THE ENDOWMENTS BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 258, 29 October 1907, Page 4

THE ENDOWMENTS BILL.

As we have recently pointed out, Government has been by no means so successful with its endowment proposals as with the portions of its land policy j that have already become law. The I striking out of the schedule, as might have been expected, has made it necessary to argue out the whole question, and has given a chance to the Opposition to contest every inch of ground. One outcome of this controversy has been that the Minister for Lands has offered to reduce the area proposed to be reserved for endowment by about 2,000,000 acres. This modification has, of course, been well received by the opponents of the leasehold; but so far the North Island has little cause for satisfaction, as the whole of the reductions made in the endowment areas apply to the South Island only. However, the Premier is inclined to go even further than this; for he has just informed the House that, if it will accept the revised schedule, Government will pledge itself not to allow the endowment reserves to increase beyond the limit of 9,000,000 acres originally proposed. Thi3 move is naturally interpreted by the leasehold party as a further concession to the freeholders; and, looking at the matter purely from the tactical standpoint, we may doubt if Sir Joseph Ward is acting wisely in goinc so far to conciliate a section of the House, which is, with few exceptions, to all intents and purposes identified with the Opposition. We have already admitted that Government is in a difficult position as regards these endowment reserves. If the endowments are to be of much use for the purposes to which they will be devoted, they should consist of land that is likely to bring in a substantial revenue within a reasonable trine. In the South Island it seems that by far the largest portion of the really valuable land has already passed out of the hands of the State; and in the North Island most of the Crown lands are of such a character that settlers would appear to need special inducement to take them up. As we have frequently pointed out, it is to the last degree improbable that selectors will take up poor land in this part of the country without the chance of securing the freehold; and Government has thus to face a rather curious dilemma. The one invariable object of our land policy : should be to encourage settlement; and as the only way of doing this on poor land in extreme cases is to offer the freehold, or something closely equivalent thereto, the success of the endowment scheme would appear to depend upon the ability of Government to discover in the North Island largo areas of precisely the kind of land that we have not go. It is difficult to make out on what principle the reductions already made in the proposed schedule have been confined to the South Island; for it is certain that the need for the freehold as a special inducement to settlers is more urgent here than there. As we have always said, everything depends upon the precise choice made by Government of lands to be reserved for endowment purposes; and we do not think that, sound as the fundamental principle of the bill may be, it is likely to work out successfully in its present form so far as the North Island is concerned. But it would be better to reconstruct the bill completely than to allow it to lose its original character through concessions made to secure the barren honour of a political victory.