IV

Rolleston's fame and reputation rest chiefly on his land legislation and administration, and we must now give a brief account of his work as revealed in his letters and speeches.

Within a few weeks of taking office he introduced a Land Bill which had been prepared but not passed by the previous Government. This Bill was, however, approved of by himself and his colleagues. It did not involve any large change in policy, as its main object was to increase the facilities for disposing of land under the existing deferred payment system. The principle of the deferred payment system was to enable people with small capital to take up land. It owed its origin to another notable land reformer—Donald Reid of Otago—and under that system in Otago, since it was established in 1873, ten thousand people had been settled on a million acres.¹

Many aspects of the land question came up for discussion at this period, but for the first two years Rolleston's efforts were concentrated on increasing land settlement in all parts of the Colony, and systematically laying out roads to provide convenient access. In this work he was highly successful, and owing in part at least to his vigorous administration of the existing land laws, distress among the working classes disappeared and renewed confidence was manifest in all classes of the community.¹