The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1867.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1076, 26 April 1867, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1867.

SFECTKaiUR AGEMDIX u Givo every m.in thino ear, but few t»iy vnico : Take each n:;m'g censuro, but roservo thy Th»u above Ml,—To thine owu fell'be truo And it must follow, as tho nieht the day, lliou canet not then fcc falsa to any ra?\n."

Tni» letter of " Civis " published by us ou Tuesday, and the extract attached, refer to a subject of great importance. Indeed to a new country there is no question of more vital importance than that, viz., the best method of speedily scouring the settlement of population oil its waste lands. Long before it bceame quite as fashionable as it is now, we persistently advocated the absolute necessity of encouraging country settlement in every possible way. It would perhaps do no great amount of good to refer to facts and figures at length to show how very flill'erent a position we might now be in had tlie money we were able to borrow been spent as it ouglitf o have been spent. Seoresof miles of roads, hundreds of serviceable bridges might have been made in the interior of the country had that borrowed money been expended on them instead of oil the costly architectural ornaments that wc conhl have well clone without for ten or, fifteen years, and on an abortion of a railway, a monument of folly and of mismanagement. To refer to these and to show what vast influence for good the proper expenditure of the money rctVrredto would have exercised by inducing the settlement of the country, is merely valueable as ail'ording a warning of grievous misapplication of funds, and of affording a clear perception of what lies at the foundation of the prosperity of a colony like this. "Wo need not therefore argue at any length as to the value an increased population dwelling ou the now waste lands of the province would be. Their wants and requirements would at once increase the trade of the town in a healthy and progressive manner. Their productions would do tlie same, and also increase the general wealth and prosperity. The most obtuse need not to be told at this time of da)' that the trado of Auckland would be benefitted by its. being curried ou more and more with our country set-tiers, and relatively less with other countries. in other words that it would bo much more advantageous for us in town to buy our cheese and hams and bacon, and jam and fruits, from our country settlors, Avho would buy from us goods in return for such articles, rather than that wc should import them, and pay cash for them, to those who buy nothing of us in return. Similarly with regard to our beef and mutton, our prosperity would not be decreased, but on the contrary be increased very materially if our imports of sheep from ]S T apicr, for instance, and cattle from Australia were to cease altogether, and if all the mutton and beef we consume were Auckland-reared and Auckland-fed. Our imports of taxed goods would be less, our foreign trade would be something less, but our internal prosperity would be far greater, could wc reduce the customs income very considerably by increasing the homo production of articles which wo can easily produce and at as low a rate as we can import them.

ilow thou can we best and most rapidly ncreasu scttLeincnt on the laud is :i particularly important ijuestion in an economical point of view, and it in no less so in a peace point of view. The idea that the purchase money rcceiveil by the Government for land sold !>y it is the main thing to be looked at, is a most short-sighted one, and utterly wrong. Jt is as indefensible, and indeed far more so than the reckless letting of land at enormous rents to poverty-stricken tenants, as has been too much the practice in Ireland.

The Government is not in tlio position of a private individual, 'whose interest it is to sell at the highest possible rate he can get I and obtain the money. It is rather to bo looked at in the character of a largo landholder with an entailed estate, whose true policy is to lease the land at low rents to improving tenants. The prosperity of the country is an entailed estate, an hereditary possession that ought to be handed down from Government to Government unimpaired. It is not the Government of the hour and the day that should be alone consulted, but the country, and country's welfare. The country remains when governments have been changed a hundred times. Its interests are permanent, not merely temporary,-as interests of G-ovcrniiicnts are too often assumed to be. And the permanent good of the country demands increased population, increased production, increased cultivation of the soil. The good that Hows to the country from such a state of things is • patent. The number of taxpayers is at once increased, they become year by year more iixed ib the soil, more capable of paying taxes. They have each year a greater interest in the general prosperity, and while attaining success for themselves ; they help others to attain success. They give employment directly and indirectly to a number of people who also pay their quota oi the public burdens, and the mate rial weal ill of the country is by them increased. It might, wc believe, be very easily iudeed provided, that it would be far cheaper for Government to give considerable portions of land to those who would

occupy and improve it, rather than that it ■should sell it to those who do not do this, ov to let it lie idle as waste land of the Crown. Our forty-acre system is "based 011 this idea, hut it is confined to persons coming from the United Kingdom. In America where progress and go-a-hcadism are things known and understood, this system of free grants oi land to bona Jldc occupiers has been extensively acted upon. To do as littlo violence as possible to prejudices among us: wc would propose the adoption of this svstem among us on a limited scale. There "must he a considerable um»unt ofland under the land order system not taken up, or forfeited from a variety of causes. Let us have this clearly ascertained, let the lots and blocks be made public, and give. thorn to those who will go on and occupj r them, 110 matter whence the parties come or how long they have been in the colony or province. The only purchase money required being the continuous living upon the land for a certain number of years, and a certain quantity of land brought into cultivation before a crown title be granted. The term to be shortened if the area required was cultivated before the end of the term mentioned. The holder to be liable like all other settlers to pay the highway rates of the district. The settlement of only one hundred families on such terms would be an ,immediate gain.