16 GENERAL REMARKS. [CHAP. I, 



If the sale of lands in England at a fixed price 

 seems therefore to be preferable to that by auction, 

 it might be objected that the former carries with it 

 one very serious evil ; that the land which does not 

 become a prey to the land-jobber generally falls into 

 the hands of absentee proprietors ; that the colonists 

 sent out are almost all of the labouring class, and 

 that the number of the latter might easily bear an 

 undue proportion to the actual demand of labour in 

 the colony, and fall for their support on the hands of 

 the Government or of the Company. I am, however, 

 inclined to think that the latter need not be feared 

 in New Zealand, if proper measures are adopted. 

 The more land that is sold in England the better, 

 and the more labourers that are sent out, even if 

 capitalists do not actually proceed to the colony, the 

 more value the sections sold will have to the pur- 

 chaser. But if the latter shall be the case, a free 

 lease ought to be granted to the labourers, by the 

 landed proprietors, or their agents, for at least fifteen 

 years ; say of ten acres each family, at the moment 

 of their arrival in New Zealand. No one need starve 

 in New Zealand who works (it is different with the 

 Australian colonies, where articles of consumption 

 are not easily produced) ; and it is such a class of 

 small agricultural leaseholders whose toil will pre- 

 pare the country that it may ultimately attract 

 capitalists. Whatever merits a great subdivision 

 of landed property may have, I do not hesitate to 

 say that the nature of the country requires such a 



