1863 - Silver's Guide to Australasia [New Zealand sections only] - The Nine Provinces, p 132-149

"Planted on a neck of level land, only six miles across, the town stands on two harbours, Waitemata and Manakau. An arm of the former connects it with the river Thames and Piako, presenting water-carriage through a hundred miles of country--an arm of the latter virtually connects it with the rivers Waikato and Waipa, navigable for canoes through 200 miles of fertile valleys. Creeks and inlets of these two harbours indent the town and suburb shores at every point." 1

"Auckland is the largest and best built town in New Zealand, and no doubt its position as metropolis has given it this great impetus." 2

Hotels: Masonic, Princes-street; Royal, Eden-street. Banks: Bank of New Zealand, Union Bank of Australia, Bank of New South Wales, Auckland Savings' Bank. Chamber of Commerce. Two Colonial and two English Insurance Companies. Museum. New Zealand Agricultural Society. Mechanics' Institute. Six Volunteer companies of Rifles. Communications: Mail vans to and from Otahuhu, Papakura, and Drury. Vessels and steamers to various New Zealand ports. Weekly mail steamers to Sydney, N. S. W.; fares, £12 and £9.

The port is supplied with almost everything necessary for refitting and victualling vessels; and both ships' stores and provisions can be had at moderate prices.

"At Epsom, 21 miles from the town, and in the Tamak's district

miles), there are grasses and clover paddocks as large, as rich, as well laid down, and as substantially fenced as any grass-land in England. Owing to the neat and uncolonial style of cultivation, and to the absence of trees of foreign appearance, the country round Auckland presents the appearance of a home-like English landscape." 3

"Auckland's Western Port is at Onehunga, that charming little town being washed by one of the numerous arms of the great and inland sea of Manakau. From Auckland to Onehunga the distance is about seven miles. It is traversed by an excellent metalled road, passing through a country of the utmost beauty and fertility, thickly studded with handsome villas, which are rising so rapidly on both sides, as to bid fair, in time, to form one continuous street from port to port." 4

"In genial climate, rich soil, striking scenery, water carriage, and agricultural and pastoral admixture of forest, fern, grass, and flax lands, it is entitled to rank as the garden of New Zealand." 5

Above 200,000 acres have been surveyed, and are at the disposal of the province. Persons who emigrate at their own cost may obtain out of the lands surveyed and at the disposal of Government, free grants of land.

A. F. Ridgway and Sons, 40, Leicester-square, London, are the Provincial Agents in England, and are authorized to grant land-orders to persons intending to emigrate to, and settle in Auckland. The obtaining this land-order is indispensable, as no free grants of land are made without it. The grants are to be-- for men or women, of above eighteen years of age, 40 acres; and for persons between the ages of five and eighteen years, 20 acres. Grants to the same extent are also made on account of servants imported at the expense of their masters. The only condition to the obtaining of the land order is, that the applicants be fit and proper persons for a colony. In this respect, the agents have a discretionary power either to give or refuse the land-order. Intending emigrants who desire to obtain such order must apply to the agents, who will send them a form to be filled up by the applicants, stating their names, ages, actual occupation, &c., &c. They will also receive a form of certificate of character, to be signed by a magistrate, minister of religion, or other public functionary to whom the applicant is known. If the particulars and certificate are satisfactory, the land-order will be delivered a few days before the sailing of the ship, on the agents being satisfied that the applicant has paid his passage, and intends settling in Auckland. The Province, therefore, offers to emigrants, approved of by their agents, a free gift of 40 acres of land, equivalent, at the lowest current price, to the sum of £20. The land-order must be presented to the authorities of the province within twelve months from its date, and a residence of four out of five years is required to convert the first preliminary into an absolute or Crown grant. Naval and military officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, marines, and seamen, emigrating to Auckland, are entitled to land-orders on the following scale:-- Officers, to 400 acres; non-commissioned and warrant officers, 80 acres; private soldiers, marines, and seamen, 6O acres. Applicants must be prepared to produce their discharge, certificates of good conduct, &c., and the application must be made within twelve months after discharge. Duly qualified schoolmasters emigrating to Auckland are entitled to land-orders for 80 acres. A fee of 10s. is charged on every 40-acre, and one of 5s. on every 20-acre order issued.

Timber-cutting licenses are issued to sawyers and others, empowering them, on payment of an annual £5 license fee, to fell, use, or sell the forest timber of the waste land.

Wild Grazing Land is leased for fourteen years, at a yearly license fee of not less than £5, with £1 a year additional for every 1,000 sheep over 5,000 which the run will carry. No run to be granted larger than will depasture 25,000 sheep (say 50,000 acres). If during the lease any portion of the run be included in the bounds of any new hundred, or be required for sale, the lease to expire over such portion of the run.

"Snugly planted on the margin of the beach, embosomed amid gentle hills, and watered by the Huatoki, Mangotuku, and tributary burns, it displays its granite church and chapels, its rustic mills and breweries, snug hostelries, stores, and primitive shops; but affecting no 'town airs,' stands out before the world a robust, hearty-looking village, famed throughout the land for its troops of rosy children, pretty women, honey, fine mutton, and dairies of Devonshire cream. The appearance of the settlement from sea, in fine weather, is both beautiful and varied; the taste for sylvan scenery and quiet rustic beauty is gratified by the combination of stream and forest, glade and valley, pastures and trim fields, dotted with cattle or yellow with corn; whilst for the Salvator Rosa eye, there is snow-crested Mount Egmont, shooting up from a sea of forest, 8,000 feet in the brilliant sky."

"According to an official return, some half million acres are still occupied as runs, but there are tens of thousands of what could be made, by the aid of a population, available acres, upon which no human foot has yet trod, and hundreds of thousands of acres of good sheep country over which the thousands of wild cattle which now feed in the impenetrable forests have never yet roamed, which with the aid of capital and labour

will yet furnish annually more freight for our wool-ships than the whole Province--than the whole North Island--have yet supplied. Roads, we are told, are the indispensable requisites, but roads cannot be made without labour, nor labour he obtained without a population. How can any extent of country be opened up by highways, whether for getting produce to the sea-board, or for settlement, when wages range from 7s. to 10s. per day, and the first necessaries of life are dearer than in any other country under heaven? All that is wanted to prevent Wellington being too big for its business--all that is wanted for opening up the country-- all that is wanted to put an end to the Maori difficulty--all that is wanted to make real estate more saleable than at Canterbury or Otago--is population. Now, from the days of Abraham and Lot, when the two families could not live in the same country, to the days of Isaac of Wellington, who requires 40,000 acres of land for his own exclusive occupation, mere pastoral pursuits and a population worthy the name cannot co-exist. The laws have been framed to keep out population, and the Pasturage Regulations appear specially designed to discourage cultivation. We have had pictured to us, by an intelligent run-holder, grass-covered hills in out-of-the-way places on which browse the flocks and herds of those who should have been made the pioneers of settlement, which hills would have been inaccessible, fern-clad, or desolate, had it not been for the magic influence of Sir George Grey's liberal Pastural Regulations. We will admit the fact, and at the same time maintain that land regulations as well designed for the purpose of encouraging the settlement of the country, as his Pastural Regulations were designed for the purpose of promoting its occupation, would have the same magic influence in transforming forests, now shelters for wild cattle, into sites for thriving villages, and thousands of acres of now useless swamps into fruitful fields, and rich gardens beautiful as well as fruitful. Rut before this can be accomplished, an entirely new policy must be inaugurated." 6

Post stations in the province: Clive, Maraekakao, Meanee bridge, Havelock, Ruataniwha, Woodthorpe, Patangata, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Ohinehua, Porangahau, Mangakuri, Puketapu, Wai Nui, Petane, Waikari, Mohaka, Wairoa, Mahia, Poverty Bay.

"One of the things that strikes the stranger on his first visit to Nelson is the number of its cottages and nursery gardens; another, its hop-plantations; a third, the generally tasteful character of its suburban residences, with their gable-ends and neatly laid-out gardens; a fourth, and a very important point, too, its bright and invigorating climate; a fifth, the very picturesque situation of its church; a sixth, its college, which architecturally regarded, is one of the most symmetrical buildings in New Zealand; a seventh, its new Government houses, which have been constructed with a view to economy of room as well as outside show; an eighth, the Rhine-like vineyards (though only small in extent), principally of early German settlers; a ninth; its new wharf; a tenth, the beautiful ride through the Waimea valley to Richmond (which boasts its 'Star and Garter' equally with its name-sake in England)." 7

"Nelson, lying in the lap of a semi-amphitheatre of lofty and unwooded hills, towering one above the other, with the Dun Mountain raising its head over all, was quite picturesque. Its cathedral-looking church, prominent amongst its white wooden houses, gave a civilized and cheering look to the whole scenery. The harbour is almost a lake, formed by a boulder bank, having a narrow entrance at one end." 8

"Took a drive to the Waimea Plains. We passed along a good macadamised road, with a fine growth of hedges on either side, and the rich cultivation in which the farms around were kept, together with the hay and wheat ricks close to very comfortable homesteads, scattered here and there, were abundant signs of active and prosperous work." 9

"The northern and interior districts are eminently adapted for pastoral as well as for agricultural settlement, but the great paucity of forest, while it does not materially militate against the former interests, acts as an effectual obstacle to the latter. It is therefore only in such parts where forests exist that an agricultural population would have a tendency to overspread. Excepting in the far inland districts, forest lands are confined to a strip on the sea coast, stretching from Blueskin Bay, forty miles northward, and having a general breadth of ten miles. This district, though circumscribed in limits, besides the advantages of climate and soil and abundance of timber, has facilities for the shipping of produce at the little harbours of Blueskin, Waikowaiti and Moeraki, whence the connection with the capital is easy and rapid." 10

"In ordinary districts the land, unmanured, yields 35 bushels of wheat to the acre, weighing 63 4 lbs. per bushel; oats, 45 bushels per acre, weighing 43 lbs. per bushel; barley, 50 bushels per acre, weighing 55 lbs. per bushel; potatoes, 6 1/2 tons per acre, and turnips 20 tons per acre. Wheat realizes on an average about 6s. the bushel; oats about 4s.; and potatoes £6 the ton." 11

"Nine months ago Dunedin had a bad character and an unenviable notoriety as being the muddiest city in the world, and the worst and wettest of all possible climates. Nine months ago Dunedin was literally a sea of mud, of slush, and puddle; pathways were unpaved and roads unformed. To cross from one side of a street to the opposite was only accomplished by a long detour, and the accumulation upon boots and leggings of eighteen to twenty-four inches of a highly adhesive clay composite. A walk from the Post-office across to the 'Provincial' re-

quired an effort, a presence of mind, a courage, and a perseverance respecting which only a nine months-ago Dunedinite can form a correct idea. Now Dunedin streets are well paved and kerbed; the roads are permanently formed and metalled; channels carry off the storm waters to underground drains and away into the sea. The daintiest dressed demoiselle may mince her way along and scarce soil the sole of her boots. The thigh boots of the commercial collector or traveller, and the leather leggings of the ordinal pedestrian will soon be things of the past. Nine months ago scarcely a handsome structure, private or public, graced the city. Buildings in all directions were springing up with a rapidity only known to the residents of towns in newly-discovered gold countries; but of the substantial, the costly, or the ornamental in architecture we had nothing to boast of. Now we have shops, stores, and commercial establishments which may vie with those of the older sister colony. Utility of purpose harmonizes with elegance of structure. Our city is the creation of nine months' enterprise and industry. Nine months ago the numbers which landed on our shores from the adjacent colonies were compelled to forage for a meal and scramble for a bed. Now we walk into a well-ordered hotel. We sit down to lunch or dinner, where, from among the viands presented to us, we can select of the choicest cooked dishes--lamb, veal or pork, delicately reared, fed, and cured at the dairy-- the substantial round or the enticing sirloin; and for this, not omitting a well-dressed salad and cheese, a smiling waitress, or a smart civil male attendant politely hands us a sixpence in change out of the half-crown we have laid down in payment. We are not content now with a tough steak fried in its own fat for breakfast, or the leavings done in a bastard stew for dinner, or disguised in a curry for the third meal. We do not put up with these arrangements now. Nine months ago it was different. Nine months ago we had our theatre in a stable; now we have the 'Princess' and the 'Royal,' both fitted up and finished off upon the model of first-class theatres. At these we have had pieces produced upon the stage from opera down to pantomime, and supported with all the talent which the neighbouring colonies can furnish us." 12

"Dunedin is a second Melbourne. Ten or twelve steamers ply between the town and Port Chalmers; the roadstead is crowded with shipping, and property has risen to an almost fictitious value. The population of the town exceeds 25,000. Omnibuses ply in the streets, and a Melbourne posting firm have sent coaches and horses to ply between Dunedin and the diggings." 13

"Waiparo, 38 miles from Dunedin. Manuherikia, 60 miles to the north of Waiparo. The Tuapeka stream runs from north to south and joins the Molyneux (or Clutha) River at a point westerly from Dunedin, about 50 miles distant in a direct line. Into the Tuapeka flow many small rivulets. Gabriel's Gully is about two miles long, shut in by steep rounded spurs, but possessing a flat floor, from 10 to 200 yards wide, down which used to flow a little brook. Divided by a spur from the head of Gabriel's Gully are two others, Monro's Gully on one side, and Taieri on the other. Twelve miles to the eastward of the Tuapeka stream, and beyond the limits first assigned to the gold-field, flows the Waitahuna stream. A beautiful valley, with a flat of perhaps a thousand acres. All around this part of the country there are valleys of the same

sort, no doubt equally auriferous. The Tuapeka is about fifty and the Waitahuna about forty miles westward of Dunedin, in a straight line; but travellers go over a considerably greater distance to reach either one or the other, for a large swampy tract and the lofty and abrupt mountain called Maungatua stand right in the way. The choice in going to Tuapeka lies between a difficult road of fifty-five miles north of the obstacle, and a more easy road of about seventy miles circling it to the southward. Waitahuna is approached only by the latter route. This road consists of about thirty-eight miles nearly fiat, and (to the Tuapeka) about thirty-two miles of hill and gully, the greater part of which is unpleasantly steep, and in wet weather exceedingly difficult for drays, horses, or pedestrians to traverse. About six or seven miles out of Dunedin, the road across the low range is permanently formed and metalled, and is as good a road for traffic as any in the Colony.

"Drays, horsemen, and foot passengers by hundreds, are to be met upon this road daily, going up to the diggings or coming down. The drays are loaded with stores of all kinds; the cost of carriage, which was £100 a ton from Dunedin to Gabriel's Gully, has since been somewhat reduced. On this road run Cobb's coaches, a Melbourne 'institution.' On the field, stores brought from Dunedin are at the price which the cost of carriage naturally makes them. Mutton is plentiful on the spot, and of excellent quality; it costs 11d. for fore-quarters, and 13d. for hind; rather less than in Dunedin. --Nokomai, with Moa Creek, or Victoria Gully, about three miles long, and varies from 200 to 600 yards in width. There is abundance of scrub in the gully for cooking, and at the head of the creek timber for making sluice-boxes, &c. The diggings are confined to the bed of the creek, where, at a depth of about three feet, intermingled with gravel and rotten slate, or mica shist, the gold is found. --Lake Wakatip, with the Arne township on the Arne River; Queenstown, on the borders of the Lake; and Frankton, on the Wakatip River. --Adam's Gully, in the Umbrella ranges. --The Shotover River Gold-fields."

"To the starving Lancashire operative, the agricultural labourer, and those living in the poorer counties of England, the price which is here paid for labour must appear startling. We begin at the lowest grade:--

"Men who have come here without means to carry them on to the goldfields may obtain employment on the Government works at 5s. per day in the city, and at 9s. on road works in the interior. This does not include rations. Men working for contractors and masters engaged in large undertakings are earning from 8s. to 10s. per day--according to their capability for hard toil. Only those who have come among us unused to severe labour and without means to follow their particular callings in other branches of mechanical skill, accept the lower rate of wages until something better turns up. Mechanics--such as bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters, and blacksmiths--generally find quick engagement at the following rates:-- Blacksmiths, 15s. to 20s. per day; carpenters, 12s. to 14s.; stonemasons, 14s.; bricklayers, 12s. to 14s. --these without rations.

"In-door servants, men cooks, waiters, grooms, and gardeners, 25s. to 35s. per week, with board and lodging. Of those who lounge about the public-house doors and bars, and at the corners of streets, complaining they cannot obtain employment, not one in ten are fit for any useful purpose. Women acquainted with and willing to engage in domestic service, need never be long out of employment. The following wages are being paid:-- Experienced housemaids for general service, £25 to £35 per annum; nursemaids, £15 to £20; cooks and laundresses, from £40 to £45. Hotel-keepers and families residing in the interior are called upon

to pay fully 20 per cent, in advance upon these rates, and generally do so uncomplainingly. The rates paid for shepherds, bullock drivers, and farm servants are still in excess of what they should be. Shepherds demand and obtain £50 per annum, with rations; bullock drivers, 30s. per week, also with rations; ploughmen and experienced farm hands about 25s. per week, under engagements for terms varying from three to six months."

Immigration is aided by guaranteed passages. Settlers undertake to defray the passage of their friends, and in this undertaking the Otago Government takes measures to have the persons nominated sent out. This is the rule, but special instructions are occasionally given to the Government Agents in the United Kingdom to facilitate or favour, in a money point, the coming out of particular classes of emigrants. The Agents are Messrs. Crawford and Auld, in Edinburgh. All new comers landing in Otago should apply for advice and direction to Mr. Colin Allan, the Immigration Agent, who will supply all necessary information, and assist them in procuring suitable situations.

Land for settlement is divided into two classes-Town and Rural. -- Town land to be sold by auction in allotments or sections of one-quarter acre each; the upset price is £12 10s. per quarter section. An exception is made when land has been rural land, and, remaining unsold, has been laid out as a town, and persons have houses or improvements erected upon such land; or where, for public convenience, permission is granted to erect buildings before a town can be surveyed. In such cases, the price fixed by the Board is the average price for which the adjoining sections have sold at auction. The Board has also power to sell to religious bodies one acre of town-land, for the site of a church, at the upset price. --Rural land to be sold at £1 per acre, subject to conditions of improvement. --Certificate of occupation, granted for rural lands on payment of £1 per acre, provided the purchaser expends in money or labour for all improvements, including building and fencing, within four years, a sum equal to 40s. per acre. -- Holder of certificate entitled to demand and receive Crown grant as soon as the conditions of purchase are fulfilled. --Land cannot be assigned previous to a Crown grant being obtained, without consent of Waste Land Board. --Applications for rural land to be made to Waste Land Board. £1 an acre to be deposited on application being granted. --When more than two applicants apply on same day for rural lands--the same to be put up for sale by auction at the upset price of £1 per acre--the applicants alone allowed to bid. --Rural land to be sold in quantities of not less than 10 acres--to be of a rectangular form. An exception is made to this rule by which the Board may sell to proprietors of adjoining lands land in less quantity than 10 acres, and of irregular shape, to complete their properties. --Land to be surveyed by Government. -- The practice of the Waste Land Board is, to advertise that a particular block of land has been surveyed, laid off in sections, and will be open for application on a given day, and that the maps may be seen at the Land Office. The object of this rule is, that the whole of the public may have an equal opportunity of making selections and of examining the land before applying. On the day stated in the advertisement, applications are made at the Land Office, and as the land in the newly surveyed districts is in great demand, selling often considerably beyond the upset price, it has become the habit of the applicants to apply for the whole of the sections in the block, in order that they may have the opportunity of bidding for any section, should they fail to obtain the one they particularly desire, which could not be done had only one section been applied

for. The Waste Land Board, by clause 33 of the regulations, is bound to post all applications in a room at the Land Office, open to the public for a period of not less than ten days; and any person may object to the granting of an application--in which case the application, instead of being decided by the Chief Commissioner as a matter of routine, is referred to a meeting of the Waste Land Board. The particulars of the applications are advertised in the local papers, and posted in the Land Office, and a day is stated on which the decision will be given. In the case of two or more applications on the same day, the decision must, by clause 11, be, that the land must be put up to auction between the applicants. On the day of decision, the applicants must attend personally, or by agent, and the highest bidder becoming the purchaser, must pay down the full amount of purchase-money. Should there be but one applicant for any quantity of land, it is granted at £1 per acre. Should there be no application for a newly surveyed block on the day on which it has been advertised, it remains open for application, the applicants having priority according to the date of their applications. --Land possessing special value, as containing minerals, may be sold by auction, or leased. --The fees on the issue of any Crown grant not to exceed 20s. --Board to grant depasturing licenses, and to require applicants to deposit £20, which, if run stocked within six months, shall be returned to applicant. Further time may be granted. Deposit to be forfeited in case of failure. --Return of stock to be made by owners. --Assessment to be levied on stock, namely, 6d. per head on great cattle, and 1d. per head on small cattle. --Persons occupying Crown lands without license liable to penalty. --Licensed occupier may cut firewood, &c., for domestic purposes, &c. --Cattle trespassing on Crown lands may be impounded. --Licensed occupier to have a preemptive right of purchase on his run to the extent of 80 acres for principal station, and 10 acres for each out-station. -- When any portion of land sold to other than lessee, he (lessee) shall have three months before giving possession, to afford time for removal of property. --In the case of Pasture and Timber Licenses, name of applicant, and description of run, to be published. -- Claim cannot be disputed after lapse of three months from date of publication. --Lease may be forfeited if run not stocked within six months. --Estimate of stock for run:--

For any number of sheep up to 500, a run may be granted calculated to depasture any number not exceeding 5,000 sheep.

For every additional 100 between
500 and 1,000, for 500 additional sheep.
... ... 1,000 and 3,000, for 400 " "
... ... 3,000 and 5,000, for 200 " "
... ... 5,000 and 10,000, for 100 " "

And in no case shall a run be granted capable of containing more than 25,000 sheep. In estimating runs for great cattle, one head of such cattle shall be rated as six sheep.

Lessee entitled to license for fourteen years when run stocked. Conditions:--

1. When run, or part of a run, declared into a hundred, license shall cease.

2. If land comprised in run shall be sold, license shall cease.

3. Annual license fee £5, and in addition, £1 per 1,000, for every 1,000 sheep above 5,000 the run is capable of containing. Six sheep rated as one head of great cattle.

4. On non-payment of fees, &c., lease may be forfeited.

"Southland is everything a man can reasonably desire; even its surface is diversified in a manner that accords with our ideas of beauty. It has uplands for sheep and lowlands for cattle, and is as far removed from interminable mountains on the one hand, as from the dull monotony of a prairie on the other. The soil is rich and ready, and so well prepared by nature, that even now a coach may be driven in some places for thirty miles without encountering an obstacle." 14

"The bustle and throng of business, and the influx of population from other colonies, are steadily increasing. One day one steamer lands twenty, another thirty, and another advances towards the hundred--while the two local steamers, the Titania and the William Miskin, bring down from thirty to forty at the least, on an average, each trip from Otago, while there is not a sailing vessel that does not add its share; and while the number of overland prospectors arriving from Dunedin far exceeds that which only a short time since our hostelries had to provide for. The great magnet is of course gold--our Southland border goldfields proving as rich and attractive as ever, and showing no signs of abatement in their yield.

"But our new comers are not all bound for the diggings. Far from it, many of them have an eye to business; and prefer dwelling in the town, and exchanging their wares for the diggers' gold--and these are raising up store after store in expectation of the trade that will flow in upon them with the spring, and of which they do not despair receiving a fair per centage during the winter. Any person who has been away from Invercargill but for a month is astonished to see the extent to which building has gone on or been completed during his absence, and at the superior character (for wooden or corrugated iron buildings) of the greater portion of the new structures. Meantime, the old-established merchants and storekeepers, yielding to the pressure of the times, are enlarging or rebuilding their premises; and altogether, coupled with the work of street improvement, the aspect of the town has undergone more change in proportion in a month than in the six previous months that have elapsed since the tide of what is really gold-fields immigration began to set fairly in towards Southland.

"But it is not only gold that is attracting this large population. There is also the land. The gold-digger is not an unobservant man, and he, equally with the practical agriculturist, in writing home to his friends, makes known our wealth in land as being of as great importance event-

ually as the precious metal of which we find indications everywhere, but which up to the present time keeps most tantalizingly parading itself before our eyes 'just over the borders.' Both, along with the merchant and trader, point out that Southland is deriving perhaps the more solid profit from the working of these gold-fields; what they all say is borne out by facts and figures; and all this acts beneficially upon our laud revenue. The demand for land continues brisk, and the Survey Department is hard at work to secure a steady supply.

"Concurrently with the increase of population, and consequent increase of imports, a renewed agitation has sprung up for the improvement of our public wharf accommodation and of the general management of our harbour. Connected with our commercial affairs is the proposal for the establishment of a Chamber of Commerce in Invercargill." 15

"The metropolis and port town," says the Rev. C. Mackie, Incumbent of Avonside, Canterbury, in a letter addressed to S. W. Silver and Co., "present a thriving appearance, with streets of well-stocked shops and spacious and handsome residences, bearing all the appearance of prosperity and affluence, and the country for miles round is covered with thriving farms and snug homesteads."

Kapoi, a rising village port, a few miles from Christchurch, with a population in and around it of 1,800; Timaru, a good grazing district on the south coast, with a population of 1,600; Akaroa, population 1,000; Avon, population 2,200; Heathcote, population 2,100; Cheviot, population 1,700; and Port Victoria, population 500. Many of these settlements, lying within three or four hours' run of Christchurch, will, in time, attract a large industrial population--supplying fish, fruits, vegetables, and firewood for the shipping and town of Lyttleton, and fence-stuff and building-timber for the sheep-owners of the plains.

The Crown lands are divided into town lands, rural lands, and grazing lands. Town lands must be sold by public auction. The time and place of each sale must be published 30 days beforehand, and the map of the town deposited at the Laud Office for inspection. The size of the sections and the upset price will in each case be determined by the Government. The highest bidder will have to pay a deposit of 10 per cent, on the amount of the purchase-money, and the remainder must be paid within one week after the sale, on penalty of forfeiture. Rural lands are open for sale at the uniform price of 40s. per acre, in sections of not less than 20 acres. Free Grants of 30 acres are made to naval and military invalids actually disabled in war, or to their widows. Grazing licenses: Applicants must state the boundaries and extent of the runs they apply for, and they must also state the number and description of the stock they propose placing on the run within the next twelve months. The runs are to be allowed at the rate of 120 acres per head of cattle, and 20 acres per sheep. The license fees are: under 1,000 acres, £1 per 100 acres; over 1,000 and under 5,000 acres, 2d. per acre for the first 1,000, and 1d. for each acre over 1,000. Above 5,000, 1/2 d. per acre for the first two years; 1/2 d. per acre for the third and fourth years; 3/4 d. for the fifth and more years. A grazing license gives no right to the soil or timber, and the sale or grant of any portion of the land determines it at once, but it gives a pre-emptive right over portions of the run, viz., on a run of from 1,000 to 5,000 acres at 5 per cent, of the average of the run. In the case of 5,000 acres or more, the squatter has a pre-emptive right to 250 acres near his principal station. Timber licenses are granted at 10s, a month or £5 a year.