DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MARCH 27.

Otago Witness, Issue 904, 27 March 1869, Page 13

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MARCH 27.

The proposals in regard to Commonage Reserves which have emanated from the Wardens of the Moera&i Hundred, will no doubt be keenly discussed throughout the country. The Hundred system presented no difficulties in its working when there were few settlers and much land. Of late years, things have not gone on so smoothly. Some tell us that the system is at fault, and was bad from the beginning ; others that the system was good, but the time for its successful application to our waste lands has gone by; others, again, lay most of the blame not on the law, but on its administration. Whatever opinion may now be held in regard to it, it is indubitable that so long as it provided an ample common pasturage for our settlers, it answered the ends to secure which it was originally devised. All the old settlers in the province concur in their testimony on this point. It was the making of them ; and it is to their credit that they have always been unanimous in. their desire to see the same privileges extended to those who "followed them. As the land was taken up and the common pasturage dwindled, proposals for a fixed reserve for commonage began to be made. They received little attention at first, but the idea has gradually become popular. "When we consider how highly our settlers have always prized this right of free pasturage on unsold lands, it becomes a matter for surprise that no practical steps were taken before it was too late to secure the perpetuation, on some scale or other, of the privilege. Lately, the land in all the older Hundreds has been sold off rapidly, and scores who were indifferent before have been driven by the pressure of personal loss and inconvenience to pay attention to the question. We have now before us the first practical expression of the ideas of our agricultural settlers upon a subject which all must admit to be of importance. The scheme of the Moeraki Wardens deserves therefore to have the fullest consideration given to it; both by their brother Wardens and by the general public. Whatever opinion any one may arrive at, either in regard to the scheme itself or the general question at issue, all must agree that these gentlemen deserve credit, for at least making an attempt to solve a veiy knotty question.

Mr. Leggatt's letter, which appears in another column of our present issue, explains very clearly both the subject and the proposal in regard to it which, the public is invited to discuss. It comes rather late, if the suggested meeting of delegates from all the Hundreds is to take place before the Provincial Council meets. No other objection, can be taken to this part of its contents. Nothing will be done except by united action on the part of the whole body of settlers who are similarly situated. In some of the Clutha Hundreds the residents have at present

■no particular reason for troubling themselves about the subject. Leaving these on one side, unless there can be found some unanimity of opinion amongst those who live in Hundreds, when the whole, or nearly the whole, of the land is sold, and a great proportion of it cultivated, or at any rate fenced in, and so withdrawn from common iise, it will be useless to ask the Government or the Provincial Council to take the question into consideration at all. Of this, Mr Leggatt and his colleagues appear to he sensible. They lay stress on the necessity of the question being treated as a general one, not to be decided upon as the circumstances of this or that locality might dictate. Their own scheme they put forward modestly, and merely as a basis for discussion.

We cannot commend the proposals I themselves as highly as the spirit in j which they are put forward. The Moe- j raid Wardens are evidently aware that the subject is not without its difficulties; but we do not think they have estimated them, at their proper weight. We are not prepared to say in an offhand manner that these difficulties are insurmountable, although our opinion leans in that direction. Tf it turns out that a vast majority of our settlers believe a system of commonage will be a practical benefit to them, he is not only a veiy bold but a very foolish man who shall oppose a theory, however logically sound, to the consentaneous opinion of a large body of men on a subject affecting their own interests solely. But it does appear to us that there are difficulties attaching to these proposals, which belong not to them merely, but to the whole question of commonage. Mr Leggatt points £to the beneficial results which have attended the establishment of commonages in other colonies,' and to other similar reasons for looking upon the system of commonage as a good one. We should very much like to see an array of the facts on which he rests in thus referring to the experience of other countries. Those who have most studied the subject in the old world have arrived at quite different conclusions. As a rule, land held in common right yields a far less return than it would to individual owners. We doubt, indeed, whether this rule lias any exception. Here there is an objection which goes to the very root of the "matter. Temporaiy arrangements for commonage may prove very useful. But are we thus to set apart large ti-aets of land in perpetuity 1 For, be it remembered, commonages, such as are now sought for must be by no means small, if they are to confer any substantial benefit upon those for whose use they are designed This is a difficulty which our Wardens of Hundreds must not leave out of their calculations, because it lies at the root of the whole matter. The special difficulties which arise out of the different circumstances j of the existing Hundreds, and especially the great difficulties which must be encountered when it is proposed to provide any useful sort of commonage for the settlers in Hundreds, when all the land is already alienated — we need not now discuss ; neither do we deem ib necessary to refer to the details of the scheme now put before the public. Should the projected meeting of delegates take place, we shall have another and better opportunity of expressing- our opinions upon these parts of the subject.