The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1900. THE STATE AS LANDLORD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9940, 11 December 1900, Page 4

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1900. THE STATE AS LANDLORD.

Mβ Bollard, one of the Auckland members, has suggested to the Government a method of settling town workmen on small areas of country or suburban lands. We trust that it will be favorably considered, for although in its present form the proposal is impracticable, and if it were not so possesses the demerit of being designed to benefit only a few persons who reside in the district served by the Ivaipara railway line, it contains the germ of an idea which if properly developed would confer a boon upon the working classes generally.

M Bollard's plan is as follows: On the railway line mentioned there are within ten miles from Auckland certain suburban lands of not particularly good quality. It is -suggested that an area of from three to five acres of this land would with cultiyatlon and manuring feed one cow and permit the maintenance of a kitchen garden. Supposing areas of the kind selected Mr Bollard would have the Government advance each selector a hundred pounds to build a cottage, and guarantee to him the issue of a yearly railway ticket at a cost of five pounds per annum available up to ten miles. He also proposes that the Government shall pay for the land, for fencing it, and so on. He shows that all this could be done for something over two hundred pounds, and that the interest on this at five per cent, together with the five pounds per annum for railway travelling, would be met by a weekly charge of six shillings. As most of the working class must pay from eight to ten shillings a week as rent if living in a town, the plan if it c»uld be carried out successfully would be equivalent to the gift of ten pounds a year to each working family, with the added advantages of residence in the country, plenty of butter and milk, and free vegetables.

Unfortunately the "If " stands in the way. It seems to us only too certain that if the Government proceeded to provide suburban properties of the type suggested, and offered to rent them, together with the right to travel to and from town on the Go vernment railways, for six shillings per week, they would have to face greater risks than if a private capitalist could make an offer of the kind. To put the matter bluntly, the Government would have to reckon with rent collection difficulties of an awkward, kind, especially as into a matter of this kind politics would find a way. And there is the further obvious defect that this payment of six shillings per weelc would not provide for depreciation in the buildings, nor for advancing the tenant from that position to the status of owner. But we venture to make the following amended suggestion, to apply if adopted not only to a portion of Auckland, but to the colony generally. Assume that the Government acquire areas within reasonable distances of towns. Next that a plot of land sufficient to pro ! vide for the keep of a cow and for maintaining a kitchen garden, wire fenced, and with a small cottage thereon, could be provided for two hundred and fifty pounds. To the occupancy upon terms of such a property, if it be near a railway, add the I right to purchase a workman's railway ticket at a shilling a week (Old Country price), and Iken offer the whole advantages at fifty pounds down and ten shillings a week for ten years, at the end of that time the premises to become the property of the tenant. The payment of fifty pounds would bind the tenant to protect the State by protecting himself, and the result would be the creation of an army of freeholders drawn from the best class of workers. We commend the idea to the favorable consideration of the Premier. •