The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1423, 1 March 1879, Page 15

The Otago Witness.

WITH WHIOH IS INOOBPORATED THE 'SOUTHBBN

MBBOUBT.'

DUNEDIN, SATUEDAY, FEBRUARY 22.

We call the attention of our readers to the account, which appears in another column, of the Edendale Estate, Southland, belonging to the N. Z. and Australian Land Company. This is an example of farming on a large scale, 118,000 acres being comprised within one estate, which is enclosed and subdivided by 325 miles of fencing, and is partly under cereal and root crops, but chiefly cultivated for grazing purposes. The time is coming when this estate will be subdivided and sold in suitable farms to numerous settlers, and doubtless many an envious eye has been cast up©n the land by would-be settlers. But it must not be supposed that in the hands of the Company it has not contributed to the support of many families. As a matter of fact, very many thousands of pounds have been spent in wages and in contract labour by the Company which owns this magnificent property ; and we have no doubt many a man, now possessed of land of his own, owes his start to the Company. In the early days of any colony the influx of capital through such channels is beneficial and not harmful. In the natural progress of events, companies such as these become trustees for the future colonists, who will eventually in their turn become owners of the soil, and they hand over the land, not exhausted, but in a highly improved condition. There is room, therefore, for two or three such companies in every colony, and the improvements in stock and modes ©f working which they introduce will be advantageously felt long after they have disposed of their estates to small settlers. There is a very great distinction between a company like the New Zealand and Australian Jjanc} Com.,

g)any, which has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on stock and improvements, and the selfish monopolist who leaves his thousands of acres in a state of nature, with only a few sheep or cattle feeding on the original pasture, until the "unearned increment" reaches a point high enough, without exertion on his part, to satisfy his greedy desires. We certainly do not mean to implythat it would be advantageous if the whole country were in the hands of large companies ; but such companies are often excellent pioneers of settlement, and, if wise in time, when they have done their work and earned their "profit, they judiciously make way for others by subdivision, sale, and easy terms of payment. The fact is that there are not nearly enough people in the Colony with means to occupy the land effectively and to good purpose in small areas. Land companies, therefore, step in between the State — whose necessities have compelled sale — and the settlers of the future, and occupy till the time comes for subdivision. Before >the railway intersected this land, individual settlement was practically impossible, as carriage of produce was too high, and sheep and catde farming needs to be carried on upon a large scale to make it pay. We may, however, indulge in sanguine hopes of the future ot the district when a thousand families occupy this and the adjoining estates. We alluded in our last issue 'to the latter, and need only now say that the prospect is in favour of every one who desires land being shortly able to obtain it according to his desires. Where Government land is unattainable, it will be possible to purchase on easy terms from private owners, either corporate bodies or individuals ; and in dealing with private owners some of the fetters which necessarily hang- round the Government deferred-payment system are got rid of, and a man finds himself far freer to do what he likes with his own, and is not in danger of losing all by a breakdown in his payments. Though a man may pay a pound or two an acre more for his land, the right of unrestricted bargain compensates for this. He can choose where he likes, and pay for his land as he can, and either reside on it or not, as it may please him. When, added to this, the land he gets is in a much more accessible position, and much closer to a railway than most of the deferred-payment blocks, there is much to tempt buyers to rely more upon the re-sale of these large estates as a means of obtaining that desire of every colonist's heart, " a bit of land," than upon Government sales. The price paid is not of so much consequence if a man gets exactly what lie wants, and the terms of payment that best suit him.

The railway statistics for the four weeks ending 11th January are, aa might fairly be expected, the moat satisfactory yet published. The total receipts for that period are £66,386 ; for the previous four weeks they were £57,357. The fact that |the holiday period was embraced within these last returns accounts, of course, for the increase. But the grain season, which has since commenced, and the linking up of the Invercargill line, are together likely to keep up the totals to this point for several months to come. We have now considerably exceeded the Government estimate, which for the financial year was, in round numbers, £55,000 on the average for each four weeks. During the period ending 14th December the receipts had averaged £49,000 per week; it therefore only needed an average of £60,000 per four weeks for the remainder of the financial year to make up the estimated sum. That this will now be largely exceeded is svident. If we may accept the January return as our standard, our railway receipts are now at the rate of no less than £858,000 per annum. One circumstance which is satisfactory, if it really means what it seems to mean, is the reduction of the average percentage of expenditure from the average of the preceding 24 weeks, which was 74 96, to 71 "95. Of course this is only satisfactory if it has not been attained by overworking rolling-stock and laying up arrears of repairs and renewals, and on this point we have no data to guide us. The Greymouth coal line is the most favourable in point of working expenses, which in that case only bear the ratio of 54 "62 to the receipts ; and, strange to say, the Wellington line comes next, notwithstanding the disadvantage attending heavy gradients, and the working of the " Pell " system on a portion of it. The percentage in the case of Wellington is 65 92 ; the percentage on the Ohristchurch-Dunedin section is 69 "43, and on the Invercargill section no less than 80*43. Of the whole monthly earnings, these two Middle Island sections, which now practically form one line, figure for £49,800, all the other lines together only adding up to £16,536.

Mr J. A. Mackenzie, the legal manager of the Cromwell Quartz-mining Company, on Saturday received the following telegram from the mine manager :— " Cake deposited weighing 524 ounces, proceeds of crushing of 470 tons,"