Lands For Settlement.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8546, 15 June 1896, Page 3

Lands For Settlement.

The Minister of Lands for New South Wales, in moving the second reading of a Lands for Closer Settlement Bill on the 3rd inst., said there had been alienated in the colony, 50,000,000 acres of land to 60,000 holders, while there were probably under 50,000 settlers in the colony. There were 656 holdings which averaged 31,000 acres each, and in many eases more than one holding was in the hands of single individuals. Not one half per cent, of this land was under cultivation. In the Hunter and Hawkesbury valleys there had been a million and a quarter acres alienated,of which 60,000, or 3 per cent, was under cultivation. Fourteen persons owned 267.000 acres, and 250 persons owned 939.000 acres, or 60 per cent, of the whole. In those districts 250 miles of railways were maintained at the expense of the taxpayers. The 60,000 acres under cultivation found employment for 7000 men, while the balance only called for the labour of 2750. It would be found that the railway returns from the land under ■ cultivation were equal to those from the whole of the balance not under cultivation. In those districts there was practically no Crown land left suitable for settlement by farmers. In the Bathurst and Orange districts 62 persons averaged 23,000 acres each, or about a million and a quarter of alienated land. Of this land only 7334 acres were cultivated, employing 8000 farmers and other labourers, as against 6000 employed on the uncultivated portion. In the Orange district the Crown laud available for settlement consisted of only a few strips, and was not at all suitable for small holdings. In the Tamworth, Armidale, and New England districts 74 persons owned over 2,000,000 acres, of which only 3000 acres were Sunder cultivation. Of 10,000,000 acres only 86,000 were under cultivation. In the Riverina, thirteen and a half million acres had been alienated. This was a district in which the development of agriculture was proceeding more rapidly than in any other part of the colony. Here 193 estates averaged 45,000 acres each, and aggregated 8,342,000 acres, or 73 per cent, of the total. There were’two lines of railway running through the district,notorious as the most expensive lines to work in the whole colony, one of them hardly paying working expenses. If there had been closer settlement along the lines of railway there would have been greater production in the past, and consequently greater prosperity all round. This earth hunger Was having the effect of forcing men on to the land under bad bargains. One result was to be seen in the Riverina district, where people took up farms on the halves system, a form of tenure which would not have any permanent benefit to the country.' The present was a most opportune time for introducing a bill of this character for land values had been brought down nearer to their true level than had been the case for years. If they wanted precedent for this kind of legislation, plenty of it was to be had both in the old country, and nearer home, in New Zealand. The experiment in that colony with regard to the Cheviot Estate has ■proved a distinct success from every ■point of view. We did not want too much landlordism in this country. It would lead to abuses which would have to be rectified by future legislation. He was mistaken if there was any solution for the unemployed difficulty unless it was in affording opportunities to men to reap the fruits of their own labour on the soil. That opportunity has been denied to them in the past through the rapacity of those who took advantage of the weak points of previous land legislation. The policy of closer settlement would increase the number of people who would have a stake in the country, and any policy which did that tended to increase our stability as a colony. The Bill would mark a new area in the progress of the colony.