Land Settlement.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 124, 2 September 1887, Page 2

Land Settlement.

The following is from the Taranaki Budget The Village Settlement Scheme is a failure, notwithstanding all the Government can do to bolster it up. An attempt baa recently been tua-ie to star: a settlement at l'unehu, a short distant# from Opunahe. but not me application has beeu sent in. notwithstanding the Government a-e w:lli:i.* to advance selec.

♦ he failure of the system is because it is ■ i.l; lor no uue really intending to settle on tlie lainl would think of taking sections U|> under the conditions offered. If they Imd money they would lose it, and if they ha I none they would hale to lead a Mi serable existence for a number of years, w.tii no hope of ever owning the property tndns. lves. Whilst the Goviriinnnt are trying to force these settlements on the

people, they are refusing to let persons ■vith money buy laud. “Only the other ■ lav. save the Auckland Herald, “we heard of a family ja>seoseed of considerable means, desirous of coming to New /hr land and making a home in the vicinity of friends already resident in the country. To facilitate the carrying out of their intent urns the head of this family transmitted to a friend a cheque duly signed, leaving the amount to be filloil in by him

on ascertaining the price of the land he was desirous of securing. Owing, how-

ever, to the perpetual leasing and land nationalising fads of certain greatly oe-

lauded members of the present Government, no land could be purchased in the district indicated. And the result is that the wealth and industry of this family, as well as of other families who would have followed it, have been loet to the colony.” The case referred to above shows the systematic obstruction which under the present Government is put in the way of tli"se who are really acquainted with agricultural pursuits, and whose chief attraction in seeking a home in a new country is

the obtaining a freehold title to the land they wiah to occuv. A farmer writes : *‘ Having read from time to time about the grand opening there was for men with families in New Zealand to obtain large farms of good land, wherever they might select to live, 1 thought 1 would come here and get a large farm from the Government to settle my family on ; but I find there is no chance fir anything of the kind. On tnv arrival at Auckland I went to the

Crown Lands Office to get information as to how i should act to get land at once. I was told to go to the booksellers, and buy the' Land Guide,' which would give me all the information I required. The books, however, were not ready for sale for some time, and after a few weeks' delay I got one, and having perused it, I again went up to the Land Othcs, having made up my mind that I would take the land under the leasing system, with the right to obtain the freehold through time, as I found that was the only way I could get about the quantity I wanted, which was about six hundred acres, as 1 wished to leav e each of my sousone hundred when we had brought it into cultivation, and they w ished to settle for themselves. I was told, however, that they had very little land to give away tinder that system*. but they would have a sale of land after some lime, which would be for cash, and I might then buy, as it would be advertised before sale ; or, if I chose, I might make application to get some of the land which was open for cash changed to the leasing system. But I was told that from the time I would make the application till I would get an answer would he lour or five months; and, even then, there were only very slight hopes held out to me that the powers that he would accede to my request. So now you see my position, after paying almost 1170 for passage money, besides other expenses." Is it to he wondered at, when we read of such cases as above, that the colony is not prospering? llow can we expect p< ople to come out and settlo when every obstacle is put in their way of acquiring freehold land; merely because the Government of the day has some 4 ‘ fad " to work out which is not popular.