THE LIND QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1516, 8 June 1886, Page 3

THE LIND QUESTION.

We have received from Mr W. J. Stewart, M.H.R., the following petition, with a request that it should be left at this office for persons to sign it To the Honorable the Speaker and the Members of the House of Representatives in Parliament assembled. —The petition of the undersigned sett'ers and colonists in the Provincial District of Canterbury humbly sheweth: That in common with your honorable House, and their fellow-colonists generally, your petitioners are earnestly desirous for the promotion of the progress and prosperity of the colony. That to this end it is highly desirable that every facility should be given for the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown, and that culties which now stand in the way of the extension of settlement should be as far as possible removed. That as regards the Provincial District of Canterbury especially, many persons who are ready and willing *<> take up land and to make homes for themselves and their families thereon, are unable to do so for the following reasons, vis. That nearly all the first-class arable land has passed into the hands of private owners, or the keys thereto have been purchased by private persons; that although there are in different parts of the district considerable areas of land of second-class quality now held under pastoral lease or license, which are suitable for pastoral, or mixed pastoral or agricultural farming, the price at which such land is open for purchase for cash (viz., £2 per acre) is entirely prohibitive ; that if the said land be opened for application os the deferred payment system this evil is intensified, as the apset price cannot be less than 50j per acre, while also the maximum area of each individual holding (viz. 323 acres) is quite insufficient in (he case of land of the description referred to; that under clauses 162 and 163 of * The Land Act 1885 ’ (which are practically identical with the corresponding clauses of the Land Act of 1879) the Governor has power to open such land for application as special settlement land, at each price (not being less than £1 per acre), on such terms of payment, and in holdings of such area, as he may by Proclamation appoint; that your petitioners believe that were this power exercised, and a block or blocks of, say, from 10,000 to 20,000 acres each, in holdings of from 1000 to 2000 acres, opened for application in North and South Canterbury respectively, at the price of 20s per acre, payable in twenty annual instalments of one •hilling per acre, the same would be readily taken up, to the great advantage of the districts concerned and of the colony generally. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your honorable House to take the premises into your consideration, with a view to such action being taken therein as to your honorable House ‘may seem meet, and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.” Persons desirous of signing this petition can do so at the Tbmuka Leader Office, Teauka, or the Geraldine Guardian Office, Geraldine. We also remind them that it must be signed at once, as it is necessary that it should be forwarded to the member for the district without delay.