The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 80, 11 August 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1863.

It would be difficult to find a subject 1 of greater public importance in the co- j lorries, or one about which there has < been moretalkingtbanthe landquestion, i and yet up to the present day, the pro- ] blem of how best to deal with the waste i lands of the Crown can scarcely be said i to have found a satisfactory solution, t One of the principal causes of this in i Australia and New Zealand, has been t the extreme difficulty of protecting in- ( terests which, to a certain extent, must always clash. Squatters, agriculturists, ( and miners, have in this matter, each a i right to equitable legislation, but too t many of the attempts made to accom- i modate them have failed. To come i nearer home, the regulations under i which the waste lands of the Crown in < the Province of Southland have hitherto < been dealt with, have by no means given 1 general satisfaction. In the report of the select committee of the Provin- < -cial Council of Otago appointed ( to inquire into the land regula- : tions of that Province, it was laid ! down that "the first and principal i object to be attained in the sale of Crown ■ lands is their profitable occupation for improvemeut, and this without reference ' to the class of occupiers, or the extent of their individual occupation.'' Now the question has been repeatedly raised, and at the present moment is attracting a large share of public attention, as to whether the " Hundreds' System is the best that could be adopted for that purpose. Is it calculated to afford the greatest amount of encouragement to the agriculturist, without unnecessarily damaging the interests of that class of settlers to which we must look for our supplies of beef and mutton ? The time has come when these said supplies require sharply looking after. Meat is high at present, and should the additions to the population during the next year or two be as large as are anticipated, we may expect a further considerable rise in its price. Would the country be more rapidly stocked were some other plan than " the Hundreds '' adopted ? we feel certain that it would ; and as a consequence, the larger supplies of stock would tend to keep down the price of meat. Under the present system, the squatter is in many instances afraid tn stock heavily, because he has a dread that his run maybe "recommended,''

and he compelled to find fresh country, or sell his stock at ;i sacrifice. The •'Hundreds' System I ' leaves in the hauds of the Provincial Government the dangerous power of punishing any squatter who may chance to offehd. The influence of the Superintendent of Southland might be sufficient to cause a run in this Province to be " recommended," and although the declaring it does not rest with him, and does not necessarily follow the recommendation, still the fact of the preliminary steps having been taken would be sufficient, not only to depreciate the value of the run in the market, but also to deter the runholder from stocking as heavily as he would otherwise have done. That a ruu may be recommended to be declared into Hundreds, when the requirements of the people do not call for such a step, is certain, thvre being a notnble case in point at the present moment on the Otago side of the Mataura, and without doubt, the country in question would not bring as much in the market, for pastoral purposes, as it would have previously done. So far we have spoken of the squatting interest; but the " Hundreds' System" is by no means so favorable to the permanent agricultural settlement (f the country as some suppose. Mr. Cutten's opinion, expressed before the select committee we alluded to above, was, that the " Hundreds' System was very good ; but, notwithstanding the weight which naturally attaches to an opinion coming from such a quarter, we may venture to draw attention to the following facts in connection with the land revenue of the Province of Canterbury, where Hundreds are unknown, aud the would-be farmer may pick and choose whereever he pleases, at 40s. per acre. During the year 1862, the Canterbury revenue from territorial resources, including licenses, &c, amounted to about £2lO ; 000, and the population of the Province is about 17,000. The acreage sold was nearly 98,000. This shows a great increase over the sales of the previous year, and goes very far to prove that the Canterbury Land Regulations are far preferable to the ones under which the waste lands of the Crown in this Province orOtago are alienated, for neither of the two Southern Provinces can show figures which will for a moment bear comparison with those we have stated. We will return to the subject in another article.