47

at which you have arrived, to fix that price
at the same amount which is paid throughout
the rest of the colony—namely ten
shillings per acre. The impolicy and injustice of compelling a purchaser of land
to pay a larger share of those burdens in
one part of the colony than in another,
is apparent beyond the need of argument;
and I cannot but hope that the General
Assembly will, at its next meeting, pass
some general law, by which this principle
which seems to have been recognized in
all the Provinces, will be finally adopted;
and that a uniform fixed price will be imposed upon all the Waste Lands of the
Colony.

I am aware that in expressing this view
I may be charged with a modification of
opinions I have frequently asserted, as to
the expediency of handing over the Waste
Lands entirely to the Provincial Governments. Gentlemen, I still entertain those
opinions; nor considering the question of
the Waste Lands by itself, do I see any
reason for changing them. But experience
has shown me that this question unfortunately cannot be considered by itself, but
is mixed up with a financial question of the
greatest importance,—namely, how the
general burdens imposed on the Revenues
of the Colony are to be borne by the
several Provinces. The General Assembly
has determined that it will not relieve
the Land Fund from its share of those
burdens; and much as I regret that decision, it is impossible but that my views
as to the disposal of the Waste Lands
should be affected by it. I have therefore come to the conclusion that the best
solution of the question, as it is now presented to us, and that which will be most
acceptable to the colony generally, will be
found in the hope I have ventured to express, namely, that a uniform fixed price
may be charged by the General Assembly
on all the lands of the colony, out of which
the general burdens shall be paid, leaving
the Provinces their present power of imposing upon the occupation of the lands
any additional conditions or restrictions
which the peculiar circumstances of each
Province may require.

I therefore agree with you not only in
the price you have named, but also in the
necessity of imposing certain restrictions
on the occupation of the Waste Lands,
which shall prevent their falling into the
hands of speculators, and shall, as far as
possible, secure their possession to those

who will use them for purposes of actual
settlement.

This principle has been adopted in the
Province of Auckland, and has been
sanctioned by his Excellency. In Otago
a similar plan has been proposed. In both
these Provinces the expenditure by the
purchaser of a certain sum of money on
the land, over and above its price, is made
a condition necessary to the completion of
the contract. But the creation of these
incomplete contracts, involving subsequent
inquiry as to the fulfilment of the conditions, and endless disappointment and
discontent in the event of forfeiture through
non-fulfilment, appears to me a very unsatisfactory mode of obtaining the desired
end. The plan recommended by you of
requiring the purchaser, prior to the sale,
to lodge a sum of money, in trust, to be
practically returned to him again in the
form of an improved value of his property
by the construction of roads and the
importation of labor, although similar in
principle, will be far more beneficial in its
operation, whilst it is free from the serious
practical objections to which the schemes
to which I have adverted appear to be
liable.

But the regulations you have now proposed may claim their adoption upon other
and very weighty considerations. I mean
that they amount to a continuance of the
same principle in the disposal of the Waste
Lands in this Province, which was established at the foundation of the settlement,
and which obtained the sanction of the
Crown by Royal Charter, and of the Imperial Parliament by repeated enactments.
Deprived of the one feature peculiar to
this settlement by which purchasers of
land were compelled to contribute a certain sum towards the endowment of
the Church of England—a condition
fair and reasonable, as applied to an
unoccupied territory in which no one
was compelled to settle who objected
to contributing to such an object,
but which could hardly be consistently
maintained by the representatives of a
community comprising members of various
religious denominations all possessing equal
civil rights—deprived, I say, of that one
feature, the plan now proposed is substantially the same as that under which
this settlement has achieved an amount of
prosperity which has but few examples
in the history of colonization.

A system constituted under such high