DIFFICULTIES OF A SETTLER IN SEARCH OF LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8655, 26 August 1891, Page 3

DIFFICULTIES OF A SETTLER IN SEARCH OF LAND.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The experiences of one who has made an earnest, though unhappily futile, attempt to settle on land in New Zealand may prove of interest and value to many of your readers. In the winter of 1886, being then newly landed from England. I applied at the office of Crown lands in the city of Auckland, and acting on information sup* plied by the persons in charge of that department, subsequently paid visits to certain blocks of so-called first-class land, situated all over the Auckland province, from the Waikato to Mangonui. In _ many cases it was only with the utmost difficulty, and at considerable expense, that I was able to come within sight of the sections, while in some instances the difficulties were of a character so insuperable that I recoiled from any attempt to surmount them. During the whole*;: of these journeys the wonderful climate of New Zealand, which is to compensate for bad management and iniquitous land laws, for everything in short that is amiss in taxation, - debt, and commercial depression, did not reveal to me its brighter side. However, I could, no doubt, be content with the climate if the land laws were such that a man could find a spot—say within one lifetimeon which he could settle down to observe it in its completeness. Now, the gentlemen'employed in the Lands Office may or ii iot be aware that the land rated in their s». whiles as first-class is not really so; also, that the Government does not in reality possess any first-class land at all. It is, perhaps, not their business to know, but merely to follow the instructions they receive. But it remains a fact that in their endeavours to locate me in the province of Auckland, 1 was sent to barren cliffs over the sea, to well-nigh irreclaimable swamps, to impassable forests, lost among uusurmountabfe mountainsin short, to Land's End, World's End, and the Ultima Thules of desolation. By a fortunate, but purely fortuitous concatenation of circumstances, I survived the ordeal. That there are large tracts of rich land in the province of Auckland I do not deny, but that the State possesses one acre of such I can no longer believe. All the rich valleys and fertile slopes to the north of Auckland, more especially those to the north of Whangarei, are in the possession of the natives, who can neither use them themselves nor sell or lease them to those that' can. _ My experience does not justify me in saying that this is so everywhere throughout the province, but I do not doubt that such .is the case. The fact, then, that there are hundreds of thousands of acres, and these of the finest land in the whole province, which cannot be settled, and thus made of value to the whole community, is one of those astounding discoveries which the intending settler makes in his search for land. I am aware that, at the present moment, the natives have nominally the power to dispose of their land under certain restrictions, having regard to a portion which is inalienable, but that practically they have no such power let the following facts testify. In the opening of 1886 I entered into arrangements with a native proprietor for the lease of a block of 400 acres in the county of Hokianga. Needless to say I had not at that time the remotest conception of that series of well-nigh insuperable barricades which intervene between the settler and the native lands. Understanding that within a comparatively reasonable period it was possible for a valid lease to be drawn out, I settled down, and made improvements ; but, though both lessor and lessee were anxious for deeds, years passed away without their existence becoming a possibility. At length, in December, 1889, a Native Land Court Judge, sitting in the township of Hokianga, granted a -partition order in favour of the native proprietorand here I may remark that his claim had never been opposed, either by Maori or European. Now, the law dealing with native claims (so far as it is possible for an ordinary intellect to comprehend it) provides that a period of three months and forty days shall elapse from the making an order in Court to the issue of a Crown grant in favour of the person specified in the order. That period having elapsed, without an appeal being made oil behalf of any other native, I wrote to the Chief Judge of the Native Land Court, asking if there were any further obstacle to the issue of a Crown grant. This, by a remarkable, almost prophetic, coincidence, was on the Ist of April, 1800. On the 6th June (same year) I received the following reply "Sir, —In reply to your letter of the Ist April last, I nave to inform you that the partition of the Whakatere Block is not completed yet, and the order for the issue of the Crown grant for the portion called Whakatere No. 2 cannot go forward until orders i can be made in respect of the whole block.— I have the honour to be, sir. your most obedient servant, H. G. Seth Smith, Chief Judge.'

However, since the day when I first entered upon negotiations for the lease of this particular piece of land, an attempt to remove some of the obstacles on native land had been made in an enactment which allowed natives to deal with their land, under certain restrictions, without the interference of the Government. Though I had hitherto failed to surmount a single one of the barricades, it now appeared as though they were about to melt away of themselves. Accordingly, I obtained the assistance of a gentleman in the district to make the final arrangements, and in the beginning of January, 1891, instructions were given to Messrs. Mackeehnie and Nicholson to prepare the deeds of lease. On January 10th we received the following letter : —" Dear Sir :Re Whakatere No. '2. We are in receipt of your letter herein of the 7th instant, and in reply beg to state we have searched the title of the Whakatere block in the Native Lands Office, but could find no trace of a block called ' Whakatere No. 2.' We found, however, a block ' Whakatere No. I,' containing 376 a. lr. Bp., comprised in a partition order in favour of the . natives named by you, and made in December, 1889. This order is bad, and of no force and effect, as the remainder of the original block of 11,800 acres has not been dealt with or partitioned by the court. In view of the above fact we must advise that the lease you require cannot be prepared, nor can any valid legal dealings take place with the land under the present title. We sire yours faithfully, Mackechnie and Nicholson."

Now, sir, I am an individual who came to ' this country with the intention of settling on land. I brought a little money with me, anch naturally supposed I should not be unwelcome. 1 also supposed that if there was any matter which, for the good of the colony it was imperatively demanded '"should be governed by the simplest of laws that matter was the land. The Government had no land of the quality 1 required, but the natives possessed it in abundance. To them I applied, and with them I easily came to terms. But there is, it appears, another tactor, and one which, while it is itself impalpable and unassailable, has yet more to do with the matter than the person who fondly imagines himself to be the owner of the soil, and after five years of incessant struggle I withdraw from the competition. It may be possible to secure a valid title to a piece of native land, it is not for a weak mortal to decide what is possible and what is impossible, but I cannot dismiss from my mind the fact that life is after all limited to some 70 or 80 years, while the actions of the State are apparently based on infinity.— am, etc., W. Satciiei.l.