C—l

XI

in 1895, there were 262 selectors who occupied 4,481 acres ; in 1901 there are 276 who occupy 4,424 acres. In Southland, in 1895, there were 411 villagers who held 6,283 acres ; in 1901 there are 4-23 holding 6,227 acres. There were 1,880 selectors on these village settlements in 1895 holding 39,496 acres, and this year, including those who have exchanged to ordinary lease-in-perpetuity, there are 2,011 holding 42,414 acres. Pastoeal Settlement. The 12,599,413 acres occupied purely for pasture, returned this year a rent of £96,637, or 35 per cent, of the territorial Crown revenue. Its importance is therefore evident, and its conservation merits careful administration. Of this area, 11,342,747 acres were held on pastoral leases of from three to twenty-one years' tenure, and 1,256,666 acres were held on small grazing-run leases, most of them for twenty-one years, renewable, at rents to be assessed at the end of each term. It is in the highlands of the Middle Island where there are by far the greater number and area of pastoral holdings, and they are now so much pared down for small settlement that there are few places where the low-lying country can be further taken from them. The largest area of pastoral country is in Ocago, where there are at present 24J runs containing 4,413,792 acres held on pastoral lease, and 258 small grazing-runs containing 523,860 acres, which together are let for £41,742 per annum. In Canterbury there are 117 runs containing 3,517,629 acres held on pastoral lease, and there are 113 small grazing-runs containing 191,239 acres, which together are let for £50,852 per annum. In Southland there are ninety-three pastoral runs containing 1,285,976 acres, and seventeen small grazing-runs containing 52,469 acres, which together are let for £4,498 per annum. Mining Disteicts Occupation. During last year there were fifty-three leases taken up of 2,122 acres, yielding a rent of £188; and four leases, containing 334 acres and yielding a rent of £13, were forfeited for breach of the conditions. The total area now held on this tenure is occupied by 271 tenants, who hold 11,814 acres, and pay £617 annual rent. The rent overdue is only £6. Agricultural Leases. There are very few of this kind of holding, once the only one on the goldfields ; only seventeen are in existence, containing 550 acres, for wnich a rent of £24 2s. 9d. per annum is paid. Settlement Conditions. The inspections made by the Crown Lands Bangers disclose that on the whole the conditions of lease are well complied with. They show that they examined 6,028 properties occupied by 5,579 settlers, holding 1,173,093 acres ; that the improvements actually made were worth £876,363, or £407,889 in excess of what the lessees had undertaken to do, although there were 339 selectors who had not quite effected the requisite improvements. An interesting letter from Mr. W. A. McCutchan, of Wangamomona, Taranaki, on the first profitable use of bush land is given here : — " As you are aware, the great drawback to the working of bush lands in the years gone by has been the tardiness of any money return from the land ; but under the system of turnip-growing on the new burns, begun some five years ago and now very generally followed, this state of things is altered, and very speedy and substantial returns have been obtained within twelve months of the time the axe first tackles the bush. When living on the coast, before coming here, I had fair success on bush-burns with both swedes and soft turnips, which induced me to try the experiment here last year. My boys sowed 70 acres with turnip—Purple-top, Mammoth, and Green-top Yellow Aberdeen—the seed being on the ground by the 25th January. The season being exceptionally dry, very little germinated for a month. Good showers then gave it a start, and we had an excellent crop of large-sized, sound roots. The first week in June I stocked with a mixed lot of sheep—hoggets, breeding-ewes, and wethers. There were 325 acres in the clearing, and the sheep had the entire run, getting a bite af young grass with the turnips. The ewes had turnips up to within a month of lambing. There was a very low percentage of mortality at the lambing, and the lambs now weaned are the best lot I have ever had. In two months the wethers were fat and ready for the market, though I had to hold them round till November, our road being impassable for sheep during the spring months. Some people have not sown swedes, thinking the burns came too late, but that is an error. I have seen excellent crops from sowings as late as the 20th January, and the turnip can, with confidence of good results, be sown as late as the 20th I'ebruary. This season has been unfavourable for bush-fires, and very little of the back country has fired so far. We are looking forward anxiously to February for dry weather. An advantage from the late sowing is that the roots remain sound until late in September, when the spring growth has set in strongly, and feed becomes plentiful." Ceown Tenants' Eebate. The discounts granted under the Act of last session on one half-year's rent amount to £2,317 13s. 9d., the largest being in the Land District of Canterbury—£B9o os. 9cl. granted to 474 tenants— and the next in Wellington, where £879 Bs. 3d. was granted to 1,489 tenants. In Otago £347 2s. 7d. to 790 tenants was remitted, in Southland £101 17s. to 206 tenants, in Marlborough £93 6s. 2d. to 35 tenants, and in Nelson £5 19s. to 42 tenants. In the Districts of Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Westland no rebate was given during last financial year. The Act giving the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Eeceiver of Land Eevenue the authority to give a discount for prompt payment of rent was passed on the 20th October, 1900, and it left to the discretion of the Commissioner and the Eeceiver the granting of a rebate of one-tenth (or less) of each half-yearly instalment of rent which, after the commencement of the Act, would