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New Zealand Mail, Issue 426, 10 April 1880, Page 24

It is good, from every point of view, that the Hon. Minister for Lands, when waited on by the representatives of the Wellington Working Men's Association, spoke out plainly. " AYho are you, gentlemen, " asked he, " coming as private individuals and importuning for concessions which the law does not permit the Government to make ? Were you representatives of a corporate body and possessed of necessary capital, the Government might be in a position to grant you special facilities for the acquisition of a block of laud for settlement, but you really represent nothing more than some 150 or 200 persons who have enrolled their names as a quasi-public body, and who, as your chief spokesman says, are ready to become bona fide settlers as soon as a suitable locality can be found. But you give no proof that you have capital even sufficient to meet the expense of cultivating the land, apart from paying for its cost; nor do you give evidence of any exceptional skill in agriculture or kindred industry, which will stand you in good stead in the absence of capital. In a word, your object is a most laudable one, namely, to help yourselves instead of remaining waiters on Providence ; but your scheme is Utopian; it involves outlay which you show no present means' of providing; it involves also a departure from the present laud laws of the colony, which I cannot for a moment courAfcenance. I will give you every facility to avail yourselves of the regulations as they exist, but you must not expect the Government to attempt to make settlers of you, and take the responsibility if, after a while, you become dissatisfied at your prospects." This, in general terms, is the sum and substance of the Hon. Mr. Kolleston's reply, and few, except the members of" the deputation, and the association they represented, will be inclined to cavil. The object of the Small Farm Association is a most praiseworthy one, but the means devised for attaining such object prove, as yet, crude, ill-digested, to some extent visionary, and selfish. As a matter of fact no project succeeds unless motives of self-interest are involved: even charity begins at home —men give not alone to aid distress, but as a balm and saving grace to their own reflections; and thus the association may be held wholly absolved from all blame in endeavoring to obtain the best possible concessions from the Government, but desire has out-paced discretion. The Minister for Lands has done; the State some service in avoiding any; inclination to temporise or hold out

I hopes of possibilities which may nev e r ensue. The deputation, though no doubt disappointed, are at least wiser men now that their interview with the hon. Minister is over. They received an unequivocal intimation that no special concessions in dealing with Crown lands can possibly be made to other than a corporate body, which they are not ; but, on the other hand, it was shown them that if they would privately club together to take up land on deferred payments there was an ample choice of suitable locations at their disposal, of which the fullest information could be obtained at the Crown Lands Office, and further, in the course of ordinary events, settlers combining to work hand in hand together would obtain opportunities for augmenting their earnings by employment on public works. Rebuffed, though not defeated, the association will, we feel convinced, modify its plan of action, weigh well the possibilities of ways and means, and take advantage of existing regulations, which are admittedly liberal to the bona fide settler, although restricting .the acquisition of Crown lands for speculative purposs. m -