OUR LANDS AND LAND LAWS, TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1540, 14 May 1881, Page 14

OUR LANDS AND LAND LAWS, TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— Last week I gave you my opinion of Mr Pyke's action in regard to the Otago lands. This week, with your permission, I will give you a few ideas on the present land laws of Otago. I first propose to deal with those laws relating to the deferredpayment system : being myself a selector on this system, I can speak from practical knowledge of the subject. We are told that the laws framed for this class of land Eelectors are so framed as to protect the poor man They may be ; but if so, I pity the poor man if the State intend to leave the laws at present existing uuamended for another year or two. I venture to predict total ruination to the poor man. For instance, J will point out one simple thing which renders the present Land Act ruinous : it is the clause preventing the holder of a deferred-payment section from selectIng another. Now, Mr Editor, I myself am acquainted with men who have in the early days selected from 20 to 50 acres on the deferred-payment system, in Binall sections surveyed near mining townships. Those parties are for the moat part married men with large families -the most desirable class of settlers. But what inducement do these men get to select, when, after years of toil and slavery among the rocks and hills of this the land of their adoption, they are able to settle down on comfortable homesteads, and find that the fact of their having previously occupied a 60-acre section as a home prevents them from ever again selecting? Where are the eyes of our liberal New Zealand lawgivers? Is this a law formed for our benefit? And, lastly, I ask on behalf of the working class, How much longer are we to be thus hoodwinked? The Girnmerburn selectors are another instance of the monstrous injustice of the clause in question, framed, it would seem, to retard Bettlement and keep the poor man down. The residence clause is another monstrosity, and the sooner the whole Act is amended the better. Let the people of Otago look to their interests, and to the interests also of -a rising generation, and impress on the minds of their representatives, when they again come before us, the fact that they must frame just and liberal laws, to protect industry and encourage the working class, the bone and sinew of the country, to become affluent and industrious tillers of the soil. A great hue-and-cry is raised by some who would fain make people think they were oracles in regard to the demand for land in the interior. Were we to accept their would-be version of the matter, we would beled to suppose that up-country people asked for land for the mere sake of annoying the|landholdere. But, alas! for those wise folk, though their powers of speech are voluble, the substance of their talk is as " chaff which is scattered before the wind." " Facts are stubborn things," and I say take the action of the people in the past as a guarantee for the future and give them the lands they desire. "Landmaik," in his long and valuable letter to your columns, ventures to warn people from settling on the lands in the interior. Can ho point out any other field for their intellect or abilities? If he can, then people may thank him for his gratuitous advice ; but until then I say let people Judge for themselves as to the most Biiitablo and desirable way to secure a livelihood in these hard times.— I am, &c. Juvbnis. . Hyde, April 10th.