The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 311, 8 November 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1879.

Thrke is a Land Bill now before the House which may be expected to settle a good many of the unemployed who are now seeking homesteads. The minimum price of rural land on deferred payments is fixed under the new regulations at oOs per acre. Provision is made also for the establishment of village settlements under the following conditions(l). The total amount of land set apart as village settlements in the colony shall not exceod 200,000 acres. (2.) Every village settlement shall be surveyed and divided into village allotments nut exceeding one acre each, and small farm allotments not exceeding fifty acres each; or, if the Governor so direct, a village settlement may be divided into village allotments only, or into small farm allotments only, (3.) The Governor may fix a (lay on which any allotment within a village settlement shall be open for application, and may appoint that any such allotments shall be sold for cash immediately on purchase, or on deferred payments subject to the conditions of the said Act. (4.) The price of village allotments shall not be less than five pounds per allotment, and of small farm allotments not less than one pound per acre, (5.) All applications for land in village settlements shall be made in the same manner as other applications for land are directed to be made under the said Act. (6.) if more persons than one apply for the same allotment on the same day, the right to occupy the allotment shall be determined by lot amongst the applicants in respect of small allotments; but, in respect of village allotments, the same shall be disposed of at public auction at an upset price of not less than five pounds for each allotment. The establishment of village settlements is a liberal and patriotic movement, but the first condition which is recited it as mean and illiberal as it is possible for a regulation to be. Were our colleges and universities limited to 200,000 acres of public land, there would be an indignation meeting among the upper ten which would thaw the Legislature. Why should the thousands of willing hands who desire work in the colony, and on whom its prosper ity directly depends, lie stinted 1 Every Association which desires land for bona fide settlement ought to get it, and not another acre ought to be given as endowments for universities, colleges, boroughs, and what not, as long as there is a demand for it for village tlement. The choicest blocks in the Forty-Mile Bush have been absorbed for such endowments. Tor another generation they will probably remain unimproved and useless, As village settlements they might be made to support within five years a considerable population. We-would like to sec a return made of all the public land alienated in New Zealand for endowments, so that we might contrast the magnitude of these reserves with'the miserable 200,000 acres which is proposed to be set apart for village settlements. Every acre of land in the colony fit for village settlements should be reserved for them, and for them only. A small fame policy would do more for New Zealand than our great railway scheme, and would rut cost a tithe of the sum which the latter has amounted to, It is (he policy for New Zealand, but unfortunately we have spent so much on railways, and are still continuing the ruinous outlay in this direction, and to such an extent, that we cannot afford to adopt it, While spending £10,000,000 on railways, we can only afford to lay out £200,000 on small farms. Had >ve spent £200,000 on railways and £10,000,000 on small farms, New Zealand, instead of being hard up and impoverished, would have double the population and treble the wealth which it now possesses!