but judge principally from the prices at which they hear that land in such countries as Canada and Western Australia may be obtained.
On the other hand, it is believed that few, who are qualified to form a correct judgment on this important subject, will deny that land in this settlement will be really cheap to every resident proprietor. Let us analyze his outlay.
Application of Proceeds.
In the event of 1,000,000 acres of rural land being sold, which would produce 3,000,000l, this sum will be expended in the following manner:—
| One-sixth, or 10s. per acre will be paid to the New Zealand Company for the land | £500,000 |
| One-sixth will be appropriated to surveys and other miscellaneous expenses of the Association | 500,000 |
| Two-sixths to immigration | 1,000,000 |
| Two-sixths to ecclesiastical and educational purposes | 1,000,000 |
| Total | £3,000,000 |
The price of rural land is 10s. per acre (being one-sixth of the sum required from its purchasers), which is not more than will suffice to repay the New Zealand Company the outlay and risk of loss incurred in opening New Zealand to colonization, in purchasing the land from the natives, and in maintaining the establishment which is necessary in the colony to protect its property and carry on its operations; and in England to represent its interests to the Imperial Government, and to promote its colonization.
Nor is the land dear at this price, considered in itself, without reference to the outlay at which it may have been acquired by the New Zealand Company. If reference be made to the extracts given in the preceding pages to evidence its fertility and climate; if the cost of conveying its produce to market be considered; and if this land be then compared with land at the same price beyond the Mississippi, or the Lakes in Canada (fertility, position, and climate being the principal elements of the value of wild land, in whatever part of the world it may be), it will appear that, not even in those parts of the world where it seems to be cheapest, can land, having equal quantities of these elements of value, be purchased at so low a price as in New Zealand.
Preliminary Survey and Roads.
A contribution of 10s. per acre will be required from every purchaser of rural land, to form a fund to defray the expenses of the preliminary trigonometrical survey of the territory: of the subsequent surveys of each section as it may be selected; of commencing the formation of the principal roads, marked on the general chart; of the few temporary buildings required; of the Association in England; and of the necessary staff in the colony.
This forms no part of the actual price of the land, which, as above stated, is 10s. per acre. The purchaser from government in America, or the other British colonies, neither pays for, nor has, any of these advantages. There the Government land is divided, more or less accurately, into sections, according to the regulations as to not only figure, but size, which may from time to time be prescribed by the Government. Every intending purchaser must choose one of these sections, however wide it may be, of the
