The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1867.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1125, 22 June 1867, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1867.

SPECTEMUK AGENDO. " Give every man thine ear, bnt fewtliy voice : Take each nan's cenFure, bnt reserve thy judemert. Thif atove all, —To thine own Felf be true And it must follow, aatho night the day. 1 Jion caret not (lien le false to sny man."

The debates of the Provincial Council. as reported in another portion of this morning's issue, on the Government propositions as to changes in the land regulations of this province, and the result of the division, show that the views which we have persistently advocated have been adopted by a very largo majority of the members of the Council present, and by a majority of the entire Council. The division list shows that eighteen members voted for the Government, and nine only with the opposition. The debate occupied the whole sitting, and indeed the question had also been more or less discussed on previous occasions. "We must also state that the debate was of a far more than average character. "We do not recolleofc any question so well, so ably, and so temperately discussed by all parties as that to which we refer. Both the opponents and the advocates of the Government propositions had evidently determined to put forth their best efforts on the occasion, and to produce the arguments best calculated to advance their opinions and gain converts to them. The opposition, too, was by no means a feeble one, an enemy that could not be easily vanquished, and we must confess that they placed tlicir side of the question ably before the Council. Mr. "William Buckland proposed an amendment to the Government propositions, and he was supported in speeches of varied length and ability, but evidently well considered, by Messrs. "Wynn, Newman, May, J. O'Neill,Swanson and other persons of experience. Hence the views of the Council expressed by the decision of last night must bo considered as the deliberate opinion of the large majority of those who voted, and the Superintendent will now be prepared to go to the General Assembly with an authoritative voice on this very important question. The question at issue was the extension of what is popularly known as the "forty " acre system" of free grants of land, though with important alterations, and what the Opposition sought was the prevention of the ; Government from buying land from the natives on the same terms as other persons. Suppose, therefore, the propositions of the Government to be sanctioned by the General Assembly, any person coming to the Province, of Auckland from any part of the world; will have certain grants of land, just as jf they had come from the United only condition being that the land should be occupied for two years before the Crown grant is issued. "

hi addition to this, the Council has divided ■ ipon the advisability of giving a certain imount of land in proportion to the capital ntroduced by the immigrant. Long previous to the present Grovernnent coming into office, -we advocated those ;wo points. Our arguments' have been that 1 she price obtained by the sale of the land ; aught not to be our main object, but rather that we should seSk to get successful settlers upon it. The produce they will raise, the bases they will pay, and the guarantee for peace which increased European population will assuredly give, all point out most emphatically the wisdom of a most Liberal encouragement to settlement on the country lands. And in addition to all this, there is the increased trade thus given to the principal towns; to the shipping, the trade, and commerce generally of the Province. The second proposition, also, to give a certain quantity of land for occupation to persons having a named amount of capital will, as we have before argued, have a direct advantage in securing the admixture of capital and labour, a point of essential importance. Thus the Government propositions remove some of the admitted evils of the forty- acre system. They require occupation of the land, they encourage capitalists to settle on land, and offer facilities for all parties to obtain land suitable to their requirements. But the Opposition really aimed at preventing the Government from buying land at all from the natives. "We have persistently and strenuously written against such a scheme, put forth generally in the interests of large capitalists who, under the cry of free-trade in land, really mean a monopoly, by which they can purchase large blocks of land, indeed, be the only purchasers of large blocks of land from the natives, and retail it then to suppliant purchasers at monopolist rates. The Government, by carrying out their propositions, will thus be able to purchase large blocks of land from the natives, and to retail it to those who desire to obtain small portion for occupation, and not square miles of country ior purely i speculative purposes, to be sold only, as we have before said, at high rates. As one of j the speakers during the debate observed, it would be a mere mockery to tell a. stranger, newly arrived in the country, and who wanted to purchase a small lot of land for a freehold farm for himself, to go and negotiate the purchase of the required small lot of land. To what natives could he go ? How could he get to examine the land that might be on sale by natives ? How conduct his negociations"with them? The thing is perfectly ridiculous. Any such purchaser would be compelled to take Hobson's choice. He must go to the speculator, and be content with the land offered to him and at the price of the great monopolist, who, with an ill-disguised hypocrisy, has secured his position by the cry of free trade in land. We feel gratified at the result of this division. It ratifies the carefully considered opinions we have advocated as being highly conducive to the best interests of the province, and although we do not expect any miraculous influence from their adoption, we do believe they will tend to the advancement and general prosperity of this province.

The climax to this policy would be, if the Superintendent could successfully show the General Government and the General Assembly that it would he highly conducive to the general interests of the colony if the confiscated lands of the province could be dealt with in a similar manner, and a permanent population settled upon them.