MR BUNNY AND LAND SALES FOR CASH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 15

MR BUNNY AND LAND SALES FOR CASH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL Sir, — I see that Mr Bunny has tabled a motion at the last meeting cf the Land Board “That no more land should be offered for cash sale.” Such a motion is what might be expected from a disciple of Mr Henry George, who advocates State ownership of all land. As this would be legislation opposed to human nature, it would not be a success till an operation is performed on the human brain and the organ called acquisitiveness is extracted from it. While believing Mr Ballance’s special sett’ement scheme may do good by settling people on the land, I would like to point out where I think it may act unfairly. When a block of land is thrown open for settlement, all the best portions cam be taken up as special settlements, where a man and his wife and four, of a family above 18 can get a grant of 600 acres ; while another man, with an equal or greater number of children under the specified age, and with sufficient capital to buy and improve the same area, finds all the best portions taken up by the associations, and so many other obstacles placed in the way of his acquiring a freehold in Government land, that he leaves the Colony to buy elsewhere ; and so Mr Bunny, and those who think with him, get rid of a dangerous enemy. I think the Government would act wisely if, before offering land to the public, they were to have the deferred payment blocks laid off so as to alternate with others valued and open for selection, for cash. The cash purchasers would then be occasional employers of the labor of their neighbors, and thus enable them, to meet the payments on their sections. I think the cause of the failure of the selectors in Yictoria to meet their payments, and in Otago, where the Chief Commissioner in his last report to the Land Board states “ the complete list of defaulters i 3 a very long one,” is through having too many deferred-payment selectors located together where they cannot find employment for wages.—l am &0,, James Bell. Palmerston North, May 23rd.