PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference
INC.O.
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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unimproved, is a great obstacle to the general progress of the colony, and the settlement of emigrants is checked and discouraged by the high price they are compelled to pay for land to the speculators by whom it has been bought up. This evil is guarded against by selling land at a price too high to allow of its being acquired with any expectation of profit by per- sons who mean to let it lie idle. But as the object of imposing such a price is to ensure the gradual distribution of land to settlers as it is wanted, it has always been my opinion that the sums received for it should be applied in such a manner as to add to the value of the land to purchasers who mean really to occupy and improve it. The popular objections to the comparatively high price which has for some years been required for the Crown Lands in the Australian colonics would, in my judgment, be well founded, and it would be highly impolitic to withdraw from.
settlers so much of their available capital, if this money were not in fact restored to them by its being applied in such a manner as to increase the value of the land they ac quire. With this view, in the other Australian colonies, half the sums so received are by law devoted to the introduction of emigrants, by which a supply of labour is obtained and a value is given to the land which it would not otherwise possess. In Van Diemen's Land it is not necessary, as there is an abundant supply of labour from another source, to apply any of the receipts from the sale of land directly to this purpose;
but upon
the same principle they ought to be applied to public works, such as roads, bridges, and buildings, which will conduce to the profitable occupation of the lands alienated. The Committee of Privy Council on the proposed constitutions of the Australian colonies has advised that whenever local bodies are constituted representing the in- habitants of the different districts, the application of half the laud find to objects of this kind should take place under their superintendence. I am strongly impressed with the importance of adopting this recommendation, and I should anxiously desire to see the establishment of such
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municipal bodies at the earliest possible period; and, whenever they are established, it would be highly expedient that the expenditure of a portion
of the Land Fund, in the manner I have descri- bed, should take place under their direction, sub- ject to the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor. In the meantime this application of the money should take place under the directions of the Government, since, if it were placed at the dis- posal of the Legislature, it is almost certain that due regard would not be shown to the interests of the inhabitants of the remoter districts,
whence it is principally derived, who are too few to have much influence in that body. In Van Diemen's Land, in consequence of the absence of any considerable demands for emigration, a larger proportion of the fund ought probably to be applied locally than in the other colonics, still a certain proportion of it ought, I. think, to be retained for purposes of a similar character, but of more general advantage,— such as improvements of the great lines of communication and of the principal harbours, by which the general trade of the colony may be benefited. These instructions must, how- ever, be regarded as subject to those contained in another despatch which I have this day addressed to you, and in which I have informed you that instalments of 5000/. annually, in pay- ment of the Colonial debt to this country, must constitute a first charge on the land revenue.
I am, &c.
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