Land in Class C.

The land in this class, you will remember, consists of inferior pastoral land, including lands of high elevation.

I would apportion lands of this class into runs of from ten to thirty thousand acres each, and lease the same, by auction, for fourteen years to the highest bidder.

These lands should be so cut up as to adjoin lands in Class B, and the purchasers and lessees of lands in Class B would probably lease these lands of inferior quality and higher elevation to work in with their winter country.

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The fee simple of lands in this class to be disposed of at any time after seven years' occupation, at 20s. per acre.

The foregoing, then, being the outline of the system upon which I consider it would be advisable to promote settlement, I would seek to guard against the misconception that I intend, in this lecture, to sketch a complete and perfect Land Law, adequate in all its provisions to all the wants of the population. I do not profess here to do anything of the kind.

Several important points which must necessarily be considered, and well considered, when the land question is again before the Legislature, are not even touched upon:—The matter of town and suburban lands—the advisability of providing small areas, say from one to ten acres each, in the vicinity of towns and villages, for the settlement of those whose employment is most usually found where men congregate—the question of mining and minerals—mining reserves, timbered lands, &c., &c. All I profess or desire to do, is to point out the direction which I conceive legislation should take in dealing with the great bulk of our unalienated lands, leaving it to others to consider all the bearings of details when the proper time arrives for action.

We have now to consider this question—Is the present an opportune time to make any change, in the direction indicated, in our Land Laws?

To this question I reply, that it is chiefly the opportuneness of the time that has called forth this lecture.

You are well enough aware that all Crown Lands in this Province are held under lease, for pastoral purposes from the Crown.

These leases are now just beginning to fail in. During the year 1878 pastoral leases expire over no less than three hundred thousand acres of Crown Lands, most of which is within a very short distance of the seaboard, and the quantity falling in thereafter is very much greater.

Now, the present Land Act is so framed that twelve months before the expiry of any pastoral lease, if the Board determine again to lease the land, it is put up to auction, apparently for such term and on such conditions as the Waste Land Board for the time being may see fit to settle and impose.

The power thus placed in the hands of the Board is enormous, and the conditions of the lease may be of the most monstrous and oppressive character.

To show that this is something more than merely an imaginary danger, I need only advert to the condition notoriously inserted in all late pastoral leases granted by the page 18 Waste Lands Board, viz., that although the lease is granted nominally for a term of ten years, the land may be resumed at any time by giving twelve months' notice without paying any compensation whatever to the lessee.

If this condition means anything, it means that the Board might, six months after issue of the lease, or less, issue the notice, and twelve months thereafter resume possession of the land.

This condition is so monstrous that I have no hesitation in saying that no Court of Equity would enforce it. The wretched tenant lives with a sword suspended over him by a hair. If he ventures to offend any of the powers that be, he may be a ruined man forthwith, if this disgraceful condition is worth anything at all.

As soon as the pastoral tenants begin to realise the perilous character of their position, there will be a complete end to any and every attempt to improve their runs, as this may only tempt "the State" to cancel their leases and turn them out penniless.

What chance we have to have anything like real enterprise and manly independence amongst our population with matters in such a position, I leave you to judge.

This, however, parenthetically, and by the way.

I have said that, according to the present laws, at least twelve months before the expiry of the old leases, a new lease of the land must be put up to public competition at auction. If, therefore, a new system of disposition, such as that I have sketched, is to be brought into operation in time to apply to the three hundred thousand acres which falls in during 1877—8, we have no time to lose. According to the present law, if no change is made, a large portion of this land will require to be offered not later than the 1st of January next.

I conclude, then, that the coming session of Parliament gives the proper opportunity to effect a change in our land law.

I will now proceed to notice very shortly the question of the administration of the Land Laws.

It appears to me, from a somewhat extended observation, absolutely necessary to make all questions of policy and pure administration rest with the Executive Government of the Province, leaving the Waste Lands Board as much as possible judicial duties alone to perform.

These duties can never be satisfactorily performed, unless the Board is composed of highly intelligent men, who are really acquainted "with the country, who are of a page 19 judicial turn of mind, and Who are really interested in the subject.

I need scarcely add that they must, in addition, be men of good standing, altogether above any suspicion of being capable of acting corruptly in the discharge of their important duties.

How such men may best be secured, is indeed a very difficult question to answer.

If we have anything like a permanent Board nominated by the Government, we have the danger of seats at the Board being given rather as a reward for political services than from any regard to the fitness of the members for their seats, and the members of the Board might be too much under the influence of the Government.

On the other hand, if we make the office elective, we have the danger of popular feeling acting too directly on the Board, when possibly in the discharge of strictly judicial duties.

To have a Board partly nominated and partly elective would be apt to engender party feeling, which it is exceedingly advisable, if possible, to avoid.

On the whole, I incline to the opinion that the Chairman should be nominated by the Governor, three other members should be elected by the people, the Secretary of Lands, the Chief Surveyor, and the Provincial Solicitor having seats at the Board ex officio.

I am very well aware that this constitution is not by any means theoretically perfect, but I submit it is practically workable, and a very great improvement on the constitution of the Board as at present established.

I have now arrived at the close of my lecture; but on looking over it, find that one or two points have cropped up on which I would like to say a word or two in further explanation.

1st. With regard to big blocks. You will observe that I am against the lease and sale alike, of large blocks of land, and that the whole scheme is framed so as rather to encourage the man of moderate than the man of very large capital to farm. At the same time, I would not be inclined to restrict the assignment of leases to a longer period than to three years.

If our restrictions on the use of capital, in certain directions, are pushed to an extent sufficient to drive the capital out of the Colony, we will suffer under very much greater evils than big blocks. And, on the other hand, the refusal to permit a man to assign his property is a very great restriction on his liberty, and can only be excused or justified if page 20 we can show that a great good is obtained by it in another direction.

2. With regard to the tendency of the population of cities to increase, and the country proportionately to diminish, and the wail raised by some who ought to know better thereon.

The cause of this lies deeper than any legislation can touch. It is the necessary consequence of the progress of civilization.

The occupation of the rural population is simply to raise the produce from so many acres of land. Fifty years ago, let us say, it took 20 men to plough, sow, and reap a field of wheat. Now, with improved agricultural implements, the same result can be obtained by four or five. Allowing for the increased labour probably demanded by a more thorough and scientific treatment of the soil, yet the labour-saving appliances have far more than balanced that demand.

We all know, on the other hand, that, as civilization progresses, our wants increase and multiply in number, wants which cannot be satisfied unless the raw material supplied by the producer, agricultural or mineral, is subjected to the labour of man.

Labour, it is well known, can best be applied when classified and divided, each labourer doing his own particular branch of work. Hence, necessarily, the aggregation of men in towns; and as civilization progresses, it is to be expected that the population of the towns will more and more increase, and the country diminish proportionately.

If this view is a sound one, it follows, as a matter of course, that, inasmuch as only a small proportion of the population of a thickly-peopled country are required to work on the lands, as this Colony becomes more and more populous it will be the more necessary for the population to seek other modes of employment than mere agricultural or pastoral pursuits can afford. We have a large, a very large, population coming forward, and yet we do not appear to trouble ourselves very much with the question of how that population is to earn its living.

It appears to me that, inasmuch as in this world we give nothing for nothing, and in this age of civilization and scientific discovery, knowledge and skill is power, it would be a very great matter indeed if we could establish numerous manufactures amongst us, finding profitable occupation for the rising generation.

Every description of upholsterers' work ought to be done in the Colony. Manufacture of carpets, every description of crockery and glass-ware—at least of the plain order—paper, basket ware, cloths, blankets, hosiery, pickles, sauces, page 21 fruit preserving, machinery of every kind, steam engines for land or sea, ships, railway carriages, coaches and carriages of every kind, drays, waggons, ploughs, agricultural implements, &c., &c.

In every one of these, and in many other directions, we ought to be well able to supply our own market in a few years.

The Colonial manufacturer would have a very great advantage in each of these cases, even were there no import duty whatever. He would save the freight and incidental charges, besides the importer's profit, and in the case of all articles made from wool, two freights.

Important, however, as I deem the establishment of manufactures to he, I am not prepared to do more than suggest that the Government should endeavour to obtain and keep, in a form readily accessible to all, information of the most reliable kind obtainable, as to the condition, prospects, and nature of the several manufactures, the rate of wages ruling in various countries, and the amount of capital usually considered necessary to institute a manufactory successfully, and such other information as might be thought desirable.

I do not go the length of advocating the payment of a bonus on the establishment of a new industry, although I am aware that a good deal may be said in favour of such a course, and I certainly consider protective duties to be evidence of something very like political and economical insanity in the mind of the community.

3. It will be noticed that throughout this lecture I have assumed the existence and continuance of Provincial Government.

I do so, because, first, it is the Government now existing; and, secondly, I cannot believe that it will really pass away. As you are aware, I have not hitherto taken any active part in politics, nor do I mean to do so now; but as the subject naturally arises in connection with the question of our public lands, I shall not shrink from stating my views.

I believe now, as I have believed, and as I have expressed myself from the very first moment when the subject was first mooted, that abolition of our Provincial institutions, both administrative and legislative, is a great and serious blow to the prosperity, happiness, and liberty of the people of this Province.

That there was much done in the Provincial Council that we must all regret and deprecate, I freely admit; but these abuses were and are inseparable from representative institutions; and if we are to throw away from us every blessing excepting those which are perfect and faultless, why we must page 22 separate, as we were some time ago reminded, from our very wives and children, and end in abolishing our own existence.

The Province of Otago, under its Provincial institutions, was like the bundle of faggots tied together with a cord, strong, tough, and ready to resist all attempts of the aggressor to break it. The Province of Otago without these institutions will be like the same bundle deprived of its encircling cord. She will be easily overcome in detail.

In the past, few have had better opportunities than I of estimating correctly the value of the provincial form of Government in connection with the administration of the Land Law; and often as, in the conduct of business, I have been opposed to the action of that Government, it is impossible not to admit that its members have been actuated by a sincere desire to administer the laws for the benefit of the people, and that by their ability and firmness they have added very largely to the revenue.

The Provincial Government and the Provincial Council take an interest in the advancement and welfare of the settlers, because they are brought into such immediate contact with them.

If land is wanted to be opened anywhere, a deputation of the settlers can come down and see his Honour the Superintendent, or the Secretary for Lands, in a few hours, and you will find if you enter into conversation with the members of the deputation, that they will relie with almost child-like confidence on what "Mac" or "Donald" will do for them.

Hereafter, what chance do you imagine such men will have when they forward some formal petition to Wellington. The amount of information that will be wanted, the references that will be made to some score of different officials, all of whom know probably very little about the matter, we can all picture to ourselves; the ultimate decision resting with a gentleman who may never have set his foot within our Province.

Already we are beginning to reap the benefits of Abolition in connection with the land administration. The Provincial Council being dissolved, no recommendation for new Hundreds can be made, and no new Hundreds can be opened; and lands which have been recommended months ago by the Provincial Government to be opened, on deferred payments, are still unassented to by the Colonial Government.

If such inconvenience is already experienced under the mere shadow of Abolition, what may we not expect when we have been abolished for good.

I have no hesitation in saying that it is quite impossible to administer the Land Law of this Provinee satisfactorily from page 23 Wellington. Whether we have a Provincial Government or a Board of Works, we must have a local body responsible to the electorate, and invested with powers similar to those now vested in and exercised by the Provincial Executive.

In conclusion, I would say that if my lecture is the means of directing the attention of thoughtful men to the importance of seeking to settle our future population on the land on such a basis as is likely to result in the advancement and prosperity of the smaller landholders, my object will have been attained.