NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, March 5, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 792, 5 March 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, March 5, 1853.

Considebable interest has been lately excited by the report of a proposed alteration, by the \ in the minimum upset price of country lands in this colony, and a good deal of anxiety has been displayed to t now the nature of the new regulations which, it is believed, are shortly to be put forth for the regulation and management of the Waste Lands of the Grown. It is generally understood, that forthe future the minimum upset price of Country land, available for cultivation, will be fixed, throughout the whole of New Zealand, wherever no existing arrangements interfere to prevent it, at 10s. per acre, and that inferior, broken and hilly land, available for pasturage but not fit for cultivation, will be offered for sale at the minimum upset price of ss. an acre. There can be no doubt that this question is one of the most important that can be raised, and will prove a very fertile theme for discussion. It would seem that New Zealand, the youngest of the British Colonies in the South Seas, is destined to exercise the«most material influence over the neighbouring Col* onies on many questions relating to their social economy. In this very question of the wastelands, it has already exercised an important influence, for since by the Constitutional Act of the last session of Parliament the management of the Waste Lands of New Zealand has been placed under the control of the General Legislative Assembly, it follows that New Zealand will form a precedent in this respect to the other Australian Colonies, and that the same privilege will be conceded to them. And as the minimum price of land has bden established throughout these Colonies at 20s. an acre, if the price is reduced below that sum in New Zealand, the other colonies will demand, with justice, the privilege of having -cheap land also. If the land in New Zealand, the average quality of which has always been considered to be superior to that of Australia, is sold at ss. and 10s. an acre, it would be impossible to maintain in the Australian colonies the upset price of 20s. an acre. But not only is the price of land 16 be *e« duced as above stated, but itis mid that under certain prescribed conditions the powsr §f selection will be unlimited ; that is to say, that instead of being confined, as in the case of the : New Zealand Company, to certain districts which were first surveyed and then offered for selection to the land purchasers, it will be in the power of any one to purchase land in any

part of the waste lands of New Zealand under the management of the Crown, the principal restrictions being that the block of land shall be of a prescribed form, varying in size from 80 acres to 640 acres, or not exceeding one square mile, and that the pajment shall be cash. It is obvious from what has been stated that this alteration is of so grave a nature, so wide spreading in its effects, and fraught with such important consequences as only to be undertaken after the most mature consideration, and under a firm conviction that such a measure is absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the colony. It would be impossible within our present limits to enter fully into the discussion of this question. It will suffice if We advert to some of the objections that have being raised against it, together with a few of the arguments that have been adduced in its favour. It is objected that this is the first attempt that has been made to lower the price of the land, — that ever since the forma, tion of this settlement, from the first attempt at systematic colonization in New Z«otnd, the upset price of land has been fixed at 80s. an acre by Act of Parliament, and any alteration in price has been of an upward tendency, as at Nelson where the price was fixed by the New Zealand Company at 80s. an acre, at Otago at £2, and at Canterbury at £9 an acre, and that this alteration, occurring at this particular period, when the claims of the absentees to compensation are in the course of adjustment, will seriously depreciate the value of the scrip issued to them in satisfaction of those claims. It is urged that an attempt to lower the upset price of land would be like an attempt to lower the current value of the circulating medium,— -to decree that the same piece of gold which passes current to-day for 20s.,shaH be -deemed to-morrow to be of the value of 10s. only ; and that so great a reduction in the upset price will have a strong tendency to encourage land jobbing. However much has been said or written ■about a sufficient price for land, that price, like the quadrature of the circle or the philosopher's stone, still remains to be discovered. Land like every other commodity has its market yahie, and while the effect of imposing a high price is toprevent the sale of it, by offering it at a cheap rate, at some price clearly within its average value, a market is created and a demand established which did not exist before by Attracting purchasers to the Colony. That the former price was too high, it is argued, is established by the fact that comparatively few sales have^jbeen effected, and by a reference to the pf ocee&ffgs ; of the New Zealand Company. The preliminary land orders of this settlement, including 100,000 acres of land were speedily disposed of, but besides the offer of a passage to each land purchaser the additional advantage was held out of a town acre and the stimulus of the chance of an early selection through the lottery for determining the order of choice. But very little country land beyond that included in the preliminary land orders was sold in this settlement, still less land was sold at Nelson, where the price was raised by the Company to 80s. an acre, than at Wellington ; at Otago, where the price was at £2 per acre, than at Nelson ; and at Canterbury, where the price was £8 an acre, than at Otago. In short the quantity of land sold was in the inverse ratio to the price demanded. No depreciation, it is alleged, is really made in the price of land, for if 20s. an acre were its current value there would be no necessity for altering the upset price. To increase .the price you must increase the demand, which can only be done in the first instance by selling cheaply and, it is found that theeffectofahigh price in conjunction with the present system of granting runs, is to put an endtothesaleofland, and virtually to establish a monopoly of the choicest districts of New Zealand in favour of the stockholder. This part of the subject is so important, so much is going on with respect to runs of which it is desirable that the public should be informed, that it deserves to be considered separately, but the most inattentive observer must have noticed that as soon as any district is purchased by the Government from the Natives, the applications for runs are more numerous than can possibly be satisfied, and the whole district is parcelled out among a few stockholders. But if New Zealand is to become a prosperous, it must become a populous country ; and every inducement that the Government can hold oat must be offered to increase the population. There can be no doubt that cheap land will have the effect of inducing numbers from the neighbouring Colonies, especially the successful gold diggers, to make New Zealand their home. And there can be no question as to the* advantage the Colony would derive from hiving 100,000 acres divided among one hundred or two hundred families, as their freehoold by purchase, from the increase of revenue derived from the increase of population, the additional capital brought into the Colony by go many families, and the funds for immigration and internal improvement provided by the *ale of the Jand, rather than the occupation of this extent of

land by one individual'as a run at a nominal lent In fact it is currently reported that enquiries have been made by certain Nova Scotians who propose to emigrate in a body, and form a settlement, and if they should be decided to come to New Zealand by the attraction of cheap land, they would be followed by •a large number of others, If ever a Country Reserves to be.considered a Poor Man's Country, from the advantages it offers to those with .limited means and large families, it is New Zealand, but these advantages will be rendered useless, if the Colony is to be divided amongst a few stockholders, instead of being occupied by a numerous, happy, and prosperous population.

During the lost two days this district has been visited with unusually heavy rains. On Thursday evening it commenced raining heavily and continued .to do so without intermioion during the whole of Thursday night and the greater part of yesterday. About four o'clock yesterday afternoon the large additional body of water which had accumulated in the vwmiiap -»t Te Aro, in c&nse<jtt£nce-of the rain, «ausea# to burst the narrow bank which separate^ it from the pea with a loud noise which' was heard to a considerable distance, and a thick turbid stream of mud poured forth with great rapidity into the harTwor. from the head of the swamp, winding through its whole length, a regular channel has been cut of the average width of ten or twelve yards, and during the afternoon masses' of earth, and small islands' of flax were hurried with amazing swiftness by the stream and force of the current into the harbour, the Burface of which was covered to a considerable extent with masses of floating mud and flax. The opening which has been made to the sea by this sudden eruption of the swamp extends over several of the town acres with water frontage at the head of Lambton harbour. We are also informed that the Eoro koro and the other streams that cross the road between* Wellington and Petoni were to much swollen by the quantity of rain that has fallen as to occasion considerable difficulty yesterday in crossing them.

Ymtbldat afternoon, a small dingy containing two men, was observed to capsize in the harYour off the farther point of Evans's Bay ; the men were seed itroggling for a short time in the water when both the boat and men disappeared.' J ft is feared that both the men have been drowned. ' ■