THE PRICE OF CROWN LANDS IN THE COLONICLE.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1280, 31 December 1869, Page 3

THE PRICE OF CROWN LANDS IN THE COLONICLE.

(From the Sydney Morning Herald, Dee. 13.)

In his speech at the declaration of the poll for East Sydney, Sir. James Martin, in referring to the Land Question, and especially to the. upset price of land, saifl t ," We have^ for many year* by virtue of some whimsical law recommended in the first instance, and supported by, Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, a gentleman who knew nothing of Colonial life, had the upset price fixed at twenty shillings an acre."

This is rather scant justice to a man who devoted many years of his life, and no inconsiderable talents, to a study of the. "art of Colonization;" and it is also scant justice to a system which, whatever its demerits, has done a great deal towards populating the Australian Colonies, and without which none of them would have been so advanced as they' are at present. At the time the system was introduced the great want of Australia was population. Some plan wa» needed to bridge over the great ocean gulf which separated-' the mother country -from its southern possession. The reaction waa setting in against transportation, and it was already found that the plan of founding a criminal Colony at the .expense of the Mother country was. coming to an end. Free labor could only come by one of two ncethods, either by the* immigrants paying their own passage, or by some one paying it for them. • By the former process very fe4 either would, or could have. come. Comparatively little waa then known of New South: Wales, which had but small attractions, for the, British fanner or ther British laborer, and those who had a little moriey were all going either to Canada or the States. The British Government declined to pay for the] expatriationof its ownfubjeets,;arid the Colonial Government had no fundi to spue .for the purpose. It was under these, circumstances that - Mr. Wake - fielii propounded his plkn for creating' a fund' out^of the' proceeds of land aalijs.^ He put a high price tin lan|i, and then proposed Wtaake itwoHh the money by s brii»gu>f to itJWvr, 4fe miking & awtwiWc t>j

K_ l -m_..__ l J--_'_.Sg*.^. a .. -^__-_■._.._■..' .__; -: good fpftdi.. This theory was based upon the presumption that though land without labor, and with* out roads, was worth very little, it would be worth the higher price if those two essentials were provided. He converted Earl-Grey to his Views, and the Colony of South was founded to carry them out, and at the same time the price, was raised in all the Australian Colonies. Of course, it put a stop to the purchase of large, estates at a low price, which made many persons very angry, but it very quickly made an impression on the number of people. Wo have no means of ascertaining at once how many persons have been brought out by tbe land fund during the period in which this system was in operation; but it has been very large, and the children of the first shiploads have attained to maturity. If we include the Colonial-born families of those brought out by this system, we shall see how largely we are indebted to it for our present numbers. To be set against this advantage there have been, no doubt, many disadvantages. The system was an interference with the principles of free-trade—with the natural law of supply and demand. An artificial price was put on a particular commodity, and the trade in it subjected to legislative interference. The Government was the great holder of land, and could regulate the market at its pleasure. It was impossible for any such artificial arrangement to exist without some undesirable disturbance of what would otherwise have been the natural course of investment. Nor was the supply of labor so uniformally graduated as the theory provided for. There was sometimes a great demand when there was a short supply, and sometimes a great supply when there was little demand, and those who bad been brought out at the Government expense claimed as a right that the Government should provide them with work. It was found to be impossible for each Colony to keep the laborers it had paid for, and there were also great complaints of the quality of what was sent out. Complaints arising from these defects led to various modifications in the different Colonies, and have prepared the public mind for abandoning the system. The discovery of gold to some extent superseded. the necessity of assisted immigration, as it induced a large number of persons to eoirie out at their own expense. But that special attraction seems now to have ceased and is only provocative of intercolonial migrations. The special reason, however, for keeping up the pi'ice of land may be said to have ceased when we ceased to employ the proceeds in the importation of labor, and when the only immigration vote that was sanctioned was charged to the loan fnnd. A still further inroad was made upon the system when our present land law came into force, and when the old upset price was abandoned in the case of one class of purchasers. All the other Colonies have more or less drifted into the same stream of legislation, and cither by concessions of credit, or more directly, have reduced the price of land. Now that in this Colony we have for the present at least abandoned immigration, and may, perhaps, never resume it, the question is forced upon us why an artificial price should be placed upon the land at all. Mr. Wake- | field's reason ia no longer operative. What other raason is there to be substituted for it ? Though ! iiis has not been one of the questions mainly discussed at the present election, it is obviously one ofthe corning questions. The Wakefield system must be criticised as a whole, and the artificial price of land i f established must always be considered in conjunction with the artificial influx of labor it promoted; hut when one part of the system is abandoned some •■'..od reason should be given why another part should i.'O retained.