Superintendent’s Office,
Dunedin, 19th December 1854.

THE following Extract is published for general information.

W. CARGILL,
Superintendent.

MESSAGE No. 6.

To the Provincial Council of Otago.

GENTLEMEN, * I stated in a late message that no man could form a rational opinion of what ought to be the price of land in this Province until he should know what was to be done with that price—whether applied to the public wants of the Province itself, or appropriated by the General Government. That point is now decided. The Despatches received give conclusive evidence that the price, whatever it might be, after giving a fourth to the Company, is equally divided—the General Government retaining one of the halves and power for the present at least, to appropriate the other also. It farther appears that in other Provinces 10s. an acre has been adopted as the price for available land, so far as such lands had not been monopolized and become private property under the Proclamation; and the jobbing it gave rise to; also, that measures are being taken to arrest such monopoly and its disastrous results, by imposing conditions upon future purchasers. With this information the Otago Executive have at once given their minds to an earnest and honest consideration of the subject, and they now state to your House, and through your House to the public, their conviction and opinion to be—

1stly, That the price of land in this Province must of necessity be 10s. an acre, subject perhaps to Auction Sales within and in the neighbourhood of Towns and Villages.

2ndly, That the conditions, in order to exclude monopoly and secure occupation, ought to be an annual outlay for four successive years at the rate of 20s. an acre. The working man, for instance, whose labour of 8 hours a-day is worth £7 1s. a-year, having got possession, say, of 25 acres for £12 10s., could work upon that land for his own account to the value of £25 a-year with but little if any diminution from his money earnings by work for others; whilst happily the state of this Province is such as to enable him to choose his land where work for wages is to be had. And, on the other hand, the capitalist, great or small, who calculates upon an outlay of £10 to £15 an acre, to get his land under cultivation, should be taken bound as a condition of title, honestly to apply, at the rate of 20s. an acre, for 4 successive years, or £4 in all, out of the sum required for the improvement of his estate. But in the event of his proving this outlay at any time short of the 4 years, that the title be immediately issued. Thus, with respect to 100 acres, the evidence of £400 having been laid out upon them, should at once bring out the title.

3rdly, That the General Government be applied to that the Survey Department be put on such a footing that each purchaser shall be put in possession of his land free of survey cost.

4thly, That as no aid for Immigration or Improvements can hereafter be looked for from a land fund, other provisions, such as a Roads and Immigration Ordinance, &c., ought to be made for them.

5thly, That the sale of Lands and issue of Depasturage Licenses be administered in open court by a Board to be called the Waste Lands Board, consisting of a Chief Commissioner and at least two other Commissioners, to be nominated and removed by the Provincial Legislature.

6thly, That it is desirable that persons of good character emigrating from the United Kingdom and elsewhere to settle in this Province should be entitled to acquire property in land free of cost, in proportion to the sum expended by them in defraying their passage to the colony.

7thly, That in order to secure the undisturbed occupation of Grazing Leases, no lands should be sold except within the limits of Hundreds or Townships, to be from time to time proclaimed as the advancement of colonization may call for.

8thly, That whilst laws as above indicated ought generally to apply to the whole Province of Otago, the settlers under the Otago Scheme should, in accordance with the pledges made to them, be maintained in the full right to carry out within their own block (should they so desire it) the work of special colonization which they have, as a body of Scotch Presbyterians, so successfully instituted.

Let the working man, the yeoman, and the cultivators of large capitals by employment of labour, consider the opinions we now offer. Let all such parties, whether in the colony, or who may yet come to it, in virtue of a patrimonial right in the fair dispensation of public lands, let them say whether the wholesale jobbing away of those lands into the hands of a few ought not to be firmly arrested, and whether parties who would bring that system (for the sake of a lion’s share in it) into what may be called the yet virgin Province of Otago, ought not to be resisted. We are of opinion they ought, and that conditions, easy and reasonable, but calculated to ensure the occupation and improvement of the land, ought to be made a condition of title to all; that these conditions, as regards the working man, being reasonable and fully within his reach, the same conditions ought proportionately to apply to all other purchasers—and in such wise, that no man, large or small, should acquire more of the public lands than he can turn to account, for his own use and the public well-being. Such, under this head, are the principles of the Otago Scheme, and those principles are too sound to be upset, in place of being modified in details, as we have proposed—and this point is equally applicable to the whole Province.

W. CARGILL.
Dunedin, 12th Dec. 1854.

CONTRACTS FOR PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

Superintendent’s Office,
Dunedin, 20th December 1854.

TENDERS in Duplicate will be received at this Office on or before the 4th day of January 1855, from Persons willing to Contract for supplying the Provincial Government with the undermentioned Articles in such quantities as may be required for the half-year ending 31st March 1855:—

FIREWOOD.

Tenders to state the price per Cord, piled up at the respective places where the same is at present piled at this Office, and at the Gaol, Dunedin, respectively.

STATIONERY.

Bound Books, 5 quires, 13 by 8 in. per 7 do. 13 by 10 in. 1 quire.
Foolscap at per ream, 1st quality.
" " 2nd do.
Note Paper, at per ream.
Envelopes, foolscap, at per 100
" letter and note, at per 100
Blotting Paper, at per quire
Parchment (dimensions of skin to be stated in tender)
Steel Pens, Magnum Bonum, at per dozen
Pencils, best drawing, at per dozen
Sealing Wax, at per lb.
&c. &c.

Further particulars will be obtained on application at this Office.

By His Honor’s command,
JOHN LOGAN,
Clerk to Superintendent.