The Daily Times. The oldest Manawatu journal: Established 1875. MONDAY, FEB. 18, 1884. THE LAW REGARDING DEFERRED PAYMENT SETTLERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1178, 18 February 1884, Page 2

The Daily Times. The oldest Manawatu journal: Established 1875. MONDAY, FEB. 18, 1884. THE LAW REGARDING DEFERRED PAYMENT SETTLERS.

Although during the past seven years good work has been done m the way of liberalising the Land Laws of the colony, there are still several points m which improvement might be made with advantage. It has always appeared to us that the law, as it stands at present, demands too much from the deferred payment settler during the first few years of his tenancy. The Crown Lands Eeport for the year ending March, 1883, shows that at that date 867 selectors were m arrear m their payments, the amount 'of their arrears being £19,273, and the acreage held 140,909 (table 9, p. 22.) The sum named, the Secretary of Lands remarks, represents very nearly £22 5s for each selector m arrear, or stated m time, about an average of nine months m arrear of the due dates when the sum stated should have been paid. Besides these arrears, 179,119 acres had been forfeited for breach of conditions up to date. When it is pointed out that while 987,315 acres had lieen " selected," or applied for, only 314,741 had been Crown gi anted up to the date mentioned, it will be seen there is room for grave enquiry as to the cause of so large an area being forfeited, and so many selectors being hi arrears. No doubt the deferred payment system has been successful, to quote Mr M'Kerrow, " m settling a population on the land , and causing large areas m many districts of the colony to be occupied and cultivated which, but for the conditions imposed, would certainly not have been done m ordinary course for a long time to come." That is to say, experience has proved the deferred payment system tc be a good one. Whether

the best possible results h.ivo been obtained from it is another question. Clearly, the first object of the State should be to settle the land. t The matter of payment, or cash received, should be subsidiary to the increase of the productive power of the colony, and the settlement of the the land. As the report states, " The tunction of the Land Department is not to raise so much revenue : it is to settle the Crown Lands m the manner most likely to be mutually beneficial to the settlers and the country, and to prevent as much as possible any middle man coming between the department and the settler." Hence, the financial conditions on which deferred payment lands are held should be as light,as p6ssible,consistent with fairness as between the State and the individual. At present, the selector pays onetwentieth of- the purchase money down, and the balance within ten years m equal half-yearly instalments. He is no soouer m possession than the local bodies call upon him to pay rates. He i 3 also required to effect the following improvements : — During the first year he must bring into cultivation one-twentieth of his section, if .rural land, and a similar area during the second year ; at the end of the fourth year he must have cultivated one-fifth of the whole land, and by the end of the sixth year have put " substantial improvements " on his section to the extent of one pound per acre, and for a breach of any one of these conditions the land is liable to be forfeited. Now, let us see what this entails upon the selector : — ln the report we find a case set out,, which will answer our purpose. AB takes up 190 acres at £3 15s per acre. He pays £85 12s 6d down, and every half year after a similar amount. If his land is bush, it costs him from two to three pounds per acre to fell, another pound to grass it, and a similar amount to fence. These are all expenses out of pocket, but the settler nas to wait for his returns. Meanwhile his half yearly payments are falling due, and he must keep good on the books, or forfeit what he has done and paid, or sell his interest at a loss to a speculator or capitalist. After a year or two's experience he probably finds he has undertaken more than be can manage, owing to the payments required every six months for his land. The inevitable bill of sale is given over his stock m order to provide money to meet payments for the land, and the " middle man " comes m at this point. After this the settler's burden increases, and m the end, m many cases, being sswampod by interest and annual payments, he gels rid of his section. We should be glad to know the number of sections which have been transferred from the original selectors to others. The figures, taken m conjunction with the forfeited sections and those on which arrears are owing, would give a correct idea of the actual working of the present system. But we shall be told that under the capitalisation clauses of the Amendment Act of 1882, the: deferred payment settler is very liberally treated. Under these sections any selector who has fulfilled the prescribed conditions during the first three years may have the remaining 7 years' payments capitalised, obtaining the freehold at once on payment of the cash, or he may pay 5 per cent on the amount, with the. right to pay L}o each six months off the debt until extinguished. Be? verting to the case mentioned, "AB having lived on his land, and fulfilled the other conditions, and having paid L 213 15s m six half-yearly instalments of L 35 12s 6d each, he may capitalise the remaining 14 half-yearly payments, viz., L 49 8155. This would be L 412 7s 2d, which he can either pay at onoe and obtain the freeheld, or pay yearly L2O 12s 4d, being interest at 5 per cent, on that sum. The annual amount of instalments on deferred payment is L7l ss, so that by capitalisation the annual amount is lessened by L50 12s Bd, and time given (eleven years) for the settler to establish himself before he pays the principal sum of L 412 7s 2d." These provisions are as far as they go very excellent. Bnt they come too late. What is wanted is to ease the settler during the first three years, while he is clearing his bush, grassing the land, buying stock, fencing, &c. At the end of the third year he is usually getting returns from the land, and is then, if ever, able to meet his payments. Instead of AB getting relief by law after he has paid L2lB 15s, a payment of one tenth of the purchase money should be regarded as proof of his bona fides, and he should be allowed to pay 10 per cent. 011 the capitalised value of the payments due during the first four years, instead of the cash being demanded, The improvements the law insists on are all the time enhancing the value of the State's security, while the handling of the money itself is but a small affair to the State, compared to the importance of assisting struggling settlers to become the real proprietors both of their land and their stock.