The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3.1881.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1500, 13 December 1881, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3.1881.

THE mode of dealing with the large areas of land in the South Island now held under pastoral licenses is occupying the serious attention of every reflecting person in the Colony. One of the principal works which the Government have before them is to open up the land. It is important therefore to know what is proposed to be done in respect of this most absorbing question. The Hon. Mr. Rollkston, Minister of Lands, lately addressed the electors of Avon, and is reported to have spoken as follows on the subject : — I may be allowed to refer for a moment to the speech of the gentleman who may be regarded as the leader of the Opposition, in which he said with regard to the land system that New Zealand was situated worse than otberof the Australasian Colonies. The number of settlers on the land in New Zealand to its population bears favorable comparison with that in any other country in the world. There are something like 60,000 freeholders in New Zealand out of a population of half a million. As I am going into this question of the administration of the lands, of which I am in charge, I feel bound to reiterate n>y denial of the statements made recently and on previous occasions by Sir G. Grey with regard to what has taken place in this Province particularly, and the action of myself and others in respect to the administration of the lands here. I have stood before you as a public man for the last thirteen years, and my acts are known to you ; and I say that tiie statement of Sir G. Grey with regard to the preemptive right system in Canterbury, as dealt with by myself particularly, is absolutely erroneous. In the year 1872 that question came prominently before the Provincial Government I took office as Superintendent in 1868. At that time the land sales had ceased, and they only began again in 1869. In 1872 we found that the system of pre-emptive rights — the system of spotting, and what is called gridironing— was injuriously affecting the settlement of the country ; and I sent down to the Provincial Council at that time a memorandum, in which I pointed out what these evils were. I obtained the consent of the Council to my introducing a Bill into the i

General Assembly, which had for its object the remedying of those evils, and that measure was passed into law at my instance. Therefore, I do not think that the present Government, myself being in charge of the administration of hinds, are likely to neglect their duty in that respect, and the Colony has no ground whatever to thinkthat the policy of land adminisin my hands will be otherwise than liberally dealt with." He then spoke at some length on the Patetere question, vindicating the Government from the charges that had been made against them by Sir George and others, and then proceeded :— " I hope you will bear with me for a few minutes while I tell you what have been the operations of the Land Department during the past year. I may say that there could be no more healthy sign than the general demand which exists throughout the country for land for bona fide occupation. During the past year ending in March more boiut, fide settlement by small holders took place than was the case during the previous two and a-half years.— (Applause.) I do not speak only of the fresh settlement that has been effected on the Waimate Piains, than which I cannot conceive that anything could be more satisfactory. To ono who, like myself, but recently saw the Plains without a stick upon them, it is perfectly marvellous to see the homesteads and the farms, the fences and the cattle, and the comfort that is now prevailing there. The Department has adopted a system by which the plans of land to be sold are distributed at the various land offices throughout the Colony, and at railway stations and other public places ; and most of you must be aware that the system which has been adopted by the Government— a judicious mixture of land for cash payments and land for deferred payments — has been most satisfactory to the public at large. All I can say is that the land has gone off wherever it has been put up, and that for some time to come there will be held in that part of the country monthly sales, which I believe will result in an amount of settlement which could hardly have been anticipated. I think it will be interesting to you to know — because it is said we are a Government that favor large settlement—that upon the coast 180 settlers hold 22,426 acres, or something like 125 acres to each farm. I am not one of those who believe that a man is a land-shark, and is to be regarded as an individual who ought to be suppressed, when he owns more than forty acres. I believe that these things work themselves light, and I believe that the system we have adopted, and which admits of a man obtaining a fair amount of land according to his means, is working most beneficially for the country. I may say that the system which has been adopted on the West Coast is this : Every six miles there is laid out a village settlement. When I took office in the year 1880 I introduced an amending Land Bill, which provided for the establishment of village settlements. They begin with quarter-acre sections for people who only wish for enough land to build a house upon, but they widen out into larger sections of three, four, five, and up to ten acres, which allow of the prosecution by the sel tiers of other pursuits than farming, and this system has been found to work exceedingly well. These settlements, as I say, exist every six miles, and therefore there will practically be no place on these blocks of country which have been opened that will be more than three miles from the village school, the village blacksmith, the church and the store. I have in this Province carried out to some extent this system of village settlements, and I think very successfully. You will see it in operation in a small way at the South Rakaia and at the Orari, and it is the intention of the Government to further apply the system in the case of blocks of land which remain unsettled in this Province. Then, again, it may be of some interest to you to know that in May, 1882, when the Act provides for a different system in respect to pastoral lands coming into existence, the Government will be prepared to cut up lands and sell them on pastoral deferred payments. Already instructions for the survey of such lauds as are considered .suitable have been given, and a fair beginning of the sale of land on pastoral deferred payments will be made as soon as the law allows. I may say also that in Otago some 3,000,000 acres of land will soon be cut up and opened for sale, either for small agricultural settlement or for deferred payment pastoral lands, or for small runs capable of carrying sheep to the extent of 5.000 upon each ; and that the necessary plans have been prepared and are now being lithographed."