The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1889.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4526, 29 April 1889, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1889.

In bis Wyndhani speech Mr Richardson expressed tho opinion that tho recent amendments in tho Land Act were favourably regarded hy tho public, though there bad been a little f riotion at first in dealing with the new provisions. This remark led him on to speak of tbo evil arising from conatunt changes in the laws, and especially the land lands, of a country. Few will feel inclined to differ with Mr Richardson on tho point. Even the most active and restless of our legislators will admit the truth of the general proposition, yet session after session the laws arc tinkered and altered to a perfectly bewildering extent. Every man who has a seat in the Houso deems himself competent to frame amendments or entirely new legislation, and a large number of members consider it a sacred duty to undertake such work. The consequences ure deplorable Amendment is piled on amendment, until the law regarding a particular subject bocomes so mixed up that even the Judges are frequently at fault for a reasonable interpretation. Thon coineß a consolidation Act, and the draftsman dons bis best to shnpo n comely and workable whole out of the multitudinous und conflicting elements placed before him. If ho succeeds, his labours are generally to some extent rendered abortive by tbe action of Parliament, for a consolidating Bill is ruiely ollowed to

pass without some ill-considered alterations being introduced. Then year by year the process is repeated, and so ad infinitum. New Zealand has been plagued in this fashion at least as much as any country in the world, and tbe instability of the land laws has become proverbial. With regard to them Mr Richardson suggests the usual remedy — a consolidation Act. We have nothing to say against that, but something more than consolidation is quite sure to be attempted, and even Mr Richardson says that when the Bill is drafted the deferred payment system had better be dropped. Is that an alteration which is, to use his own words " absolutely necessary ? " Certainly not, though we admit that he gave plausible reasons for the abandonment of the system. He said : — " It was a system under which compulsory payments had to be made every six months whether the seasons were good or bad, the times favourable or adverse, or else tbe selector got. into arrears with his interest and capital combined. Under the perpetual lease system the selector would simply have his five per cent interest to pay, and he could acquire the freehold whenever the conditions had been fulfilled and he desired to do so. It appeared to him that if the perpetual lease system was so amended that a man, when he had the money and felt inclined, could pay a proportion of the capital value of his land, and reduce his interest proportionately, they might do away with the deferred payment system. It would be equivalent to engrafting tbe best feature of the deferred payment system on that of perpetual lease, and so improve it in that respect. It might often happen that a man would be able to pay off the half or tbe third of the capital value of his land, when he might find it difficult to raise the money to obtain it altogether in fee simple." But, on the other hand, tbe deferred payment system is on the statute book, itis one of those tenures which Mr Richardson has taken credit for having given selectors the choice of, it is a system which finds favour with a good many selectors, and, finally, no one except the Minister has said anything about tbe advisability of sweeping it away. Why then add one more alteration to a list which is already quite long enough ? The speech concluded with the sound advice to young men to go out into the country and carry on the work of settlement instead of crowding the towns with superfluous labour : — " He would like to see them follow in the lines of the pioneer settlers. They sometimes heard land spoken of as being; inaccessible, but there was really none of that description now-adays. If a man were to settle down half-way between FortroßC and Catlin's, before be bad anything grown for sale, he would have neighbours to the right and left of him, and a road on which to cart his crops to a market. It only wanted someone to take the lead. Settlement was going on apace in the North, and he hoped the same spirit would be shown here. This battle of settlement must continue if the colony was to prosper. This subjugation of tbe wilderness bad been carried to a certain length, but it was anything but ended. This was the only true colonisation — the carving out of comfortable homes on the Crown lands of the colony — and he hoped, under the amended laws and tbe liberal conditions on which holdings could now be obtained, that public opinion would settle in that direction, and tbat more people would go into the country — fewer come into the towns."