The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. A NEW LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 303, 16 September 1908, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. A NEW LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

The scheme of " special land settlement " forecasted in the Budget was submitted to Parliament yesterday in tho shape of the Land Settlement Finance Bill. Put briefly, this Bill—of which we print an abstract in another columnproposes to enable groups of would-be settlers to combine, with tho assistance of tho Stato, for the purpose of acquiring blocks of land for subdivision amongst members. Any ten or more persons who possess the qualifications necessary in lessees under Part» 111 of the Land Act may form an association and enter into negotiations with mny private owner of land for the purchase of a block of not less than 640 acres- Having purchased the land with money raised by the sale of ! State-guaranteed debentures, tho association is to cut up the land for division amongst its members, each of whom is to give a mortgage to tho association. Each of the new settlers must pay off the mortgage within 20 years, and the land then vests in him irt fee-simple. The general principle of this new departure in land settlement is quite meritorious. Should the Bill, on becoming law, be availed of at .all freely, and with discretion by all the parties to its working, we shall have, beforo many years elapse, a notable increase in tho number of small settlers. The chief virtue of the. measure is,' of course, in the fact that the settlers whom it may create will not be recruits to the large army of permanent tenants of the Crown. They will bo free to acquire tho freehold of their selections. But will the Bill, if it becomes law, be jargely availed of, and are its details Bitch as will ensure discretion in the parties to its working? Sinco it contains a clause limiting to £50,000 the amount of debentures which the Stale can guarantee in any one year, it must be assumed that the Government is hopeful of great results. Apparently it is hoped that the new system will become so popular and will operate so actively that it will ultimately replace tho Land, for I Settlements Act, and relievo tho cnorI ieoub and increasing strain of borrowing

for the furtherance of the land for settlements policy. A difficulty presents itself at oncc in the provision that at least ten people must combine before they can seek the advantages of the new scheme. The principle having been conceded, there is no reason why a land settlement association should not be formed with a smaller membership than ten. The promise of usefulness in the scheme would be much greater if the minimum membership of tho associations were fixed at a lower figure. Wo have little criticism to offer upon the details of the Bill's machinery. Since tho State is to guarantee the debentures issued by the associations, it is proper that tho interests of the Stato should bo safeguarded at every point. But it is none the less necessary that the character of every such safeguard should be closely scrutinised. Take, for example, the points upon which the Minister for Financ.e must be satisfied before an Order in Council is issued in confirmation of an agreement between an association and the owner of the land that the association desires to purchase. One of these points is whether the price fixed by the agreement is fair and reasonable. Settlement under the scheme may be blocked altogether by a capricious Ministerial estimate of values. A valuable potentiality of tho scheme is in tho inducements that it might bo made to contain for immigrants of tho right class. But . its chicf merit, as we have said, is its check to tho land nationalisation movement—a moral check only, perhaps, but one .that might become 'a material one also.; Wo have seen millions of pounds added to tho public debt for the creation of a large army of State tenants, when the money could have been spent with more advantage to the country's development, and with no risk of the evils that are latent in a vast State tenantry,, by creating an army of freeholders. Anything that will check the increase in the number of Crown lessees is to bo welcomed, whether it is a measure to allow existing lessees to become freeholders, or a moasuro to turn the process of settlement towards the creation of free ' husbandmen. " The Bill is good, therefore, for its obedience to the economic and the social necessity of having tho land occupied by freeholders instead of State tenants.