The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1867.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1133, 2 July 1867, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1867.

BPECTEMUB AGENDO. "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice : Take each man's cenanre, but reserve thy jadinneut. This aiove all,—To thine own self lie tons A xid it must follow, as the night the day, Thou ctmat iiot then he false to any man."'

The legislation of the past month, though confined to a Bession of less than a fortnight's duration, will make itself felfc for

years to come in the future of Auckland. Few subjects were discussed, but of these two were of considerable, and one of vital importance to the welfare of the province. The principle of responsible Government in conducting the affairs of the province, has been approved, by resolution, by the Provincial Council, and accepted by the Superintendent, and a resolution has' also been passed authorizing the Superintendent to ask from the General Assembly the use and enjoyment of pertain valuable harbor endowments, on the security of which it is hoped that the province may succeed in raising the means necessary for constructing a dry dock in the "Waitemata, which, like the harbour of Auckland itself, will be second to none in this part of the world. The third, and moreover the most important piece of legislation. to which we need refer, is that which embraces several very essential alterations in the "Waste Land regulations of the province. It had been hoped by a party here—a small, but wealthy and powerful party—that the Council would have been induced to cancel the forty-acre - system altogether, to drive the Provincial Government from the purehase of native lands for re-sale, and to wind up the affairs of the. "Waste Lands Office. The effect of this would have been, that Europeans requiring land must have gone either direct to the native owner, or to the European land speculator. "We need not say what would have been the position of newly arrived immigrants, or of even men of but a few years residence in the colony. They would, as a rule, have been unable to drive a bargain direct with native owners. Those, perhaps, who had the means to travel about the country in order to find land that would suit them, which the native owner might be persuaded to sell, who could hire agents and interpreters, and who would brook the delays attending all Maori transactions, would succeed—but this system, .which would work well enough in the case of purchasers of land by thousands of acres, would be ruinous to the small capitalist. He would, indeed, never attempt it. The land speculator would be his resource. Now, he has got the Government to apply to as an agent for the purchase of land, and he I gets it at the prime cost—or, as an immigrant holding land orders, at no cost at all. Then, he would be at the mercy of the land speculator, and would have to pay pounds per acre, where he now pays shillings. The Government supplies him with land at the smallest minimum price possible, looking to the settlement of the country, as its profit in the transaction. The land speculator would wring the last penny of profit out of him, by charging the highest price he could get for the land when re* selling it. One of Mr. "Williamson's fixed principles as a politician, and one which like charity in a sinner, would cover a multitude of sins in any politician, is the desire to advance in every possible way the settlement of the waste lands of the province by a class of lonajide hard working industrious settlers, occupying and tilling the lands they hold. When Mr. Williamson recently became a candidate for the Superintendency, we felt assured thoughhe had given no pledge or assurance on this matter, that he would hold faithful to his principles, and we gave him a steady support. We felt certain that he would not be content to become a mere office clerk, but would strike out a policy calculated to raise the province out of its present difficulties. To do so in the present circumstances of the province was no easy matter, with money scarce and confidence shaken-—but in the alterations in the land laws proposed by him to the Council for approval, and which -will doubtless be legalised .by the General Assembly, the Superintendent has, we believe, taken the wisest course open to him for bringing about a sure and speedy revival of the prosperity of Auckland.

So far, then, the party opposed to country settlement has not secured the overthrow of tlie land-order system, nor driven the Provincial Government from affording its cheap and safe agency to those desirous of purchasing land. On the contrary, the Council, by a sweeping majority, has approved alterations in the laws which render them more liberal than ever, in the inducements which they hold forth for settlement. Chief amongst these is the granting of land-orders to immigrants from the Australasian Colonies. Hitherto persons arriving from Australia and .Tasmania for the purpose of settling in this Province were not entitled to grants of land. That restriction will be removed, and the change will be a beneficial one to all parties. Moreover, such immigrants, in addition to land-orders for their passage, willbe entitledalso to one acre of land for every £10 of capital they may possess. Men who have been already colonised, who know how to rough it and are not afraid to do so, are the men we want as settlers. "We have had enough of broken-down tradesmen and gentlemen, hands from the cotton factories, clerks, shopmen, and the like from home. Such men are ill-suited for a colonial life in any phase—are certainly unfit for bush settlers, They take our lands and give us no thing in return, and then abuse the country because they cannot succeed in it. Such is not the case when we obtain immigrants from other colonies. Some of our best settlers are men who colonised themselves on the gold fields of "Victoria, and settled here on forms with their earnings. To the North, whole settlements have been formed by immigrants from Nova Scotia, who, commencing bush life with little money, but much experience, have made a garden of the wilderness, and at "Waipu, "Wangarei, Kauriohori, and elsewhere m the North, have set a worthy example, and have established beyond all doubt the fact that when ■ in this Province settlement has failed, it has, as a rule, been the fault, not of the land, but . of the'men who attempted it.

Before the summer is out we shall doubtless see a steady stream of immigration set in from.Australia and Tasmania. It needed but the inducements now offered, and the final establishment of peace, to secure this. The war has now died out, and the settle-, ment of the lands may once again proceed unhindered, as they did before the war commenced, but. with this great difference. Then, most men foresaw a struggle sooner or later with the native race. Now, the pointß at issue between the Maori and European have been settled, and a long and severe struggle has taught both a lesson. The day,too, is not far distantwhen the people of the Northern island will exercise full and uncontrolled legislation in respect to

natiye matters. "War will then become -impossible, for the simple reason that the only one of the two parties likely to engage in it will have no cause of complaint, will be subject to no system of injustice, nor be irritated and goaded into rebellion. . the present time this northern pro°f New Zealand offers to the people of -Australia inducements which they are not likely to overlook—a climate temperate ana mild, soil rich and well watered, a large seaboard, indented with splendid harbours and easily accessible to the capital, cheap labor, and land, not cheap merely, but free * C j° St — olll y P a y. me nt asked being that of oona fide occupation. Here, there are neither drought in summer, nor are there in winter those fearful floods which, periodically occurring every five or six years, sweep away the labours of the husbandman, and, as in the case of the late disastrous floods in Ifew South Wales, recorded by us yesterday and to-day, destroying not only cattle and property, but numbers of human lives, whole families even in some instances. Here, those who can save .from such losses the wreck of their fortunes, may invest them in land every bit as fertile, m a for finer climate, and where there is a readier market at hand. To men with a capital of from two to three hundred pounds and upwards, the land regulations as; they ■will be now amended -win offer iniiacomeTita for settlement which no other colony can put forward, and there is little doubt but that the province wiU receive a large addition to its population from the Australian colonies.