles placed m the way of' his acquiring a freehold m Government land, that he leaves the Colony to buy elsewhere ; and so Mr Bunny, and those who think with "him,' get rid of a dangerous enemy. I think the Government would act wisely if, before offering land to the public, they were to have the deferred payment blocks laid off so as to alternate with others valued and open for selection for cash. The cash purchasers would then [ be occasional employers of the labor of their neighbors, and thus enable them to meet tho payments on their sections. I think the cause ot the failure of the selectors m Victoria to meet their payments, and m Otago, where the Chief Commissioner m his, last report to the Land Board states " the complete list of defaulters is a very lons one," is through having too many deferred-payment selectors located together where they cau.not find employment tor wages.— l am &c, James Bell. Palmerston North, May 23rd.