NEW SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 167, 14 July 1908, Page 3

NEW SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

■ SOME VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. There is one paragraph in the Budget which is likely to give rise to considerable discussion during the debate which is to begin this evening. The paragraph is headed "Special Land . Settlement." The proposal of the Government is as follows: Upon application by any number, say ten or more, of intending bona fide settlers, who have obtained from a private land owner an offer to sell the estate at a price fixed by him, the Land Purchase Board will inspect -the land to ascertain its suitability for settlement and the fairness of the price, and, if the Board is satisfied an both points, it will report t.o the Minister for Finance. The proposed settlers will then submit a scheme of settlement, which must bo consistent with the limitations and other conditions of the Land for Settlement Act. If the scheme is approved by the Board, the Advances to Settlers Department, through the Minister, will obtain the money required to purchase the estate at the lowest possible rate of interest, giving to the lender as security for such money a mortgage over the estate in the name of the settlers, who will all so bind themselves as ordinary mortgagers, and the Government will guarantee the repayment of capital and interest to the lender. Provision will be made for a redemption fund, by which the settlers will repay both principal and interest in 32A years." The subject has already been under discussion in the lobbies, and a reporter sought the opinion of members representing various shades of opinions on the land question. " Generally speaking, I approve of the proposal," said the Leader of the Opposition, and then he went back into what is now almost ancient history to show that he also had thought of the same thing." Once upon a time, soon after he got into the House—to be precise, in 1894 —he made a speech on the Government Advances to Settlers Bill, and he said this : " I fancy that a very much simpler arrangement would have been for the State to guarantee loans for settlers up to 50 per cent of the taxing value, such loan not to exceed £1000, and the interest not to exceed 5 per cent. By so doing, the lender would have got the best possible security for his money, the borrower would have been able lo get money at the lowest possible rate, and there would have been no expense to the colony. There is the germ of the thing, said Mr. Massey, with a smile. Mr. Laurenson is well known as an out-and-out supporter of the leasehold, and his views on the subject are interesting. " Speaking for myself," he said, " 1 would of course, much prefer that the land was secured by the Government, and let to Crown tenants under the 33 years' renewable lease, but, in view of the fact that the Government is only authorised to purchase half a million pounds worth of land under the -Landl for Settlements Act every year, and that it is unlikely that authority will be given to increase that amount, the suggestion meets with my approval. In the first place, it enables more people to get on the land, and while I would, as 1 have said, prefer leasing the land, at the same time 1 would rather see twenty ' small' men occupy a block of land under the freeholrl than 1 would see one person monopolising the same extent of country. There is another aspect from which the question can be viewed. Owing to the absence of any such provision in our land legislation, private syndicates have been buying up large estates and selling the freehold to settlers at, in many cases, a large advance on the original price. The result has been tliatf a settler going upon such land has to carry an added burden from which, under this new arrangement, he would be delivered. As long ns ample provision is made to prevent the proposed provision from being used for speculative purposes, and as long as the only people who arc allowed to get the advances are those who intend to actually settle on the land, I think, the arrangement will prove of benefit to the country. After all the main object which those who love New Zealand have in view is to encourage the closer settlement of our lands and to discourage the present tendency to crowd into the cities. That being so, the present step is one which meets with my approval, and I believe it will meet with the approval of the bulk of the people of the Dominion." " There was,", added Mr. Laurenson, only one objection, and that was one raised by some of tho Radical party, namely, that "the more freeholders we put on the Land the more difficult we make the course of land reform. To my mind," he remarked, " there is not much in this contention, because, with safeguards against the aggregation of land, and the insistence on bona fide settlement, the small freeholder will see the necessity of land reform just as much as the man in the town. In fact, in this connection I have had a rather remarkable experience. Some of the most advanced Radicals I have mot in connection with the land question have been small farmers. A notable instance might be cited in the person of a well-known settler at Otamata (Otago), who owned a very fine farm there and was one of the most ardent disciples of Henry George that New Zealand has ever possessed. 1 could give other instances of the same kind. I do not think there is anything in that argument."