§ MR. MACFIEsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether any or all of the leases referred to in the Secretary of State for the Colonies' letter to the Secretary of the Emigrant and Colonists' Aid Corporation, dated 2nd March, of land in Western Australia are terminable on short notice to the extent of such portions thereof as may at any time be disposed of by the British Government for the purpose of being enclosed and occupied as agricultural farms; whether the portion of the eight million acres referred to in that letter which has been sold in Western Australia, and the twelve million acres there said to have "been granted to a population not exceeding sixteen thousand souls" in Natal, are held under any conditions favourable to emigration; whether the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with a view to the stream of voluntary emigrants flowing towards British settlements, is corresponding with the Governors of the aforesaid Colonies and with the Governments of the self-governing Colonies, in order to learn what arrangements could be made and given effect to in conjunction with the Home Government, for promoting the occupation of waste lands by agriculturists and labourers from the United Kingdom; whether, with reference to lands yet unsold in Western Australia and Natal, the expediency has been considered of giving suitable parties intending to take immediate occu- 720 pation an option either to buy the land they mean to cultivate, or else to hold it under lease for fifty years, on the understanding that it shall revert to the State at the expiry of the term if the State chooses, in place of continuing the tenancy, to compensate for tenants' improvements, and resume the land; and, whether in framing rules for future sales of land the propriety of reserving the purchase monies and revenues there-from for emigration, road-making, and such like purposes, will be favourably considered?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, in reply to the first Question of the hon. Member, that pastoral land in Western Australia was divided into classes A and B. Class A included land near towns, rivers, &c, and might be resumed at the end of each year; Class B lands were let on lease for eight years, with a preference to the lessee for a new lease, if not required for settlement. The Returns did not show the extent of land in each class. 4,500,000 acres might be resumed on being asked for for settlement; but it could not be resumed except for persons ready to settle upon it. The land, he might add, alienated in fee simple in Western Australia was about 1,500,000 acres, and was held unconditionally. That was all the best land in the Colony, and therefore most suitable for emigrants. The 5,000,000 acres alienated in Natal was held generally without conditions; a part of it, however, was subject to a quit rent. So long as the quit rent was paid the land could not be touched. A circular had been sent to Canada, the Cape, the Australian Colonies, Tasmania, and New Zealand to ask what prospect each held out to emigrants, both of the agricultural and artizan class. The occupation of waste lands by agriculturists and labourers from the United Kingdom was not contemplated, for except they were provided for at great expense before they were able to raise food for themselves it would be impracticable. Any person wishing to purchase or lease land in Western Australia or Natal might do so. But no condition that the land shall revert "if the State chooses" had been annexed, nor could such a condition be annexed without impairing the motive for improving the land or expending capital or labour upon it. In Western Australia and Natal the land revenue 721 formed part of the general revenue which was not sufficiently solvent to allow of the land revenue being exclusively appropriated to particular services.