SYSTEM OF SELECTION OF LAND ON DEFERRED PAYMENTS (REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF CROWN LANDS, INVERCARGILL, AS TO THE WORKING OF THE).

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1879 Session II, C-07

C.—7.

Sess. 11.—1879. NEW ZEALAND.

SYSTEM OF SELECTION OF LAND ON DEFERRED PAYMENTS (REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF CROWN LANDS, INVERCARGILL, AS TO THE WORKING OF THE).

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by the Hon. Mr. Thomson, -with leave of the House.

The Commissioner of Crown Lands to the Hon. the Minister of Crown Lands. Sir, — Crown Lands Office, Invercargill, 9th June, 1879, Being desirous of ascertaining by personal inspection the progress made by the deferredpayment selectors on the east bank of the Mataura, I lately traversed the district from the Toi Tois to Tapanui, and beg to subjoin my report. In 1871 I stood on a hill in the centre of the Toi Tois Hundred, and far as the eye could reach the noonday sun disclosed earth's bosom covered with its primeval carpet. The tussock lent its yellow hair to the breeze. The graceful head of the cabbage-tree quivered in its embrace. The brilliant green of the flax and tutu bushes glowed in contrast with the darker tints of the luxuriant fern, and the spirit of solitude brooded over the landscape. The purple shadows of descending night were unbroken by a single scintillation of light from cottage window or ruddy glow of cotter's fire, and, under tiro gently-falling beams of the mistress of the night, earth slumbered with the perfect rest of utter solitude. In 1879 I stand on the same hill, and see stretched before me the undulating plains clothed with the strong breath of man's labour, the spirit of man's life. The sunbeam dances over well-tilled fields ripe with cultivated abundance. The soft autumn breeze, sighing through the golden effort of the dying summer, wafts along the gladsome laughter of sunny childhood; kisses the russet cheek of the matron watching at her cottage door the gambols of her children; cools the brow of honest labour, as, resting for a moment the farmer surveys the bright landscape, and proudly realizes that the great gift of " The Master " —"the earth and the abundance thereof," is being turned to its legitimate use —the blessing of the many —while the grey smoke wreaths itself aloft from many a smiling homestead. That the experiment of settling the waste lands of the Crown under a system of deferred payments has proved a perfect success in the Toi Tois District, there can be no doubt. In my report of 1878, when I recommended its adoption, there were not in an area of 58,500 acres more than ten settlers —the lessee of the run and a few others. The first block was surveyed and thrown open for application under the system in 1873. The whole block was applied for shortly after it was opened, and so satisfactory have the results proved to those who settled, that I do not think £10 an acre would induce any of them to sell out. This, success, moreover has been achieved despite the very considerable drawbacks of bad roads, and imperfect and tedious communication with any centre near the seaboard to secure a ready and remunerative sale for produce. In my reports of 16th April, 1872, and Ist May, 1873, to the Provincial Government of Otago, I strongly recommended that the whole of the then unsold lands in the Tuturau, Makoreta, and Toi Tois Hundreds should be sold only under the system of deferred payments, and my recent inspection has more fully confirmed the opinion I then held, that this district was peculiarly adapted for settlement by small holders. Its climate, soil, natural drainage, timber, and admirable water supply in the many creeks and streams meandering through it, render it the choicest tract of country for successful yeoman agriculture to be found in New Zealand. Proceeding northward along the east bank of the Mataura, the deferred-payment blocks are again touched, situated in the valley of the Waikaka, being the southernmost of a series which extend for some thirty-seven miles through the Waipahi, Chatton, Glenkenich, Greenvale, and Crookston Districts. Here the same stable prosperity evinces that the battle with nature is being fought out to a successful issue. In many instances the struggle is undoubtedly hard, owing to an insufficiency of material in commencing the campaign ; but thrift, energy, practical acquaintance with the pursuit, assisted by the employment afforded by the surrounding large proprietors, will ultimately conquer, more particularly

C—7

2

if they can obtain, what nature and sound policy dictate, a railway from Gore to Kelso, which would pass through tho heart of the deferred-payment settlements, and would find little obstruction from natural impediments. I was agreeably impressed with the altered face of the country, studded as it is for miles with homesteads, surrounded by cultivations, contrasting with the uniform sombre brown of the untenanted waste I had seen years before ; and, comparing the present with the past, one could not but come to the conclusion —that the right trail to the great issue-—a prosperous and, for the body politic, advantageous utilization of State property —had been struck. In these districts the beneficial fruition of the system has developed into a phase, which, small in its inception, will lead to large results, and that with a rapidity which will give a surprising stimulus to trade. I refer to procreation—for in this case it virtually is such—of inland townships, not of mushroom growth, seething ivp from the hotbed of a transitory and migratory industry such as a gold field, but of the stable, if slower, expansion resulting from the spirit of permanency. Some thirteen months ago the site of the Township of East Gore was a barren waste ; now there are from thirty to forty buildings, most of them of good size. Stores which, in point of complement, would not disgrace a seaport town, and hotels far superior to the beer-shops to be seen in inland villages in the Home country ; being, in fact, equal to any in the long-settled inland districts of Otago. On the opposite bank of the Mataura, "West Gore, after a languishing existence, has within the last two years made strides so great as to warrant the very high prices for town and suburban lands given at recent Government land sales, averaging for town £150, and suburban £15 per acre. On seeking for the source of this sudden development, 1 ascertained it was the result of the deferredpayment settlement in the neighbourhood. A peopled district demands a market-town; an unsettled one, a beer-shop and a blacksmith's den. There is a weak point in every human institution : and the weak point in the system of disposing of the public lands on deferred payments is the temptation offered to acquire a freehold before the aspirant has amassed sufficient to justify him in the attempt. I append an estimate of the amount of capital which it appears to me, after careful investitjation, an intending deferred-payment selector should possess before he attempts to work out the problem. With such a sum to start with, combined with thrift and energy, a prosperous issue is assured. Still, there are many instances of men with smaller means achieving success. At any rate, there can be no doubt of the superiority of this system for the small farmer, over the leasing system which obtains in the Home country. I was recently informed by a practical farmer of large experience, visiting New Zealand, that he knew hundreds of small farmers, more particularly in Wales, who, starting with a capital of £500 on leasehold farms, and working hard from youth to age, never could compass a credit of £100 in the bank.* Hero the struggles of the first three or four years are compensated for by acquisition of the freehold. Under the deferred-payment system the annual rent means the purchase-money, and the selector has hope: in the mother country there is none. There are certain conditions, however, in the treatment, of the question which should, in my opinion, guide the Government, and which require to be steadfastly adhered to. 1. The best agricultural lands should be chosen for sale on deferred payments. To locate such selectors on land inferior in quality, or requiring an expensive outlay for drainage, &c, is to insure defeat. As I have already stated, the majority of those who are allured into taking advantage of the system by the facilities it affords for acquiring a freehold are not overburdened with the circulating medium. The conditions under wliich occupancy is permitted enforce an immediate outlay necessitating a speedy return, which can only be obtained under the most favourable circumstances. The speculator may wait, the wealthy landowner can invest, looking to the future for his harvest. The deferred-payment settler cannot afford either. 2. The blocks under this system should, if possible, be selected in the middle of, or adjacent to, lands held by large freehold proprietors. Experience has shown me that the best friend the deferredpayment selector has is the large landed proprietor in his vicinity; who, employing him in contract ploughing, harvesting, &c, purchases his oats for fodder, his wheat for seed, and thus furnishes him with the means of implementing the conditions of his occupation license. Capital and labour are as mutually beneficial in this phase of industry as in any other ; and it is of the utmost importance to the deferred-payment settler that he should obtain this assistance during the first two or three years of his undertaking. 3. Communication with the seaboard is of more vital importance to the deferred-payment selector than to the ordinary purchaser of freehold. Time and the amount or method of cultivation aro at the command of the latter; the former, his canoe once launched on the river of his enterprise, is pursued by his Nemesis, the Crown Lands Sanger. He must move on. He must cultivate, whether he has a means of transporting his produce to a market or not. To assist him, therefore, in conferring not merely a benefit on himself but the colony, by covering its surface with cultivation, and increasing its material wealth and revenue, should be the earnest desire of every one, more particularly as, for the first years of his struggle, he cannot tax himself for road-making, and, being poor and humble, he cannot bring political pressure to his assistance. Under any circumstance, if the experiment of encouraging the growth of a yeoman class —of distributing the waste lands of the State amongst the masses, with the view of building up a great State and relieving it of its burdens —is worth trying, it is surely advisable that, in the direction of future railways into the interior, the greatest care should be taken, the most jealous scrutiny exercised, that they should embrace as much as possible those districts where the largest number of these smaller landowners are located; in fact, that they should be the rivers of communication with the ocean shores for the assistance of the many. New Zealand is pre-eminently the colony where the small farmer can succeed, where, if he is not cursed with the desire to amass a fortune, he is sure to compass a comfortable competency. The

* In the London Times, of 27th March, a correspondent, writing on the " Depression of Agriculture " in Great Britain, states, "In round numbers, the class most directly affected, the tenant, farmers of Great Britain, comprise 500,000 persons, occupy 30 millions of acres of land, pay 40 millions of annual rent, and are supposed to own 300 millions of capital."

3

0.—7,

Australian Colonies are doubtless better fields for the wealthy pastoral lords, but they will never compete with New Zealand in raising a substantial yeomanry. It may not be inappropriate, in closing this report, to descant on the quality of the soil in the district I have inspected. Taking the land comprised within the watershed of the Mataura, the Waikaka, "Waipahi, Chatton, Glenkenich, Greenvale, and Crookston Districts, and the original Province of Southland, an area of some 3,300,000 acres, I do not think a similar block for all-round agriculture can be found—not merely in New Zealand, but in the Australasian Colonies. Every cereal can be grown in perfection. Wheat, from 40 to 60 bushels to the acre; oats, 50 to 80; barley, 50 to 60; and all root crops and grass in profusion. In fact, owing to its capacity for producing turnips for winter feed for stock, it may safely be assumed that tho fertility of the land will never be exhausted. Turnips of 16 or 18 pounds weight are not uncommon on any good farm in Southland, while sound roots of 20 pounds w*eight have been produced by ordinary field cultivation. There doubtless are patches of country in the Australasian Colonies and in New Zealand possessing a superior capacity for the production of some special cereal, such as wheat, which is a most exhausting crop, the luxuriant growth of which requires an extreme of heat that prevents the recuperation of the soil by growing turnips, or laying down in good pasture to be fed off by sheep. But the permanent settlement by yeoman farmers over an area of large extent cannot be effected when they have to depend for their living on only one or two agricultural staples. They may stay for three or four years and pump out the soil—particularly if it is leasehold —and then move on. It is only an all-round agricultural district which can secure and hold the small agriculturist. I have, &c, The Hon. the Minister of Lands, Walter H. Pearson, Wellington. Commissioner of Crown Lands.

APPENDIX A. Necessary Expenditure on a Deferred-payment Section of 200 Acres for the Three Tears of Occupation before a Grant can be issued. Fencing, say 200 chains ... ... ... ... ... £150 Cultivation, 20 acres ... ... ... ... ... 20 Clearing, if flax or tussock ... ... ... ... 20 House, say ... ... ... ... ... 60 Two horses, dray, plough, harrows, harness, tools, &c. ... ... 120 Six half-yearly payments of Is. 6d. per acre ... ... ... 90 £460 The fencing and cultivation the selector may do himself; but if he is a man with a family, the money put down as their cost will be expended in living while he does the work. For the first two years his time will be fully occupied in fencing and cultivating, and no return can be expected from the land. The third year he may, by cultivating more of his land, perhaps make his living.

Authority : George Didsbitby, Government Printer, Wellington. —1879.

Price 3d.]