The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, AUGUST 19.

Otago Witness, Issue 1029, 19 August 1871, Page 13

The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, AUGUST 19.

Tukkk are many who anticipate that in the event of the Land Resolutions of the Provincial Government becoming law, the settlement of the province will lie speedily accomplished. The principles of the proposed measure are the same as those that are embodied in the Land Act of Victoria, which the friends of the Bill hold up as a model system. They believe that that measure lias met with all the success its promoters desired, and they are hopeful that, h\ the adaptation of the same principles tcv the laud system of Otago, the agri•cujtural land of the province will be rapidly occupied. We are ready to • admit that if the resolutions of the Executive are brought into operation, the greatest possiblo inducements will be held out to persons to take ii}) land, but we very much •doubt whether, eventually, any great ■area of land v,iU be jirofttttWy ouupied

under the proposed system of deferred payments. To meet with even the same proportion of success as a .similer system has met with in Victoria, it is but reasonable to say that we must oiler the intending settler as good an article. There, the selector has no difficulty in talcing up a block, wh«'j\: the materials for constructing a home are ready to hand in tho shape: of bu.ih. He can fence in his hind, and obtain an abundant supply of timber for fuel, and for many purposes incidental to hi.s farming operations. "With all these benefits, with an excellent system of intercommunication throughout the colony by means of roads and railways, and -with the advantage of large inland towns as markets for farm produce, thousands of acres are being abandoned every year. The very persons- -the small settlors. — for whose benefit the law has been professedly enacted, form the most conservative class in the community upon the question of opening up the land, and they ■would now gladly see all land open for selection fall into the hand.-> of capitalists and employers of labour. The low rate of wages the settler now obtains for all descriptions of wovk he can get, and the small price ruling for farm produce, cause him to look regretfully upon a system which has provided him perhaps with a temporary home, but which has made hiia comparatively a poor man. In fact, he is just rinding out what political theorists in colonial legislatures of all sorts are unwillingto admit, that agricultural farming in the colonies may be overdone, that it must bear its proportion to the other industries of a country. And the prospects of our ( )tago settlers would be the same, were it not that there is but little chance of the land being occupied to any great extent under the proposed system, for the best of reason*, because there is not land of a suitable description to be obtained in the province in sufficient quantity. It will only be in a few localities that the present settlers will suffer from tho competitive labour of the new comers. We feel constrained to make these remarks because of an idea which pre\ ails, that a sudden peopling of tho land must follow the passing of a liberal land measure. There is one thing certain, and that is, that there will be no considerable influx of population attracted to our shores for some time in the hope of acquiring land upon easy terms. The want of fixity in our land laws has established too bad a n:<me for our province in Scotland and our other sources of immigration, to expect that persons will by tempted, even by offers of free grants, until it is known that there is no likelihood of the land system being changed. Whatever immigrants may conic here within the next year or two, will have had other inducements to leave their homes than the mere hope of acquiring land in Otago.

We have dealt with this question on the assumption that the measure passed liy the Provincial Council will he assented to by the Assembly. But what are the chances now that it will I Wo ! think that since the deli\ery of the Governor's speech at the opening of Parliament, they are much fewer. Without the in tenention of the General Government in any way, it ha-, been thought by many that the Land Bill would encounter the opposition of a party in the Assembly whose representatives formed a sullen minority in the Council during last session, because they knew they had not reached the real battle-tield, and were reserving their strength ; that an attempt would bt> made to mould the measure to suit their own views, or, if not successful in doing so, to throw it out altogether. But now. a sentence in His Excellency's Address shows that it is by no me<u is improbable tliat Ministers will before long unfold a plan whereby a uniform system for the colony for settling immigrants upon the land will Ibe propounded, if so, our Provincial Councillors will have had a fruitless discussion, as the Ministry will be cer-t-iiu to ignore the recommendations of the Council, and confine themselves to such provisions as they think most I suited to lit in with their colouhirrg biheuie of la&t sve4 n ».