The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1951, 6 April 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1875.

Wi have received a circular letter from the author, Mr J. H. Wallace, of Wellington, advocating "the claims of tke early settlers," being a reprint of a letter from the New Zealand Times of March 21,1875. The writer of the letter was, it appears, one of the vice-chairmen at a banquet held in celebration of the anniversary of the Colony at Wellington, at which he " ventured to assert the claims of the practical founders of the Colony by stating ' that the mere fact of annually founding their praise was not enough, and he (Mr Wallace) would like to see their services as the practical founders of the Colony recognised. The volunteers had their scrip awarded to them; the naval and military settlers had their grants of land; but what he would like to see was that the early settlers should have their grants of land, and that the Legislature of the Colony should be asked to consider this important subject.*" Mr Wallace then proceeds.to give a synopsis of the early work of colonisation by the New Zealand Company, under Colonel Wakefield, referring also to the early Mission Stations in the North Island; following with the names of the first ten vessels despatched by the New Zealand Company, the dates of departure and dates of arrival. Mr Wallace then gives a brief resume" of the progress of settlement throughout New Zealand from 1840 to 1848, at which latter period, as he says, the colonising operations of the New Zealand Company had nearly ceased. The period between the advent of Governor Hobson and the arrival of Governor Grey is briefly noticed, as well as the unsatisfactory state of things under Governor Fitzroy. To the latter^ treatment of the Natives is attributed the difficulties attending the the aggressive warfare instituted, and the consequent struggles for ascendancy of the settlers as against a large and powerful body of warlike natives. No doubt at this time affairs were in a critical state* and the pioneers of the Colony had a

tremendously upkill gamo to play, which, seriously impeded their efforts at colonization and blighted some of their best schemes for preparing the way for others. Governor Grey is credited with having instituted energetic measures for conquer, ing the rebellious natives throughout the Colony, and for having adopted means to allevate "the evils which had accumulated under the mismanagement of his predecessors." But, the author asserts, " with the exception of contractors for the troops, and traders who were fattening on the disturbed state of things, the bona fide colonists (pioneers), especially in the country districts, were being ruined, and a vast number of them hare not, up to this day, recovered from losses of time and property then sustained, and for which they and their families are fully entitled to be compensated." Mr Wallace then proceeds to quote an epitome of occurrences during the year 1845, as published in the following year in some local notabilia. The catalogue is of a painful character, which has been too often repeated during the brief history of New Zealand. Murders, surprises, skirmishes ; movements of armed vessels ; outrages by natives, singly or in bodies; all the incidents peculiar to New Zealand Native trouble are given. These, Mr Wallace contends, arc the troubles which constitute " the claims of the early settlers ' ■ to compensation in land. Mr Wallace further supports his plea in the following terms :—

•'Again, it may fairly be urged that the pjice of land in the early days, 20s per acre, paid to the New Zealand Company by those who were the first systematic colonisers of the Colony, gives them a claim to consideration now. Numerous families had to take land at not less, and in many instances at much higher, rates per acre, till the door wai opened for a new state of things by the alterations made by Sir George Grey, who reduced the price of land to 5s and 10* per acre. The energies of the pioneers were at this period damped and their means exhausted. The door was opened for the foreign capitalist and speculator to purchase land at ss. per acre and upwards,—land that tad been virtually conquered by the early colonists, —that is to say, the country was prepared for the occupation of sheep and other stock. Native difficulties were by the pioneers of the colony overcome, and the way paved for the occupation of those runs that have made the fortunes of the few. Neither Otago nor Canterbury had to draw the sword, as Nelson and the northern settlements have had. The plough-share and pruning-hook were their peaceful weapons of colonisation. Can they, then, withhold from their less fortunate fellow-settlers and their families, the early pioneers of the colony their just due, viz., a freegrant of land ? One point may be urged with regard to compensation or free grants : it may be said that the purchasers of land from the New Zealand Company were compensated through the instrumentality of the late Superintendent of the province of Wellington (Dr. Featherston). It is true that land-owners had what was termed compensation scrip granted to them. This compensation scrip, however, did not in any way benefit those bona fide settlers whose cause I am advocating. The greater portion of the purchasers of land from the New Zealand Company were wealthy absentees, and it was those purchasers, and not the hard-working men and ruined settlers, who benefited by this compensation. Who then, are entitled, or up to what date should claims be considered P I would suggest that grants of land be given to all bona fide settlers and their families, now in the colony, and who arrived or were in the colony on the 22nd January, 1846. giving five clear years from the date of the foundation of the colony. This \iould bring the period up to the arrival of the Governor (now Sir George) Grey when, as before observed, things began to mend. There-are no doubt fortunate and wealthy pioneers who would not avail themselves of the reward. On the other hand, the great majority consider, with myself, that they are, for the reasons already advanced, honorably and fairly entitled to the consideration of the Legislature ; and in order to bring the matter to a practical test, I shall be glad to receive communications from all parts of the colony, from those interested in this appeal, with a view to the formation of a committee to be authorised to draw up a document to be laid before both Houses of the Legislature, asking for a free grant of land for the practical founders and pioneers of this nourishing colony."

The proposal to make free grants of land to the early, and even recent settlers is not a new one. We do not remember who first initiated the idea, but we confess to a desire to see it realised if it should come within the bounds of practicability. While approTing, however, of the principle, we would go further than Mr Wallace. It has been suggested by one writer that land should be granted to every person arriving in the Colony and paying his own passage up to the time that free im-migration-was commenced under the Immigration and Public Works Act. This would involve considerations of ways and means; it would be a much more comprehensive question to deal with than that embodied in Mr Wallace's pamphlet, but it is none the less deserving of consideration. Many of the most enterprising of our population have arrived in the Colony during the last twenty years—since%B6o.

In the Province of Auckland, at any rate, there are settlers of ten and fifteen years standing who have suffered as much from Native wars as any of the pioneers referred to by Mr Wallace, and it would bo scarcely fair to recompense the older settlers for a species of trouble which has fallen with tenfold severity on comparatively late arrivals, without giving some consideration to the claims of the latter class. It must be remembered, too, that although the pioneers had many and great hardships to contend with, most of them are now in positions of comparative independence. Their early struggles may have been hard to bear, but they were not insurmountable. On the other hand settlers of a more recent date sustained losses and reverses in the war which commenced at Taranald in 1860 and gradually overspread the North Island from which they have never recovered; and in all fairness any proposals to recoup the pioneers for their reverses of fortune should embrace the claims of more recent sufferers. Mr Wallace has invited notice of his views, and we have no wish to say anything in disparagement of his proposition. J3ut if it is to be entertained we consider that its range should be enlarged, and made to extend to claims of more recent date. To give land to the pioneers as indicated by Mr Wallace would be invidious. We would go much further and offer inducements to all settlers of a certain standing to become permanent colonists, without making it a sine qua non to prove that they arrived in certain ships at specified dates. Most of the early settlers have reason to congratulate themselves on their lines having fallen in pleasant places. Very few of them have reason to regret their hardikood in casting in their lot in this Colony, whilst many who came without purse or scrip are now much better off in worldly gear than their kindred who arrived later with purses well lined. . ..