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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 44

Suggestions for Regulations

Suggestions for Regulations.

Before stating regulations, I should first intimate that as there are large tracts of pastoral lands on which stock cannot safely be depastured, except for about eight or nine months in the year, groat care should be taken in cutting up the runs, that all lands, except those under perpetual snow, be made available. One-third at least of each run should consist of country on which stock would be comparatively safe during the winter season. In this case, runs must be of different sizes, because in some places we find that from the only place on which a station could be built the country ascends rugged and steep right back to the perpetual snow line or water shed, a distance in some cases of twenty miles; therefore, in order to make all such land available, a run of say 10,000 acres would require to be less than a mile in breadth, and its boundaries would, in some instances, have to run over groat chasms, perpendicular cliffs, rocks, &c., &c., rendering fencing, or perhaps the removal of stock from one end to the other, an impossibility. On such country natural boundaries would require to be taken, and it follows there- page 6 fore that to turn the public estate to the best advantage, making all parts available, runs must vary in size from, say, 1,500 to 50,000 acres. On runs such as Deepdell, Cottersbrook, Puketoi, Highfield, Blackstone Hill, Ida Valley, and a large number of others where the country is available in all seasons, runs from 1,500 to 3,000 acres would be very desirable properties; on the most of which, 300 or 400 acres of good agricultural land could be got, and from 500 to 1,200 sheep with a few cattle and horses could well be kept; but runs of so small an area can only be made on lands not attached to mountains, still the most mountainous and rugged can be cut into several, and worked to advantage to the lessee and to the State.

In regard to regulations, I beg to suggest:—
1.That twelve months or so before the lease of a run expires, the Government appoint a party experienced in runs and sheep farming, along with a surveyor, to divide said runs into as many sheep farms as can be worked profitably, taking care that on each there be a suitable place for a homestead, attached to which there should be, if possible, a piece of agricultural land not exceeding 400 acres, and that all the remaining agricultural land not necessarily wanted for the working of the new runs be reserved for purely agricultural farms.
2.That the paying and carrying capabilities of each run be taken into consideration, and in accordance therewith a fair average rental fixed, varying, say from 8d to 1s 3d per sheep per annum.
3.That all new runs be advertised to let by tender for fourteen years, and that the applicants best fitted for sheep farmers having a fair amount of means, be accepted. Such a rule as this may be considered rather arbitrary, but it is the only way by which the State can secure good tenants—a matter which a landlord never loses sight of, and the state in many respects is in the same position as a landlord. It is to the benefit of the whole community that the Crown Tenants be good—paying their rents regularly, and their farm products be large in quantity and good in quality. At any rate, selling by auction is the most objectionable; a man does not like to be out-bid, and the excitement occasioned by bidding causes properties to go too high, resulting in the non-payment of rents, impoverishing the land and the tenant, and so causing a general loss to the State.
4.That homesteads be made on every run, each to be worked separately, and that a lessee be allowed to hold only one run.page 7
5.That neither the land at the homestead nor any part of the run be sold to the lessee nor to anyone else, but that each run be kept perpetually as a "Pastoral Crown Farm." In regard to this rule, it will be clear to anyone that if the homestead be sold and if there be no other place on the run suitable for a homestead, then the property must become comparatively valueless, except to the party who holds the homestead, and he having the key to the run would of course make his own terms and simply pay a nominal rent. Besides pastoral lands, except very select portions, cannot be sold for years to come, except at very low prices. How much preferable it is therefore, that they be retained entire, especially when we consider our mining population, whose ejection would speedily take place, were the State to sell the pastoral lands which are so impregnated with gold, and on which mining reserves would be so difficult to make, as payable gold is continually being found in the most unlikely places. Though the rents of pastoral lands must necessarily be low for some time, yet at the expiration of the first leases, they would probably stand to be doubled, as by that time -we may reasonably expect the population to have greatly increased, and consequently the consumption of farm products, thus materially raising the price of stock, and so enabling farmers to pay higher rents. The present system of selling runs on deferred payments, to be paid up in fifteen years, does not greatly attract the buyer and is decidedly a loss to the State. No one will, of course, buy such property unless it be good average land available in all seasons, and in many cases it must follow that the country behind which may be good, though only available for eight or nine months in the year, will be rendered almost valueless to the State on ac-count of the frontage being sold.
6.That the lessee of a new run have no power to sell his lease, but if at any time during its currency he wishes to relinquish it, he must give notice of his desire to the Government who will advertise the run, and on finding a suitable tenant, take over the lease.
7.That a lessee on relinquishing his run be paid compensation by the Government for all necessary permanent improvements that he may have made, and that he agree to sell his stock at valuation to the incoming tenant, who shall be bound to take the same.
8.That on improvements becoming the property of the State, the rent be increased in proportion to the amount of page 8 their value, such amount to be spread over the term of the lease. According to this rule for instance, a run leased for fourteen years, carrying 5,000 sheep at a rent of 1s each, and having improvements on it to the value of £ 1,000, the rent would have to be raised in order to cover improvements to about ls 4d per sheep per annum. By this means facilities to settlement would be greatly increased compared with what they would be were a new lessee made to pay down the £1,000 pounds at the commencement of his term.
9.That on the present runs being cut up, the Government should re-purchase from the old lesseo any freehold that he may have bought on the run and improvements erected thereon, in cases where such freehold or improvements be considered necessary or suitable for the working of the new runs. In commenting on this rule, I may intimate that on many runs the improvements exceed the amount promised by Government as compensation, and that there fore the homesteads are nearly all built on freehold. It would be well, therefore, that where the buildings are not unnecessarily large nor the freehold too extensive, that the Government purchase them for the State, and have each included in one or other of the new runs for homesteads.
10.That interior agricultural lands be surveyed into farms varying in size from four hundred to two thousand acres, and leased by tender to the most suitable applicant for fourteen years, at a rental of from one shilling to five shillings per acre per annum, and that they be subject to similar rules as those sketched in the preceding pages for pastoral farms, and that exclusive of farms of the above size, there should be small reserves of say five hundred acres each—along proposed railway lines, or wherever they may be considered necessary for villages and small farms for laborers.

In regard to interior agricultural lands, and considering their diversity of character, even at equal elevations, their classification is absolutely necessary, as to be a success they must be various in sizes and prices. In many cases we find, especially in Maniototo, side by side with fair agricultural land, thousands of acres shingly to the surface, which without irrigation are hardly suceptible of improvement. Farms therefore comprising a large percentage of inferior lands must be more extensive and at a low rental.

Printed at North Otago Times Office, Oamaru.