ISSUE OF CROWN GRANTS TO WAIKATO SETTLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 539, 4 August 1865, Page 4

ISSUE OF CROWN GRANTS TO WAIKATO SETTLERS.

'• I tkust that by reducing to the utmost 11 limit all extraordinary expenditure con- " uei-tod with the suppression of the present "native insurrccfion, or incidental thereto, '• and bv careful economy in the ordinary "services of (he Government, you will be •• enabled to sustain the eredil of the Colony." Such were the aspirations ot Ins Excellency, which found vent in the speech with which he opened the Assembly the oilier day. Wo the .Ministry look for an opportunity of showing their appreciation of the advice given They have it at: the present moment in the AVaikato, where a considerable daily expenditure maybe saved and the settlement of the countrv at the same time be materially assisted and advanced. 'We regret to say that there exists amongst the military settlers in the AVaikato a distrust of the intentions of the present Ministry as respects the ultimate issue of Crown grants for the land allotted to them. This state of feeling arises ill great measure, we are informed, from representations said to have been made to them bv Mr. George Graham during his recent Visit to the Waikato, to the effect that the Government would fail in its promise to issue the Crown grants to them at the time promised. The effect of this has been to canst' a verv general feeling of discontent and uneasiness. The men have not the heart to work, being unwilling to spend their savings on the improvemenf ofland, the title to which thev are not assured of. 11l consequence of the want of confidence entertained, there will not, we are informed 011 reliable authority, be as much as twenty acres put under crop bet ween Alexandra and Kihikihi, one of the finest agricultural districts in the Waikato.

Perhaps the best way in which this greatly to be deplored state of feeling could be allayed wonld be for the Government to at once cause to be issued the Crown grants for the town and rural sections allotted to the men of the several Waikato regiments. By doing so confidence would he restored, the Government by the stoppage at the same timo of rations, as now issued, would save a considerable daily expenditure, the ration for a single man costing eighteenpence daily, and in the case of married men with families, from three to ten shillings. The men themselves would be well pleased to lose their rations for the possession of Hit! Crown grant. Many now hesitating as to the future would turn to and invest their work and capital on the land, which at. present they will not do—and those who never intend to remain would at once dispose of their allotments and make room for others and more valuable settlers. The very fact that the land is subdivided into piecc.s of fifty acres only is the best guarantee that when sold they will pass iuto the hands of buna J'tdc settlers. Sooner or later these Crown grants must be issued, and those who would leave now will leave then. Men of capital will not care to speculate in such small lots, and with the prospect, too, of being subjected to that highly salutary cheek upon absentee proprietorship, the operations of the "Highway Districts Act."' So far from any injury being inflicted upon the settlements by the sale of their allotments by the less valuable portion of the original holders a Miry great benelit will on the contrary. we beli'.'\e, be afforded 'hern. T;.e rowdy, the idle, and the diss.dure element will !v cleared out of the settlements and in its place will spring up a population of small capitalists of whom there are numbers now in Auckland only waiting such an opportunity as will be then afforded them of purchasing good land in localities to which there exist means of approach fey roads or water. We can quite understand the damp which lias been thrown upon the minds of the Waikato settlers by the promulgation of such statements as those which it is reported

have been industriously circulated unionist them. Thoy have been told :ijso, tluit the very hi. id allotted to thom litis boo Li illegally gni;i:<.d <o them, and that claims AvilT be advanced by native owners wrongfully dispossessed. \Vo need not point out to the me a of the Waikato regiments the utter absurdity of such statements as these. The land has' been duly confiscated under dircct authority from the Crown, and whether the rightful Maori owners who were dispossessed have or have not taken part in the rebellion docs not in any way affect the legality of the confiscation. IMie land is gone. The original owner, it guiltless, is however entitled to compensation for the land taken—but that is a matter between himself and the Colonial Government, and one which in 110 way affects the holder of the grant from the Crown. To talk, therefore, of upsetting at any future time the titles to land so granted by the Crown is simply an absurdity, and is onlj r resorted to by those whose design or interest it is to thw art* the progress of settlement in the conquered districts.

There is one other matter which has given rise to considerable uneasiness during past month in the minds of very many of the Waikato militia, and that was the notification which appeared in the JS'c.w Zifcihtnd GuzcUe of the lltli July last, cancelling the conditions, dated ord of August, 18(53, upon which land situated in the Waikato country, ill the Province of Auckland, will be granted to volunteer militiamen, to military and naval settlers, and to settlers willing to perform military services. The cancelling of these conditions will not in any way afreet those who have enlisted under them, but simply absolves the Croverument henceforth from being called upon to receive new recruits under such conditions. A very different representation of the meauing and intention of this notification was given m an Auckland print, a copy of which found its way info the Waikato districts, and caused great uneasiness. "We earnestly recommend to the consideration of the Assembly the question we have now mooted. The member for hrunklin, Col. 1 laultain, must well know and is able to point out the requirements of the military settlers. That the immediate issue of the Crown grants would be a great boon to both men and officers there can be no doubt, it only that it would enable many of thein to take up money upon their land for the purchase of seed and cattle. There are many who could sell their town acres to advantage who would still remain and settle on their rural allotments.