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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 910, 2 October 1879, Page 2

We have received a valuable and most interesting document from the Provincial District of Taranaki, signed by Mr. G. F. Robinson, Ranger. It is a report exemplifying the many advantages to be derived by small farmers who have been permitted to purchase land from the Crown upon a system of deferred payments, a system we hope to see adopted in Poverty Bay where so much rich land lies idle, for the reason that men cannot afford the outlay of purchasing land at a heavy upset price by a cash payment. The report before us refers to the Moa Block in the Taranaki district, offered for sale in January, 1875. The clearings made on the deferred payment allotments have in the large majority of cases been well done. In two cases only have more trees been left unfelled than should have been done ; but the road on which these allotments are situate being one of the worst in the district, some excuse may be made for the holders of the land. With the exception of two cases, all the holders of deferred payment allotments have made ample improvements, and these two have come so near the required amount that little objection can be made to them. The total area of land sold on deferred payments is 2057 acres. Of this, 518 acres have been cleared and grasßed, or equal to 25 per cent, of the whole ; the toial value of improvements in clearing, building, and fencing being £2363. Within the same portion of the district 5638 acres have been sold for cash ;of which 961 acres have been cleared and grassed, or equal to 17 per cent. ; the value of improvements on deferred payment and cash

lands now reported on being £9384. In the portion of the Moa Distrrict reported on in May last, the improvements made to that time were estimated at £7551. Since that time, and up to the present, quite £1500 has been spent in building, fencing, and felling. These amounts, added to the estimate of the block reported on viz. £9384— give a total of £18,435 as the value of improvements made on the portion of the Moa Block sold in 1875. These improvements, made within four years, in a district consisting entirely of bush lands (the timber being of the heaviest description), the roads being almost impassable for at least six months in the year, reflects great credit on the settlers in the district, and gives promise that in the future this will beoome one of the most prosperous districts in the colony. It also speaks forcibly for the advantages of the deferred payments system, that in the large majority of cases the deferred payment allotments are held by labouring ■ men (more than half of them immigrants, brought here during the past four years), who commenced improving their allotments in advance of the cash purchasers, and who in the majority of cases were the first to occupy their lands by actual residence. Now, here is a case in point of what might be effected in Poverty Bay if the Government would only allow the unmoneyed farming classes to take up sections upon the credit system. Men would then be able to pay for their land from the proceeds derived by | working the land. So many farmers have been crippled through a long succession of years, simply by having exhausted their means in the purchase of their sections that if agriculture is to be fostered a movement must be made that the working farmer of Poverty Bay, at least, be placed upon the same liberal footing as those in Taranaki and other provincial districts.