✨ Select Committee Evidence
446
—I am not able to speak to this of my own knowledge. I have heard of instances of the kind. I do know, however, of several cases where the holders of certificates, after presenting them for registration, have abandoned all idea of making further use of them.
- Your opinion, based upon what you have observed of the free grant system in Auckland, would appear on the whole, to be unfavorable to that system?—My opinion on the whole is unfavourable to the system, and I deem it necessary to state at some length the grounds upon which my opinion rests. I wish it however to be distinctly understood, that I give full credit to the framers and supporters of the system for the best intentions. I ground my opinion on the following considerations:—
1st. In a Province like that of Auckland, where, strictly speaking, there are no waste lands of the Crown, except those often isolated and widely separated portions which have been purchased from the Natives, and where no land can be offered for sale or selection until the Native title is first extinguished, and that at great cost; and further, when the acquisition of territory is solely contingent upon the willingness of the Natives to sell, and the ability of the Government to purchase, I think it is impolitic and unwise under such circumstances, to enter into engagements to give to all certificate holders forty acres of land free of all charge.
2nd. In my opinion it is unwise to attempt by artificial means the introduction of population into any Colony. Cucumbers may be forced with advantage, but not colonisation. If the majority of the population, attracted to a place by special inducements, are disappointed on arrival, I think the result far more injurious to the permanent interests of the country than if such persons had never been invited. The free grant system has a tendency to ensure disappointment in the case of the majority of those who embrace it. The class of people at home who are most likely to be allured by the idea of becoming freeholders naturally imbibe the idea that the possession of forty acres of freehold land in the colony will be attended with similar advantages, and place them in the same position as a forty acre freeholder in England. In the majority of instances they do not reflect upon the vast difference in the two cases, but come out under the delusory idea that they will be at once placed in a position of importance and influence in virtue of their forty acre freehold; and hence, when they find the reality so different from the dream, they get disgusted, and blame not themselves, but those who induced them to emigrate, and do more injury to the Country than ever they could have done by their absence.
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Otago Provincial Gazette 1862, No 185
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Evidence Taken Before Select Committee
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🏛️ Governance & Central AdministrationImmigration, Land Sales, Population, Speculation, Agriculture