The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. SATURDAY, 13th JUNE, 1885.

Otago Witness, Issue 1751, 13 June 1885, Page 17

The Ota go Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATE D THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. SATURDAY, 1 3th JUNE, 1885.

The position of the deferred-payment selector deserves consideration and improvement if the true interests of settlement are to be conserved. At present he is liable to be subjected to very harsh usage, aa several recent proceedings of the Land Board have made abundantly manifest. If by reason of misfortune, or other unavoidable circumstances, he is unable to keep up his payments, or fails to comply with any and every condition imposed upon him, he is absolutely at the mercy of the Bmrd. He may have expended all hia capital in wrestling with wild land 3 and bringing them intocultivation, and may have struggled against adverse circumstances in th© endeavour to make a home for hi» family, but he must forfeit everything without recourse if he happens to ,be unsuccessful at the outset, and begin life afresh in some other capacity. Sometimes this occurs through his commencing without sufficient capital ; but it often happens through the harsh and injurious operation of the law. We do not attach any blame to the Land Boards for this unhappy state of affairs. It must be admitted that thosa bodies have sometimes fallen into errors of judgment ; but even in their most arbitrary and uqwelcomedecisions they have seldom exceeded the strict letter of their statutory powers ; and to their credit, be it said, they have often availed themselves of the proverbial loopholes of the law to avoid the perpetration of legally authorised injustice. It would seem as if the framera of the Laud Acts, iv their laudable anxiety to secure bonct tide settlement, have so tightly bound down the selectors as to have realised the other extreme and rendered life irksome to the muofao harassed deferred-payment selector. It is a case of over much zeal, and it will be well if, in the coming session of Parliament, our legislators retrace their steps la this particular, so aa to counteract the feeling of insecurity which now prevails amongat the hard-working and struggling settlers, who live in daily foar of losing their hold of the land they cultivate. Soattered through the various Land Acts there are many stringent conditions which might be modified or repealed without any fear of endangering or weakening the principle underlying the existing systems of settlement. Iv no respect, perhaps, is this more conspicuous than in the conditions of forfeiture imposed on deferred-payment selectors. The Act of 1877 provides that if the selector fails to fulfil any of the conditions of his license, his land may be forfeited, and that the Board shall cause a valuation of the improvements theruon to be made, and shall f^ffer the section for sale to the highest bidder over the head of the original settler, subject to payment for such improvements. This would seem quite stringent enough, but apap patently the Parliament is of a contrary opinion ; for .last session the House sanctioned the introduction and passage of a clause so tyrannical in its effect that we can only suppose members were drowsy on the occasion of its going through Committee. By section 16 of the Act of 1884 it is enacted that if a forfeited section is offered for sale and finds no buyer the Board may " reduce the original value of improvements," and " may from time to time offer such land for competition with such reduction of the original valuation as it may deem expedient." That is to say, that in order to maintain the original upset price of the land the unhappy selector's improvements may be reduced in value to any extent, until a freah purchaser has been secured. Anything more unjust than this has rarely assumed the form of law, and although there is not much fear of any sane Land Board Commissioner pressing the enforcement of the clause, it should be wiped off the statute- | book witheut delay, aa being a standing blot upon our laud legislation. i =g

Mb IVJacandrew has done a right and proper thing in proposing to the University Council that model farms, or " Schools of Agriculture," should be established in (Jtago ; and he has displayed hie acquaintance with the wonderful diversities of soil and climate within the Provincial boundaries by suggestiug that there should ba three of these — one in the northern, one in the central, and another in the southwesteru district. This is a matter which haa repeatedly been brought before the public, recommended by the PresS;, acd urgod upon the Government ; but bithajfto without success. Why thia

•apathy on the part of Government has existed it would be difficult to B&y. Ia conversation, everybody admits tho desirableness of establishing such institutions — institutions far better calculated to benefit the community ihan any amount of bonuses on special industries. It is well known that a very large number — perhaps even a majority — of our settlers' commence the business of farming without atiy knowledge — practical or theoretical, of tbe work they undertake ; and only learli by those dismal lesßonß of experience, which effect the ruin of many, aud keep some ia poverty and tribulation all the days of their lives. There is a School or College of Agriculture in Canterbury, which, although partly self-supporting,.ia chiefly maintained by the State ; and there are numbers of young men who go there to make themselves acquainted with at least the rudiments of agricultural knowledge. But one is not enough for all New Zealand, nor even for this island ; neither ia it conducive to tho dissemination of agricultural teaching that there should be onlyjone. It is not every father who can afford the expense of sending his lads to Canterbury for instruction There is this also to be said : That the teaching available there would be apt to sadly mislead the cultivators of land in other districts. The force of this reasoning and the value of local training is fully recognised ia America where there is one and often two or more agricultural schools in every State. The reaulo is that, as farmers, the people of the United States are iv many respects far in advance of their British, competitors. Ifc is not enough to know how to handle a plough or a spade, or when to sow corn or plant potatoes. Yet even these things are not always understood by settlers. We have repeatedly called attention to the fact that our farmero confine their operations within limits much too narrow — that there are many things that could be profitably grown, if only they knew what the soil was suitable for, and how to raise the most suitable crops But these are matters not to be learned from more instinct, nor to be perfected by the j rule of thumb. By all means, thea, let | us have schools or model farms e->tab-Jished here. And when we say this it must not for a moment be supposed that we advocate the establishment of fxpenaive institutions, officered by au army of professors. As Mr Macandkbw points out the' outlay need not greatly, if at al], exceed the cost, "inasmuch as the pro- j duce of the farm and fees shoulJ, uuder good management, go far to reduce the annual expenditure." It does not ap pear whether the mover of the resolution will be present at the next moetiug of the University Council, which is to be regretted ; as, in hia absence, there ia very little hope of anything being done. But as the proposal only immediately contemplates the appointment of a Committee to confer with the Board of High School Governors and the Education Reserve Commissioners, it is to be presumed that arrangements have already been made to that effect. We shall await the result with some degree of curiosity and with considerable interest.