CROWN LANDS RENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10405, 1 April 1897, Page 3

CROWN LANDS RENTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— movement is on foot amongst the selectors of the Crown lands of the Otau block for the purpose of getting the rents oi the Crown lauds reduced. Petitions are to be sent to the Lands Office, Auckland, to the Minister of Lands, and to the members of the district, setting forth that in the interests of settlement it is desirable that the rents of the Crown lands be reduced about 50 per cent. The usual stock price on land held by the Crown for selection is 10s per acre, quite regardless of the situation. It seems impossible for the Lands Office to get below that price. In my case I have to pay rent on land valued at 15s per acre,* in an entirely inaccessible situation; while land facing a navigable stream' and with a' good road [[unuigg along it, u«oly cwsideted worth

10s per acre, unimproved, by_ the district assessor. And that is all it is worth, as prices of agricultural produce go. Now I hold from experience and what I have seen, that if the Government of this country really desires to settle people on rough inaccessible land it should allow selectors to take up the lands on the other same conditions as at present, but rent free for at lease tea years. This is done in Canada, and should be done here. It takes ten years' hard battling to make a living out of a back bush farm, and if there is a big rent to pay, which there must be, because a big area is necessary, only moneyed people could afford to take up selections, and then they have to be careful or they will cripple themselves. So that tile matter really resolves itself into the question, whether is it better to let settlers have the laud for ten years free, or have no settlers at all ? It must be borne in mind that selecting a bush section and working it, is not all joy, and if men are bold and iudustrioti3 enough to tackle I making the rough steep wilderness to blossom as a rose, they should not have an embargo put on to them in the shape of a prohibitive rent. Those who say a rent should be charged should just go forth and see what the life is. It is all lay out" money, but there seems to be no return. It is hard living, hard work, and hard times always, living in miserable whares in the wet winters to fell bush. Then when the grass comes after all the hard labour to see it swept away by caterpillars, necessitating the sale of stock at a sacrifice, and great inconvenience and loss of time. _ And the roads, if there be any, simply mud channels for nine months of the year, with all supplies or produce carried on horse-back or often " man-back," away from any social intercourse or anything to make life happy, liable to all manner of accidents and no doctor within miles, and dependent on hisfellow settlers for attendance. And yet a man who is brave and patriotic enough to undertake all this is asked to pay fictitious rent for so doing. 1 say the land is absolutely valueless till the selector has made it valuable by his persevering hard work, and in ail justice he should not be charged anythine till he has had time to make an assured income from the land, and improvements should be allowed to count as rent paid.—] am, etc., Sam. A. Browse. Clevedon, March 20th, 1897.