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Wairarapa Standard, Volume 6, Issue 508, 30 November 1876, Page 2

Ws return to the debate on the Waste Lauda Bill In the opinion of Mr Kelly, while few persona would deny the benefit that would arise to the colony by the establishment of special settlements in positions and under circumstances which ensured success, he could not admit that 1 any such settlements could be successfully established on the free grant system. He thought that if the land was sold at a sufficient price and a fair share of the money derived from the sale was expended in opening up the land for settlement, the land would be taken up as speedily as was desirable, and quite fast enough to satisfy all reasonable requirements. That, at any rate, has been his experience in Taranaki, which is essentially a small-farm settlement, a population of some 4,000 souls having been maintained in material comfort, before the war in 1860, on about 80,000 acres of holdings. The real difficulty was the want of roads fit for traffic. In his opinion it will be impossible to continue settlement on a proper basis unless the land is sold for its fair market value. Cheap land will not hasten real settlement if it involves the absence of roads, except such as would be made by the painfully slow process of local rating; and as our borrowing power has at the present time almost reached its limit he saw no means by which to make roads and bridges to open up lands for settlement except from the land itself.

Mr Woolcock made some suitable remarks. “ My idea,” he said, “ is that it would be better, in the interests of the colony and in the interests of the settlers themselves, to occupy that portion of the country first where people can settle to most advantage, and can enjoy all the blessings and privileges of civilization and of our institutions ; and then, when that class of country has been anything like fully and properly occupied, I would like to see provision made for the extension of settlement, and for affording facilities to people for taking up new country. One of the practical results of that would be that land would fetch double and treble the price it now fetches, and settlers would not be subject to the same amount of inconvenience they now suffer, and they would be of far greater benefit as wealtn-producers to the colony at large ; because they will net require the same amount of Government supervision per head as they would if the settlements were scattered and scarsely peopled.” In replying to Mr Kelly, Mr Thomson pointed put that the land of Taranaki being chiefly bush a very small portion was sufficient for a family. He said “ It is very different on open grassy land for that land is immediately available for stock; and. unless the system of deferred payments were acted upon, the probability is that so far at all events as many of the good lands of Otago are concerned, when opened up those lands would pass into the hands of capitalists. The deferred-payment system has settled a large number of persons on the landland which otherwise would have been bough 1 , by capitalists, and continued in the occupation of the shepherd-kings of the colony.” Other speakers followed, to whoso remarks we cannot even refer, but the following passage from the speech of Mr Bees is worth quoting. He said 11 1 think both the House and the country must begin to see now how easy it is to build up a Constitution , how easy it is to provide for those things which are necessary for the peace, welfare, and good government of the country; how difficult it is comparatively, when jou have a large majority to help you, to pull down a Oonsdtution , and with what wonderful ease and skill, with what wonderful comfort to the members of this House, a Ministry, still with a large majority at its back, can build up again what it has pulled down. I venture to say that when this Bill is passed, when the Public Works Bill has passed, when tht Counties Bill is passed, and when those other Bills are passed which the Government find necessary to enable them to build up a patchwork from that which they have pulled down, the whole work of the country will be thrown into utter confusion. Around the seat of Government at Wellington, by the constant exercise of the powers given to the Govemor, it may be possible to carry things on with tolerable decency, although not without expenditure of time and money; but I venture to say that, in every province beyond the reach of the officers in ••ellington, the administration of the laws in. relation to the whole of these matters will be thrown into utter confusion.” Eventually the Bill passed its second wading and after what were known as ttio Canterbury clauses were expunged in Committee, it was read's third time and sent to the Upper House. “ The questbn,” said Dr Pollen, ‘ which this Bill raiwc U, whether the system of selling land on deferred payments shall or shall not be made general throughout the ccI think this Council can decide tine- without any- serious waste of tune. The only other question in the

| poaed increas'd iu the price of land. Cou-1 sidering the large expenditure which hM taken place during the last few years—the liabilities which have been incurred for the promotion of public works and immigration—it is not unfair for the Government to ask that the colony should derive some direct profit or advantage from increased value of the waste lands of the colony.” The price of land, however, was not raised, and the deferred payment clauses were rejected ; the Bill merely continu-, ling the existing laws in operation for another year, when a Bill will probably be introduced making provisions applicable to the whole colony. This being the case it will be well for the public to come to some clear understanding on this question of the sale and settlement of the Waste Lands of the colony.