THE LAND REGULATIONS

Otago Witness, Issue 529, 18 January 1862, Page 5

THE LAND REGULATIONS

The following correspondence on the subject of the Land Regulations has been forwarded to us :—: — " To *His Honor J. L. C. Richprdson, Esq., Superintendent of tiie Province of Ota go. "The Petition of the undersigned settlers, traders, and others, resident in the

Northern Districts, humbly sheweth, —

" That your petitioners having located themselves in the he.pe and expectation of ultimately being able to secure and extend their properties by the purchase of land, in suitable allotments, and at reasonable prices, view with alarm the operation of the existing regulations, and the effects which have resulted at the late sale of land in these districts, where capitalists and runholders, avowedly non-improvers, and opposed to occupation by bona fide settlers, have, without restriction, become the purchasers of large and well-selected tracts of land, to the exclusion of many who had long and earnestly wished for the opportunity to purchase and occupy.

" Your petitioners would respectfully remind your Honor of the principle upon which the Otago settlements was originally founded, viz., that of securing such portions of the waste hinds of the Crown as were suitable for agricultural purposes to the possession of actual and bona fide settlers, and restricting the sales where mere B peculation was the object in view ; and they would humbly point out to your Honor that the operation of the existing Land Regulations is calculated to subvert, and is entirely subvening such principles, and throwing the lands into the hands of purchasers, whose interests are inimical to the present prosperity and future advancement of the Province.

" Your petitioners, being desirous of obtaining possession of laud for actual improvement and occupation, humbly press upon your Honor the expediency of introducing into the Land Regulations of the Province such judicious restrictions on speculative purchaser i as are calculated to protect intending settlers, and to avert tho wholesale monopoly of the land threatened under the existing system. And your petitioners will ever pray."