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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[November, 



THE ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING OF AGRICUL- 

 TURE ; OR, COLONIAL DIVISION OF LANDS AND 

 ITS RESULTS. 



Under the above paradoxical and high-sounding title, I propose to 

 draw the attention of the landed genlrv and fanners of this country 

 to the results of the proceedings of the Colonial Land and Emigration 

 Office, in their treaties with the North, South and West Australian 

 colonies; also the colonies established in New Zealand. The Crown 

 granted to the New Zealand Company, established in 1S39, lands to 

 the extent of lt!0,0U0 acres, at Port Nicholson, in one block, or more ; 

 of such blocks six might be 5000 acres, and the rest 30,000 acres, each 

 block to be a continuous tract bounded by the natural landmarks of the 

 country. The government is to define and make the survey of the ex- 

 ternal lines of every assigned block ; and arbritators nominated by the 

 Government are to determine the price of the interior survey of each 

 block of 1000 acres. The land is to be sold progressively, as the 

 surveys are completed, at one uniform price of 20s. per acre. 



A second colony was formed in March, 1841, under certain stipula- 

 tions, viz., the site to be chosen in New Zealand, (the site is since 

 selected and named Wellington,) and to extend to 201,000 acres, which 

 was to be divided and sold in allotments, each allotment to consist of 

 three sections, one of 150 acres of rural land, one of 50 acres of 

 accommodation Kind npur the proposed town, and one of 1 acre of 

 town land. Priority of choice to be decided by lot; the fixed price 

 of each allotment to be £300, and upon which a deposit of 30/. was 

 to be paid to the Company's bankers ; and on the payment of the full 

 purchase money, three separate hind orders to be given, which were 

 also to be determined by lot. The Company reserving a right to pur- 

 chase 100 out of the 1000 allotments, subject to the same conditions 

 as the other purchases. An amount equal to 25 per cent of the pur- 

 chase money paid by the colonist to be allowed towards cost of cabin 

 passage, outfit, &c, in the order of their respective, applications; and 

 the other 75 per cent to be appropriated towards the Emigration 

 Fund. 



A revival of the sales of land is now hi course of being established 

 by the New Zealand Company, lor planting a third colony, to be called 

 New Edinburgh, the site to be a block of 120,550 acres. The original 

 grant from the Crown to the Company was at the rate of 5s. per acre; 

 and from what precedes this, it will be seen th.it the Company charge 

 in the first instance a uniform price of 20s., ami which is increased in 

 the second and third colonies to 30s. per acre. ' 



What I propose to denominate the architecture of agriculture, is 

 the terms and limits employed in the dealings with the Company and 

 the Government, and the terms employed between the Company and 

 the emigrant purchasers. I propose to call the engineering of agri- 

 culture, the means to be used to occupy or make the land tenant- 

 able. First then as to architecture, we have the term block used, 

 to specify an indefinite extent of country ; then specific blocks, to 

 specify a continuous tract of country, bounded by its natural land 

 marks: these specific blocks are limited in size and number, as in the 

 instance of the first settlement of the New Zealand Company; six 

 may be of 5000 acres and the rest of 30,000. The Government 

 survey the boundaries of the specific blocks as soon as they are as- 

 signed. We have now the term specific assigned blocks, and a pro- 

 prietor, who now appears for the first time entitled to a block of land, 

 say one of the six of 5000 acres, as mentioned above: so much for 

 architecture of agriculture. 



The engineering, or means of occupation by the proprietor, is now 

 to be considered. The external boundary of the blocks, as before 

 stated, is first surveyed by the Government, and the Government ami 

 Company fix a scale of prices for the interior survey of each lOHO 

 acres. When a purchaser is obtained for one of the blocks, we have 

 a proprietor of an assigned block ready to treat with purchasers of 

 lots of 1000 acres each, or a section, viz., a portion of a large lot; 

 we have then a large landed proprietor ready to treat with a pur- 



» The New Zealand Company, it must be remembered, have received these 

 grants in compensation tor the claims they hail derived by purchases from 

 tbe native chiefs, in the same manner that compensation was granted 10 other 

 holders of native claims. Moreover, it is to be observed that it is the prac- 

 tice for government to make sales ol large tracts in ibe colonies to land com- 

 panies at a reduced juice, by which the government immediately receives a 

 large sum, while tbe Company lay out a large capital in improvements, ami 

 tbe introduction ot emigrants. On such principle large grants have been 

 made to the Canada, New Brunswick, Australia. Van Dieman's Land, British 

 American, South Australian, New Zealand, and Australina Land Companies. 

 I In \,'u Zealand Company, we believe, do not purpose to lake a larger sum 

 than 5s. per acre for ilieir own prufit. the rest being devoted to emigration, 

 education, churches, steam navigation, roads, harbours, 8tc— Editor. 



chaser for a section of land. Suppose the block to obtain a name 

 from some peculiar feature of the country, as a mountain, say Mount 

 Barker, the block then has a distinct name, and the term is changed 

 to a district, as in this suppositious one, " The Mount Barker District ;" 

 this district will afterwards contain several surveys of 1000 acres 

 each. Now supposing a purchaser has been found for a section of 

 land, another name is then required for the allotment, say in this case, 

 that it shall be called Dutton; the purchaser is then entitled to ask 

 for a survey, which when complete, he will be ready to sell into smal- 

 ler sections to be occupied by purchasing emigrants. On the ar- 

 rival of emigrants, they generally employ an agent on the spot to 

 select a section of land for them. Supposing the agent to have fixed 

 a location, it would then be designated, in the phraseology of emigra- 

 tion, a section situated in New Zealand, the name of the country, in 

 the Mount Barker district, in Dutton's survey, section 420S, or as the 

 case may be. Next, suppose the emigrant's hut built, and he gives it 

 a name, say, Balhannah, and others follow his example, we then begin 

 to get rid of all sections and blocks, and in the mind's eye, have ar- 

 rived in Her Majesty's loyal town of Balhannah, new Zealand. 



But to return to see what has been actually done in carrying the 

 above plans into effect; we first have the settlement of the New 

 Zealand Company, then the district called Wellington in Port Nichol- 

 son. In this district in July, ls39, 1123 emigrants had arrived, and 

 in March, 1840, the town contained 3000 inhabitants. The amount or 

 extent of the land order in this case was for one acre of land and 100 

 acres of rural land. A second Company was then called into exist- 

 ence, which has subsequently merged into the New Zealand Company ; 

 they erected a settlement called New Plymouth, where the amount of 

 land orders was reduced in extent to a quarter of an acre of town ami 

 50 acres of agriculture, the whole block consisting of 57,500 acres, 

 exclusive of roads, which was divided into 2200 town sections, con- 

 taining in the aggregate 550 acres, and 209 suburban or agricultural 

 sections, constituting the remainder. Before the emerging or amal- 

 gamation of the New Zealand and the rival Companies, the latter had 

 sold 1000 town sections, 54 suburban sections, and 149 sections of 

 rural land, (a third term now introduced for the first time;) and there 

 have been sent out by the emerged Companies, to this, the second 

 settlement, called New Plymouth, 3ns male and 204 female colonists. 

 The second settlement of the New Zealand Company, or third yet 

 projected, is to be called Nelson, the site of which is not yet chosen; 

 it is to be divided and sold in sections of 201 acres, viz., one acre of 

 town, 50 suburban, and 150 agricultural, to be sold at the uniform 

 price of 30s. per acre, which is at the rate of 71, per acre for town 

 lands, and so on. 



From what has been previously said, it will be seen that one of the 

 stipulations was, that the Company reserved the right of purchasing 

 in the first instance nearly one half of the whole settlement, and by 

 introducing three terms into the conditions, and consequently three 

 different orders of land. The land orders sold in this country are for 

 the suburban and agricultural, the town land being retained as a gre- 

 vious monopoly, and with a non residence of thousands of miles. 



In Mr. Jamieson's account of New Zealand, who was surgeon-super- 

 intendent of emigrants to South Australia, and to whose account I 

 am indebted for many of the details of the size of blocks of land, he 

 says, at page 1 12, " The owner of a land order entitling its holder to 

 the first choice of a town allotment in the New Zealand Company's 

 settlement of Pott Nicholson, refused to sell his priority of choice for 

 £1000;" and that sheep farmers now proceed beyond the boundaries 

 of location by paying for the pasturage, or a squatting license. As a 

 further proof of the establishment of the land monopoly in the colonies 

 of the New Zealand Company, I may add the substance of a letter in 

 the limes, September 20, 1843, and dated Wellington, March 9, 1843, 

 from an officer of artillery, practising as a private surveyor; he says, 

 " I wish something could be done, if not to tax the absentees, at least 

 to give encouragement to bvnafidt settlers. The agents are confined 

 by the absentees to grant no other terms for forest land than a lease 

 for seven years," which is evidently of no use to the settler, the ab- 

 sentee coming in for all the settlers improvements almost as soon as 

 any improvement has taken place. To Charles Dickens's Martin 

 Chuzzlewit the public are deeply indebted, for the bold manner in 

 which he shows up ths system pursued in America, with regard to 

 emigration, in his graphic description of taking possession of an al- 

 lotment, he says, " At last they stopped — at Eden too — the waters of 

 the deluge might have left it but a week before : so choked with slime 

 and matted growth, was the hideous swamp which bore that mine." 



I will now state what has been achieved in Australia. New South 

 Wales was colonized in 17S8 ; West Australia in 1829; South in 

 1834, and North in lsds, and their populations in 1839, were respec- 



* Published 1S42; Smith & Elder. 



