THE MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 715, 2 April 1864, Page 6

THE MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.

(From the " New Zealand Herald.") Instructions have been forwarded by the outgoing mail of yesterday to the Colonial Treasurer, Mr Reader Wood, now in England, to commence the enrolment of people for the Waikato country, and to set the matter fully and successfully in motion previous to his return. Persons of all means and classes will be invited to avail themselves of the opportunity of settlement, and inducements calculated to attract each in turn will be liberally offered—to the laboring classes, a free passage and the grant of fifty acres of land and a town allotment, in return for military service of short duration— to the man of moderate capital, the grant of forty acres for himself and each of his family—and to those who may require it, the passage of themselves and their families will be paid, and land allotted to them in proportion as they may undertake to repay the first cost of bringing them out. In all cases, however, those only who are selected by special agents will be received ; advantages such as those which the Government have now to offer intending settlers are not indeed such as should be lightly flung about amongst whoever may chose to scramble for them.

It is hoped that by the amalgamation of these several systems, and by setting aside land of a superior quality only, that the emigrants thus induced to 3ettle in the Waikato will be certain of success. Indeed, we cannot see how success can be other than certain, if the plan is carried out in its full integrity. There is abundance of the very richest soil for occupation, much of it possessing the advantage of water carriage, land like that at Opotiki, Rangiaohia, and elsewhere, which requires nothing more than to be turned over to produce at once crops of wheat, potatoes, and corn in a luxuriance which would positively astonish the occupiers of even the best farms around Auckland. There will, too, be the advantage derived from the use of the solid military roads which must be constructed from coast to coast and port to port, to keep open the conquered territory. There are indeed all the elements of success for those who avail themselves of the opportunity, an opportunity which has never perhaps before been presented to any on such easy terms. Among so many million acres as will be open to the Government by the close of next summer, there must of course be a certain quantity of land which will be useless for any other purpose than as cattle runs. Probably there will be fully a million of acres of land which might be profitably applied to such a purpose. That there will be many applicants for such runs there is little doubt, and the intermixture of men of large capital among the smaller Freehold settlements of the Northern Island will add materially to the prosperity of the latter class. There are many ways in which settlements such as those about to be established by the Government may be fostered "into prosperity, other than by the mere expenditure of a certain amount of money in the construction of public works, such as roads and bridges, and by the issue of militia pay and free rations during the first year that they are placed upon their land. A fund might be specially appropriated for the purpose of military settlement, from which the first cost of erecting cottages and the ploughing of a certain quantity of larid and the freight of seed might be defrayed, and many other assistances granted to the poorer class of immigrants. It has been considered advisable by some that the bulk of these emigrants should be selected from Germany and Belgium Of course if it were not possible to procure them from Great Britain itself, these two countries would, of all others in Europe, afford us the best field for selection, peopled with men of our own Saxon race, used to the cultivation of the soil, of temperate, frugal, thrifty, habits, and gifted with a high order of-intelligence. But we are of opinion that to the men of our own country, to the toiling, over-crowded men of Britain should be offered the first choice —that an opportunity should be afforded to the small struggling freeholder of selling his unremunerative acres, and of becoming a substantial landowner in New Zealand ; to the tenant farmer of removing his capital from the improvement of another man's freehold to the foundation of an estate for himself and his children after him.

The late Mr Itiddell, advocate and antiquarian, directed that his papers, consisting- of many rare ancient MSs>., should be sold to the Faculty of advocates for "a moderate Rum,*' if they wi?he<i tliera. Lord LioJsay has ofiere ito give LSOO for them, and to bequeath them to the Advocates Library by will; so that the Faculty of Advocates who, at the meeting on Friday week, accepted his lordship's offer with thanks, will ultimately receive these valuable documents for nothing.— " Scotsman" Mr Leiftlifon has executed ft whole teng'h figure of Cimabue, dressed in white and holding a palette and brushes, which is now placed in the south court of the South Kensington Museum,