HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9234, 11 October 1895, Page 5

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Thursday, Ootobhs 10. AFTERNOON SITTING. (The House met at 2.30. CHATTELS TRANSFER. Mr REEVES moved that the amend, meats made by the Legislative Council in the Chattels Transfer Act Amendment Bill should be disagreed! with, and that a Committee should be appointed to draw up reasons. Agreed to. TEACHERS' COTTIOT OP APPEAL. Mr REEVES moved the second reading of the Public School Teachers' Incorporation and Court of Appeal Bill, to provide for the incorporation of Societies of public school teachers, and the establishment of a Court to hear and determine appeals by such teachers againßt dismissal or suapen. sion. Mr T. MACKENZIE thought tbat tfar Minister had done a good thing in bringing in this Bill, which would establish a right of appeal that he hoped would be intra* duced also in otber branches of tbe service. Mr MEREDITH approved of the Bill, and complimented Mr Reeves on its intvcduction. Dr. NEWMAN thought that tho Bill was an exceedingly good one. Sir R. STOUI agreed that the Bill was & good one, but he thought that some system •honk- bo e«t_>U*hed for tcftetatt

frem one to another, and that a superrtnnnation scheme should be initiated. Messrs Button, T. Thomson, Macintosh, McLachlan, Graham, W. Hutchison, Mas Bey, Green, G. VV. Russell, and McGuire also spoke. The motion was agreed te. STOCK ACT. Mr J. M'KENZIE moved the second reading of the Stock Acu Amendment Bill, to amend Ihe Stock Act, 1893. The principal provision in the Bill was that it ] prevented people from driving stock after a certain hour at night. It also provided for the inspection of dead stock, and required j that the returns of sheep slaughtered should be furnished to an inspector. j Agreed to. ' IMPOUNDING. ] Mr J. M'KENZIE moved the second reading of the Impounding Act Amendment Bill. He said that it waa a trifling matter, and did not require explanation. Sir R. STOUT thought that the Bill was anything but a trifling one. It allowed the impounding of cattle from unfenced land, and did away with any claim for damagein the case of cattle getting into and doing damage on badly fenced ground. He hoped the Houee would not agree to it, Carried by 41 to 13. WATER SUPPLY. Mr J. M'KENZIE moved the second reading of the Water Supply Act Amendment Bill. The object of the Bill was to enable the Waimakariri - Ashley Board to supply water to persons outside the district. Agreed to. FAIR RRNT. Mr J. M'KENZIE moved the second reading of the Fair Reut Bill, to provide meahß for fixing fair rent for land. He remarked that this was a most important Bill, and the Government had been frequently induced to move in the matter. It had refrained from doing so till it ascertained whether there was any general desire for the Bill. Those inquiries had bean made, with the result that he now asked the House to pass the second reading of the Bill. He had given a great amount of consideration to this matter. He felt that the House had a right to interfere in any case where hardships existed, and where people were injured and liable to be crushed out of existence by the present law. The Bill proposed to appoint for each district a Fair Rent Board, to consist of three members, to be appointed by the Governor in Council. The Stipendiary Magistrate was to be a member and President of the Board, which should have authority to hear and determine all applications made to fix a fair rent for land. After hearing all parties the Board would determine what was a fair rent of the land affected by the application, and from what date the fair rent should commence. Ho knew, from information at his disposal, that there was a great necessity for some Act of this kind being brought into operation in tho colony at present. Whilst he held that the Bill was necessary in the case of private individuals, it was still more necessary in the case of endowments, as people who leased those reserves were frequently rack-rented to a moat oppressive degree. He had no doubt that he would be met with the usual stock arguments against interfering with the rights of private individuals, &c. He would also be told that this Bill would drive capital out of the country. (Mr CROWTUER-" There is no capital in it now.") There was plenty of capital in th_ colony. They must remember tbat theF&ir Rent Bill would apply to both sides. The tenantmightbecalledonto raise bis rent just asmuchas the landlord to reduce it. He was not at all wedded to the Board as provided by the Bill, and if members could suggest a more satisfactory way of appointing tbe Board he would give the suggestion full consideration.

Sir R. STOUT had no objection to the State fixing the rent of tenants or giving them relief, as he thought it better to have a judicial body dealing with this matter than the political head of a department. They were told, however, that, by the system of land tenure introduced by che present Government, there Mould be nothiug of this kind required ; but the fact was that this Fair Rent Bill showed that the lease in perpetuity was a huge failure. He strongly criticised the provisions of the Bill. He had no doubt that Mr M'Kcozie had done his best to deal with this question, but it did not relieve the poorer class of tbe community at all, and individnal cases of hardship would not be relieved. He therefore hoped that the Bill would be made to apply to Crown tenants only, and that some fixity of tenure would be given. If it became law, no leanes would be granted for more than four or five years, and it would tend to the ruin of agriculture.

Mr DUNCAN supported the Bill, but if it did not apply all round he should oppose it. He was not in favour of tenancy in land at all, and thought that they should be all Crown tenants. A Fair Rent Bill had worked well in Ireland, and no complaints were made against it. Mr R. THOMPSON said that Mr M*Kenzie was the last Minister who he would expect would dabble with experimental legislation of this kind. He had no doubt that Mr M'Kenzie had beeu urged to bring in this Bill, but they all understood that when the Fair Rent Bill was to be introduced it was to apply to Crown tenants and publio reserves only. He (Mr Thompson) knew that many of the local bodies in the colony were opposed to this Bill. He admitted the right of the Government and the House to deal with Crown lands or publio reserves but he strongly objected to dealing with Srivate lands, and he asserted that if the (mister disclosed the opinions he had received from local bodies two-thirds of them would say that the Government had no right to deal with private lands. They were interfering too much altogether with the land tenure of the colony, and he had no hesitation in saying that the land legislation had stopped immigration to tbe colony of settlers and small farmers with capital. If this Bill were passed New Zealanders would be worse than Russians. Every man who was not of the right colour would be liable to get three months' notice to leave his land or else pay double rent. Ihe House rose at 5.30 p.m.