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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9262, 16 January 1889, Page 4

On every hand there are evidences of improvement and progress in the community. It is stated that within the next few months the buildings contemplated to be erected in the city and suburbs will involve an expenditure of over £20,000, showing that with returning confidence the purse-strings of investors are being relaxed. What, however, the province wants is not land booms, with fancy prices, corner sections, and thimble-rigging auction salesnot mining booms, with their inevitable gambling and share-jobbing, but an agricultural boom, which gives to the honest, industrious worker of the soil the legitimate reward of his labour. This latter condition of affairs appears to be that to which the province is tending, in which we will redeem our former folly of having "all the eggs in one basket," and in which the legitimate balance between town and country will be maintained. In this light the quarterly returns of the past year's operations in the Auckland Crown Lands Department are instructive, and we are indebted to the courtesy of the Crown Lands Commissioner (Mr. Percy Smith) for them. For the quarter ending March 1888, there were 48 holdings taken up, comprising 8421 acres, total cash receipts £1111 ; June quarter 129 holdings, 16,000 acres, cash receipts, £3040; September quarter, 93 holdings, 8250 acres, cash receipts, £3012; December quarter, 178 holdings, 19,673 acres, cash receipts, £56*20. It will be seen by the figures of the last quarter that a great stride has been made in advance of any of the previous quarters, the acreage purchased being more than doubled. Settlement has been principally extending in the North, though there has been a little spurt in the Tauranga district. The best Crown lands now left open for selection are in the North, and in that direction settlement will most likely extend during the next few years. The great proportion of road-making at present is simply being executed to increase the lines of communication with existing settlements, and settlements in process of being formed. From time to time portions of the vote available for opening up Crown lands for sale are being expended as opportunity offers, or a demand is created. The perpetual lease, we learn, still remains the favourite form of tenure, but simply because it is a lease with a purchasing clause, the idea of obtaining a freehold still remaining as a stimulus to the settlers. The great advantage is that it enables the settler to keep his capital for clearing his land and stocking it, instead of having his nose kept to the grindstone with a mortgage, and paying interest thereon. It is a pity that the survey staff is not strengthened to get the blocks available quickly surveyed, and thus meet the pressing demand for land. The Crown Lands Department, we learn, is taking advantage of the provisions of the new Land Act, which provide in certain cases for selection

before survey, after lands have been declared open. In the case of unsurveyed lands, the people have the option of taking up land for cash, deferred payment, or perpetual lease, they paying the cost of survey, which goes towards reducing the price of the land. The settlement going on apart from the special settlements is of a very satisfactory character — the progress made being definite and assured, the tide of settlement showing no reflux—and where the new settler puts down his foot he keeps it there. A new and cheering feature in the operations of the Crown Lands Department is the numerous inquiries from the Southern provinces and also from the Australian colonies

respecting land open for selection. There is every reason to believe that shortly this portion of the colony will receive a valued accession of agriculturists from Australia, who are heartsick of the ever-recurring droughts there which sweep away the savings of years, and who desire to make a new start in life in the more favoured colony of New Zealand.