PURCHASE OF NATIVE LANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4264, 19 November 1874, Page 2

PURCHASE OF NATIVE LANDS.

A veky interesting return has been printed, showing the area of lands purchased and leased, (transactions complete and incomplete), with expenditure thereon, under the Immigration and Public Works Acts of 1870 and 1873. It was presented to both Houses by command of His Excellency, and will form part of the Appendix to the Journals for the session of 1874. The return is voluminous, giving the most minute detail of every transaction. In short, the history of the purchase of each block of land can be easily traced. We shall endeavor to summarise the contents for the information of our readers. Under the caption, “ negotiations com- “ pleted,” we have the following results : Acres. Sum paid. Auckland— Purchased .. .. 236,001 Leased. 170,142 .. £32,710 19 4 Hawke's Bay— Purchased.. .. 183,480 .. 20.553 19 3 Wellington— Purchased .. ~ 324,330 .. 34,560 10 0 Taeanaki— Purchased .. .. 113,870 .. 13,519 10 2 Total purchased .. .. 557.091 acres „ Leased 170,142 „ In other words, 1,027,823 acres of land in the JNorth Island have been acquired by purchase or lease from the Natives, by the Government, under the provisions of the'lmmigration and Public Works Acts. The expenditure was not large. The total cost to the country, including purchase money, rent, and incidental expenses, was £101,651 ss. 3d. The Government has therefore acquired for the public a most valuable estate of more than a million acres at about 2s. an acre. This is cause for congratulation. The ‘ ‘ land-sharks” are, no doubt, highly incensed at the land purchases of the Government, and throw every possible obstacle in the way, but notwithstanding a most valiiableestate has been acquired. Very much, however, will depend upon how it is disposed of. If the General Government hand it over, or any considerable part of it, to the provincial authorities, a great mistake will be committed. This land has been acquired out of borrowed money, and it should be set apart, (or so much of it as may be available for agricultural settlement,) for the location of immigrants. By so doing, a very considerable population may be tied to the soil, and the country will have the best possible guarantee for the interest on the purchase money. In this way also, the General Government may do a great deal towards repairing the grievous mistake that was committed, in not reserving at the outset, in the respective provinces, a sufficient area of agricultural land for bona fide settlement. The Provincial Executives of Canterbury and Otago are competing with each other as to which shall alienate all the public estate first. If is, therefore, idle to expect anything like co-opera-tion from them in the task of easing the burden of ultimate taxation, by the settlement of a large producing population upon the waste lands. They look only to the present;—to the realisation and expenditure of large sums of money in their respective provinces, taking no thought for the future. It is impossible to stay them in their reckless career. Their proceedings are strictly legal; but wo protest most strenuously against the Government, with the Muddle Island example before their eyes, transferring the land acquired in the North

Island, under the Immigration and Public Works Acts, to provincial administration. The colony looks to have these lands settled. It expects to have some return for the outlay in the extension of settlement, the increase of products and trade, and a guarantee, (which a large industrial population in the North Island must necessarily give,) of peace. But if the recently acquired Native lands were transferred to provincial control they would bo forced upon the market, and sold. A great deal of difficulty must have been encountered in Auckland, where many of the blocks were exceedingly small. ' This was especially the case in the Thames and Coromandel districts, where the Native title appears to have been minutely subdivided. However, Mr. James Maokay, jun., managed the negotiations successfully. It will also be observed that Auckland was the only province in which land was leased by the Government. The details of these transactions are : Taupo, 21,142 acres; twenty-one years’ lease at £SO per annum. Motu (Bay of Plenty), 100,000 acres ; fifty years’ lease. First five years, £IOO per annum ; second, £125 ; third, £l5O ; fourth, £175 ; fifth, £200; sixth, £225 ; and last twenty years, £250 per annum. Waikohu Matawai (Bay of Plenty), 50,000 acres ; twenty-five years’ lease in five periods of five years’ each, at £IOO, £125, £l5O, £175, and £2OO per annum respectively. The second part of the return shows the negotiations in progress for the acquisition of land in the North Island, up to June 30lh, 1874, under the abovenamed Acts. The following are the totals : Auckland— Acres. Sum paid.' Purchase -.. 1,320,927 Lease .. 1,815,050 .. .. £39,697 5 Wellington— Purchase .. 485,911 Lease .. 7,835 .. .. 16,439 14 Taranaki— Purchase .. 53,000 .. .. 2,194 6 The payment, as stated above, is of course only on account, the transactions not having been completed ; but the general result is favorable to the colony. In explanation of the large quantity of land leased by. the Government, or under contract to lease, we may state that it includes much of the Lake district in Auckland province, which it is absolutely necessary the Government should retain in its own hands for public purposes, together with several valuable reserves in the Rangitikei-Manawatu district of Wellington. _ Assuming, then, that these negotiations will be completed during the current year, the colony will have acquired an estate, in the North Island, consisting of 4,684,156 acres. As we have already said, if the Government of the colony utilise this territory, for settlement, in furtherance of the colonising policy of 1870, there will be ample security for so much of the loan as may have been spent in the North Island, plus the railways and other public works. On the other hand, if it is transferred to the provincial authorities to replenish their empty treasuries, the country will be the loser. “ The crisis,” of which the enemies of the Government speak and write with such joyous anticipation, as something to be regarded as a blessing, may be counted a dead certainty unless the Govern--raent take decided and intelligent action in this matter. The South is much better able to bear the pressure which its provincial mismanagement is certain to bring upon it than the North is. The country is much more developed; its capabilities and resources have been pretty fairly tested ; and its population are deliberately incurring tho risk of - direct taxation by sanctioning the conduct - of their provincial rulers. The North cannot bear direct taxation, and there is no reason why it should apprehend it if the General Government are loyal to their own policy, and settle the waste land which has recently been acquired out of the Immigration and Public Works Loan. As it may interest our readers to know, we subjoin a statement of the unexpended balance of the land purchase fund standing at the credit of the several provinces on the 30th June last. Thus ; Auckland £246,138 15 2 Hawke’s Bay .. 45,745 18 5 ■Wellington 129,087 19 0 Taranaki 03,260 IS 0