DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARYI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 25

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARYI.

The present Government is doing its utmost to give the people land for settlement, but is greatly retarded in its action by the exigencies of survey. Not here only, but all over the Colony, the surveyors have far more work than they can readily accomplish. Although in Canterbury the system has been free selection before survey, numbers of people, anxious to get their completed titles, are dependent on surveyors, and a large amount of work is in arrear. Then in the North Island blocks are being opened up and surveys extended into Native territory. This departmental difficulty is a very important point, and although the Government has taken steps to obtain qualified surveyors from Sydney and Melbourne, we question if the demand is being fully met. We believe the contract system will have to be largely extended if the work is to be kept up to date. It is imperative that when a block is decided on, the people should not be kept out of it indefinitely on merely departmental grounds of this kind. The discontent is deep in the interior of this provincial district that such obstacles should occur to render the procuring of a bit of land a task of surpassing difficulty. We are not sure that even yet all the needs of settlement are fully met by our existing Laud Act. The deferred-payment

system does much for the man of small means, but we believe a much smaller area than 320 acres would satisfy many men in the interior, and that 1 0 to 50 acres would be really as much as they would in many instances feel themselves able to manage. Why should not a miner be able to purchase 10 or 20, or even 50 acres of land just where he pleases, if only he possessed the sufficient price ? The " sufficient price" might not be easily ascertainable, as it would depend on a great many local considerations. But one of the greatest difficulties in dealing with land contiguous to mining settlement is its supposed auriferous character. We do not see any great harm in selling mining land to miners who are working it, but we suspect the cry would be raised at once, if this were attempted, that we should ruin the mining industry. It would, however, be possible to sell the land and reserve the minerals and rights-of-way for races, &c. The mining industry has for some time declined in its relative importance compared with the other industries of the country, and it is extremely desirable that the men who do not find it pay any longer, or who can only make it pay during part of the year, should have something to fall back upon. A limited form of free selection, at such a price as would deter monopolists, and on such conditions aa would prevent a few proprietors from shutting up adjoining mining claims, is what is wanted, and what has nevep yet been attempted in this province.

The above remarks have a relation to the gold statistics of last year, which, as compared with those of 1877, stand as follows : —

Totals .. 310,4861,240,079 371,6:51,496 0:0 There is thus a decrease nearly all round, the exceptions being Hokitika and Invercargill, and a small increase from Nelson. The decrease in value for Otago and Southland is £32,944, or about 7£ per cent. For the whole Colony it is £255,901, or about 17 per cent., Auckland showing by far the greatest deficiency. Now although this, on the whole, is not so discouraging as at first sight appears, and there are many indications of revival, especially in the direction of quartz and cement mining, it is one more sermon on the same old text, that mining is a precarious industry. Tt never will be what it ought to be till every miner can get a piece of land at a reasonable distance from his claim, however small, on which he can keep a cow or two, and a few pigs and poultry, and raise his own vegetables and garden stuff, and perhaps a few acres of oats for hay, or a few turnips for winter feed for stock. In some places ten acres would be sufficient, in others twenty to fifty. And this class of small settlement would do more to meet the real requirements of bonafide miners than even the 320 acres deferred-payment system, which requires a man's whole time and energy to work out successfully. The suburban limit of twenty acres under the deferred-payment clauses is hardly sufficient, and the term " suburban " not wide enough to include all cases. We would specially invite miners to communicate / to us specific statements of their land requirements, and where reasonable and moderate we shall support every legitimate efforb to give effect to their desires, as we hold it to be imperative for the welfare and progress of the Colony that miners should have homesteads and small farms to fall back upon as a help in dull times, and to attach them permanently to the soil.

Auckland Picion .. kelson .. Westport Sreymouth Kokitik* Dunedin [nvercargill 1878 1877. Q antity. Value. Quantity Taluo. "oz. £ oz. £ 65,982 220,454 99,683 405.927 404 1,617 870 3,197 6,060 23,525' 5,863 21,i82 15,179 60,758 18,^50 75,841 67 069 268,276 80,246 320.997 60.767 243,052 53,404 218 695 94,160 378 627 105,0*2 42i,857 10,885 43,770 8.087 32.484