postpone payment of rent or sheep rate where a tenant has applied or signified his intention of applying for relief.

Acquisition of Land for Settlement.

The administration of the law in respect of the acquisition of land for settlement is vested in a Board styled the Board of Land Purchase Commissioners, and consisting of the Surveyor-General, the Commissioner of Taxes, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for any district in which it is proposed to acquire land, the Land Purchase Inspector, and a member of the Land Board of the district. The duties devolving upon the Board are to ascertain the value of any lands proposed to be acquired, and to report to the Minister as to their character and suitableness for settlement, and as to the demand for settlement in the locality. Land may be compulsorily taken for the purposes of the Act. The rent of land acquired and disposed of under the Act is at the rate of 5 per cent. on the capital value of the land, and the capital value is to be fixed at a rate sufficient to cover the cost of the original acquisition, together with the cost of survey, subdivision, and making due provision for roads. Where land acquired contains a homestead, a lease in perpetuity of the homestead and land surrounding it, not exceeding 640 acres, may be granted to the person from whom it was acquired, on conditions prescribed, at a yearly rental of 5 per cent. on the capital value of the land, such capital value to be determined in the manner set forth above. A large area, principally in the North Island, remains in the hands of the native race, and this land may be acquired for settlement after a report upon its character, suitableness for settlement, and value, has been made by a Board specifically appointed for the purpose. On notification, the land becomes Crown land, subject to trust for native owners.

AUSTRALASIAN SETTLEMENT.

The particulars given in the foregoing pages will have made the fact abundantly clear that the main object of the land legislation, however variously expressed, has been to secure the settlement of the public estate by an industrious class, who, confining their efforts to areas of moderate extent, would thoroughly develop the resources of the land; but where the character of the country does not favour agricultural occupation or mixed farming, the laws contemplated that the State lands should be leased in blocks of considerable size for pastoral occupation, and it was hoped that by this form of settlement vast tracts which, when first opened up, seemed ill-adapted even for the sustenance of live-stock, might ultimately be made available for industrial settlement. To how small an extent the express determination of the legislators to settle an industrious peasantry on the soil was accomplished will presently be illustrated from the records of several of the provinces; but in regard to pastoral settlement the purpose was fully achieved--large areas, which were pronounced even by experienced explorers to be uninhabitable wilds, have since been occupied by thriving

flocks, and every year sees the great Australian desert of the early explorers receding step by step. The following statement shows the area of land alienated by each province, the area leased, and the area neither alienated nor leased at the close of 1903. The term "alienated" is used for the purpose of denoting that the figures include lands granted without purchase. The area so disposed of has not been inconsiderable in several provinces:

Commonwealth

New Zealand

Australasia

1,902,660,240 120,106,547 741,779,528 1,040,774,165

66,861,440 23,857,633 16,648,650 26,355,157 1,969,521,680 143,964,180 758,428,178 1,067,129,322

The proportions which these figures bear to the total area of each province are shown below:

The figures in the foregoing table disclose many grounds for congratulation. Of 1,902 million acres which comprise the area of the Commonwealth, 862 millions, or 45.30 per cent., are under occupation for productive purposes, and of an extent of 1,969 millions, the area of Australasia, no less than 902 millions, or 45-82 per cent., are similarly occupied, and there is every probability that this area will be greatly added to in the near future. New South Wales shows the least area returning ne revenue, for out of nearly 200 million acres only 22 million remain unoccupied, and much of this is represented by lands which the State

has reserved from occupation, and which are used for travelling stock or for various public purposes, including lands reserved for future settlement along the track of the great trunk line of railways. The State of Tasmania has nearly 61 per cent. of its area unoccupied, the western part of the island being so rugged as to forbid settlement. Settlement in Western Australia is only in its initial stage; much of the area of the state is practically unknown, and a large part of what is known is thought to be little worth settlement. Much the same thing was confidently predicted of western New South Wales and South Australia, though, as subsequent events proved, the forebodings were untrue. In South Australia, including the Northern Territory, only 35.22 per cent. is in occupation. New Zealand, favoured with a beneficent climate, has nearly half its area not utilised—a circumstance entirely due to the mountainous character of its territory.

The practice of sales by auction without conditions of settlement was a necessary part of the system of land legislation which prevailed in most of the provinces; but this ready means of raising revenue offered the temptation to the Governments, where land was freely saleable, to obtain revenue in an easy fashion. The result of the system was not long in making itself felt, for pastoralists and others desirous of accumulating large estates were able to take advantage of such sales, and of the ready manner in which transfers of land conditionally purchased could be made, to acquire large holdings, and in this manner the obvious intentions of the Lands Acts were defeated. Notwithstanding failures in this respect, the Acts have otherwise been successful, as will appear from the following table, as well as from other pages in this volume. It is unfortunate that detailed information regarding settlement can only be given for three of the states of the Commonwealth, viz., New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, and for New Zealand, and that in respect of Western Australia the information is deficient in regard to the area of the holdings. The figures given for Western Australia in the table refer to the year ended 28th February, 1903, for South Australia to the Census year of 1891, for New South Wales to the year ended 31st March, 1904, and for New Zealand to the year ending 31st March, 1903

It will be seen that in the case of South Australia and New Zealand the area included in the foregoing table is greater than the area alienated as shown on page 342; the figures for these states must therefore include some Crown lands held under lease.

Out of the 47,507,611 acres set down to New South Wales in the foregoing, 43,661,856 acres are in the actual occupation of the owners, and 3,845,755 acres are held under rent. In New Zealand the proportion was not stated at the last Census. In South Australia only 5,510,289 acres are occupied by the owners, while 10,720,399 acres, or 66 per cent., are rented. The most remarkable feature of the table is that in New South Wales about one-half the alienated land is owned by 730 persons or institutions, in South Australia by 1,283, and in New Zealand by less than 500.

345

AGRICULTURE.

TA AKEN as a whole, Australasia may be said to be just emerging from the first phase of agricultural settlement; indeed, some of the states have not yet wholly passed from the pastoral stage. Nevertheless the value of agricultural produce, estimated at farm prices, is considerable, and amounts to over 50 per cent. of the value of the pastoral and dairy produce. The production from agriculture in each state for the year 1903, given below, is the largest yet recorded, and is over £5,000,000 in excess of the average for the five preceding years. The wheat crop alone was valued at over £12,000,000, of which some £5,000,000 worth was exported to countries outside Australasia during the first nine months of 1904.

From this estimate it would seem that the value of crops per acre cultivated is larger in Queensland and Tasmania than in the other states of the Commonwealth, a fact which is due to the proportionately large area under sugar-cane in the former state, while in Tasmania the area devoted to fruit accounts for the high average per acre which that province shows; in Western Australia, where the greater part of the