offered for sale at what is supposed to be the present maximum value of the best land in the area,--which, for the sake of illustration, we may call £2 an acre. I was informed that £2 an acre is in fact the price at which the majority of the land will probably be first offered. It will then be in the power of any would-be purchaser to take it at that price. If there be no such purchaser, the commissioner of lands will, on the part of the government, reduce his demand by 5_s._ to 35_s._, and then to 30_s._, then to 25_s._, and if necessary to 20_s._,--at intervals of perhaps a fortnight. Below 20_s._ an acre the price will not be reduced. According to the nature of the land will be the desire of purchasers to buy it at 40_s._; or to wait till it be offered at 30_s._ or at 20_s._ It is impossible not to see that even this plan is open to the machinations of “land agents;”--land sharks, I have heard them sometimes uncourteously called. The land agent, whose special business it is to know who are disposed to buy this or that section of land, will offer to renounce his own intention of buying, we will say at 30_s._, on receiving 1_s._ or 1_s._ 6_d._ an acre on completing the purchase for his victim at 25_s._ The victim will feel himself obliged to pay the black-mail, as hundreds of victims have done, and the land shark,--I hope he will excuse my discourtesy,--will receive a very large payment, for which he will perform no service whatever. And the payment of the money is to be arranged in this wise. On making his application for the land, at any fixed price,--say 30_s._ an acre,--the applicant will pay into the Treasury 10_s._ per cent. on the whole purchase-money. Presuming the land in question to be 200 acres in extent, the price would be £300, and he would pay down £30 as interest in advance for three years;--and would then be allowed to go in upon the land, and occupy it. He must effect certain improvements, and cultivate a certain portion, and must either live on it himself or by deputy. If he have not done so at the end of three years, he forfeits his £30. If he have done so, he pays another £30, and goes on for another three years. These payments are in place of interest, so that at the end of the six years he will have paid no part of the principal. He may then pay the whole principal, if he has it, and the land will be his; or he may postpone the payment for ten years, paying 2_s._ each year for each pound of the purchase-money, with interest at the rate of 4 per cent. for the further credit given. The payment for these last ten years would average something under £40 per annum, but would recur yearly. The purchaser of the 200 acres would thus pay £30 as advance rent on entrance; £30 again as advanced rent after three years; a rental of £40 a year annually for ten years further; and then the freehold would be his own.