CLOSER SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 280, 7 August 1909, Page 14

CLOSER SETTLEMENT.

t ( HOW IT BHOULD BE EFFECTED. | YIEJVS OF THE ATTORNEY-GMERAI. | "■' (Prom Eeportor) i t ." ' "' ' Folldlng, August 6. i l Dealing with the question of land sotle- [ mont in tho course of ha address ihere toil night, jDt. Findlay said it was curious how \ th© political heresies of one decade'becamo the accepted creed 'of the next. The' policy [ of resuming jjJnvate land for closer settlet ' ment 'had now become an artiolo of faith I even with the Opposition It was not the . past, hut the future that must bp looked to [ — Moro\ must yet bo done to put the pooplo | ,on the, land. , " l For many years, perhaps for many gencra- '• toons, *}fow Zealandcrs. must be essontiall) a t farming people It was, he believed, only by > increasingly .sottling tho people on the land that New Zealand as a young nation could ; grow steadilj in numbers and in physical and moral (Welfare If, then, closer settlement ' was, and would be, such a boon, all that im- \ peded'lt should be regarded as anti-social, ' and such impediment should be removed by alt means consistent with justice Six mil; lions h'ad'been spent in New Zealand on the purohase of largo''estates, and a graduated ~ , land tax had been imposed to induce, if not f to force, subdivision. This latter step had been bitterly resented by some, but the in--1 tercsts!/ of the'riiation must be paramount j over sectional Tho closer settlep ment £ golicy wis enforced much more dras- !• Denmark Mr Massey said that f the Danish'People,ll7olo individualists,- not J Socialists, t He (Dr, Findlay), incver »'knew < what »Mr Massey meant by but f he felt sure he could not apprpvOj or the ' J methods by wjhich; tho 'Danes had achieved > thou 1 present prosperity Some 50 yearsUgo r or soVj)enmark vvas »in tho hands of a'fow [ i great [owners,'now; there Wo between 100,- ; 000 and 200,000 » holdings, 1, and its 1 total ftrea was 1 only 10 million acres How 'l did Denmark effect tho subdivision? There t was nb'purchase l of the land by ,tho Govi' ornment~no Government ownership ' The [ Government divided all the great cs [ tates„ in private hands into f farms, I varying'in'.area* according <to quality i If a ' \ man Himself with one farm, the f i lantf.tax was trifling! but if he added "a j" secdnd-'/the tax was much greater, and so r on until it became prohibitive The produce of thje'land was now three'times as great as f under.* tho former Denmark had a I \ strict-flaw agains6" aggregation, which prevenfodttho small farms being merged so as to \ ones In 1906 half of the entire population—men, women, and chddron—had 1 ', an ayprage of '£32 iin the Savings Bank ' \ i Massey were in office, would ho \ 'adopt 4 'the same meaus ,of similarlj suh- '' dividing- the great estate's of New Zealand? Thejp oould not, She i thought,'be'< a'bettei t object Jcsson than Denmark. Were we pro- [ , pared $p copy her methods' The method ji I vogue of purchasing great estates added to v debt—had already added many l nulfyoii£—and its growth was thrown at the \ Government by the very class whom the purchases benefited The Danes added nothirfg to their Rational debt to secure the , splendid subdivision of ,their great estates ■ | The/graduated land tax m New Zealand was promoting the same purpose Already it had clone much—it must yet do more To volun- ; i tary-ptyate subdivision rather than to State ' purchase must the for widespread settlement -r of i the privately-owned estates , If the new graduated land tax was j really as effective an. engine of subdivision as it' promised to bo, if it forced tho larger , 1 >owners.to sell fdr subdmsional purposes, then \' the Special Settlements Finance,- Bill of last yearjhad an additional jttstificatton It would make")every landless man desiring a small ' farrili'aii active' land agent It would also ( help",thc large iowneis to dispose of their ] i estates}.' It would do that by leally finanemg ] > , of would-be settlers in purchasing ) , fronr. tho/large JWopnetor . c ' ==^—. 1 ! 'EISTEDDFOD. £ Trl • j tf' HARMONY > AND DISCORD. \

' The harmbnyat.ibo recent'proceedings' m , connectionrwith'the Welsh National Eistedd- * fod at the Royal Albert Hall, London, was i provided by those who bore a part in tho , musical contests, the discord came from a i number of Suffragists who had found their j way into the budding, t upon mischief intent. i Their presence'-- was entirely unsuspected i until Mr. Asquith, ,who was accompanied by Mrs.* Asquith, appeared on the platform! to , which he was.'escprtcd early in the afternoon by a procession of Bards' wearing the robes of their order. Scattered about in different I parts of the hall, from tho topmost tier to tho floor space, tho members of the shrieking >, sisterhood wore clearly determined, if pos- , sible, to present the Prime Minister from addressing the audience, and but for tho alortness and vigour shoun by the stewards i and other officials in. ejecting them one by one they probably would have succeeded m ;. their design As rt was, Mr Asquith—with i unruffled temper—suffered v many unseemly t interruptions, and for some' minutes was not allowed ;td complete 1 a-single-.sentoiico*of his j speech >, ,i*j/ - .',.., J A banner, hung out from one of ,-thejboxes > and bearmg.the familiar. legend,\''V6tes;fpr Women," ibegan,:.;the f'trbuble,: the'''tnrea : offending occupants', of'the .box-at the. same time raising'\,theirr'.voibes.?sh'rilly!.>;'. Theirs cries were promptly drowned, however,' in the i singing -of-the Welsh National Anthem,' and' i further interruption from: .this quarter was 1 prevented by.tfle removal of'.those who had first caused' it.-.'But disorder was 1 soonto y break out again,'the" Prime Minister's "We aio mot :.'Tiere;,; to-day,'' '.for .instance,■ > being chwked ; by i Mi;a ; ': , '4cfiahtv>^«to./protest' i against >our:-;,-.treatmeht,'iv Mf.'V'f Asquith,'-'': from a Suffragist;ocoupyirig -aSeat not- fap/ f from the platform.: Like thV otherj ers, this one: was>qnick]y ; seize'd*and forced'i from the bu-uding,, : some case 3 'decidedly' ; 'meted'h out to about'jten'others whoV-sucrossively got" l up from their seats and attempted to a scene. One,'more enterpHsitig-.than,;.ithe! rest,' had, 'after the-mariricr'bf.her 'kind, herself/.in; some'-way to her .stall, r considerable; difficulty in - consequence attending her ' Eventually she was carried out unceremoniously, to'•..! tho .loudlyexpressed delight of the'audience.-' '• ■'; ■'■ In the course, of his';address','Mn Asquith,;. unlike Mr Balfour,'who oh the previous day had claimed/some Celtic blood, owned to be- [ ing "an undiluted ahd'-unadulterated"' Englishman " None the ;less.eloquent: was ■ the Prime Minister 'in; praise of Welsh i patriot--, ism, enthusiasm,' and traditions ;a3 'exempli- ' fied in thojnational Eisteddfod, which, . he.; , reminded his; hearers, .had once .-'; been deV ( scribed as ,a-"peripatetic "'university." 'Inci-' dentally he paid a. warm : tribute to the':ini terest always, shown, bythe Welsh people in , the cause of, education, ;as; witness r dowment of. tho buildihgs r 'of::tlie*University i at Aberystwyth out: of.;sums contributed by all classes ;'of the ■ community; . ' With :'■; Mr.'. , Balfour he agreed'-that.there' was; nothing incompatible between Imperial intbfeits'jand tho fostering of. local sentiment and '•tradir -tion, the Empire owing. its strength ■. and solidarity to tho,-fact' that local patriotism had gone hand-in-hand' with a sense of common citizenship and responsibility.