CORRESPONDENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 278, 29 May 1873, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

DEFERRED PAYMENTS. (To the Editor.) Sir, — Captain Mackenzie's letter on deferred payments in your last issue, copied from the " Daily Times," requires some notice. The impression produced by that letter is, that settlers in a "small way," as he puts ifc, have very little chance of succeeding unless backed up by squatters and "men of capital." So tar is this from being the case, that I am certain nine out of every ten settlers will acknowledge that the further removed they are from capitalists with large blocks of land, the better they succeed. I have known instances of small settlers being compelled to sell out, because they were too close to such powerful neighbours ; but I have nevei yet heard of any advantages they had from them, that they would not have enjoyed in a ten fold wi'fMter degree by the country being properly settled. According to this authority, however, it is absolutely necessary that the poor cockatoos, " should have the advantage of being near men of capital, who would give employment 1 to tlioir humble neighbors." Thia reflection^ ao patronising in its way, is doubtless very soothing to the writer, but I beg respectfully to enquire, do they doit? Do these capitalists, " owning larger estates than they can themselves cultivate," give employment to their bumble neighbors, or to other persons, to any extent at all corresponding to the immense area* of land in their possession ? Is it not a melancholy fact a 200 acre farm on the Taieri or Clutha, gives employment to at Ipast half as many persons as Mr. Clark employes on his celebrated block of 45,000 acres at Moa Flat? It is a pity that Captain Mackenzie has not ■favored us with some statistics allowing the extent to which he and other similar capitalists employ labor on their estates and leaseholds, together with a statement of the number of acres over which their operations extend. In the absence of exact information on tli9 subject, I think I may safely state that he and Mr. Tolmie and other large holders employ somewhere about one man to 50,000 acres of land, with, perhaps, an old woman or so, and a boy

thrown in. This will give a very good idea of the lively trade that must result from the sale of large blocks of land to such capitalists. Captain Mackenzie's prognostications that many small settlers will take up land on deforred payments who have no capital to carry them on, and consequently come to grief, are scarcely justified by the experience of the past few years. If Bmall settlers aro remarkable for anything, it is the extreme caution with which they conduct their lmsiuwss, mid the class to which he belongs can scarcely afford to throw a slur on their integrity . For instance, in the Clutha and Pomabaka districts there are some five or Bix hundred small settlers, and borne twenty or thirty squatters and large freeholders, these laxt, mark you, occupijing at least ten timeo the extent of country devoted to settlement. Will Captain Mackenzie please to count on his fingers the number of failures that have occurred among small settlers during tlio past eight years, and then at his leisure gently tot up the long list, of squatters who have filed their schedules during the same period. I challenge him to point out ■ five failures among this large number of small settlers ; while of tlie twenty or thirty squatters and tl men of capital," of eight years ago, only our good old Captain himself, and one or two others remain in possession of their estates, without having experienced the beneficial effacts of the Bankruptcy Court. Employ their humble neighbors, indeed ! 1 have known instances of their humble neighbors foolishly taking such employment, and the only reward they got for their labor was' a few valueless cheques. It may, perhaps, be urged as an excuse for the defunct capitalists, that they were subject to peculiar trials by the fluctuations of the wool market, but the fall in wool was at the worst trifling compared to the fall in outs and cattle, the chief •support of settlers. Captain Mackenzie's illustration of the success of the Tapanui settlement, under the fosterage of men of capital, is certainly very amusing. I have no doubt he means it for a quiet joke in its way, and as such it ia, indeed, very good. Those who do not know the district, will be able to judge for themselves of the extraordinary strides made by this community, when I state that thf-e is not a bridge, nor a mile of metalled road, nor a flour mill, nor a threshing machine, nor a reaper, nor a a double furrow plough, nor even a horse-power chatTcutter in all that celebrated settlement. Truly, for an agricultural district, compared with which the Taieri Plain is but a patch ; this is progress the wrong way with a vengeance. And the reason for such a state of matters lies, as Mr. Bathgate would say, "in a nutshell." So far from the settlers, who have been able to secure a few farms here and there, b°ing benefited in any way by their proximity to large holders and men of capital ; all life and energy and enterprise have been completely crushed out of the district by these heavy capitalists monoj>oHsing all the good land, and holding possession, of it without expending a shilling on its improvement. As sales of land in Lu-ge blocks to capitalists are invariably the result of political intrigue and back-door influence, justifying the snspicion, now very general, of something even worse still than these, I hope all honest colonists will do whatever lies in their power to put a stop to them. Captain Mackenzie concludes his letter by a warning to the Provincial Council, which is as valuable as his other statements, if not more so. If small settlers or laboring men once get possession of the Waipahee and Grlenkenick blocks, either on deferred payments or otherwise, their hold of the land will just be as tenacious as Captain Mackenzie's would have been if he got it at the upset price, on that fine morning when he marched to the Land Office all ho gay, with the bag of gold on his back and the lovely lands of Crlenkenick all in his eye. — I am, &c, Alan Clyde.