Evening Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1908. THE LEASEHOLD TENURE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1908, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1908. THE LEASEHOLD TENURE.

Attention was called by the Minister of Lands List week to the happy surprise which befell him at Ohakune. Instead of being besieged by a deputation of hungry freeholders with the familiar representations of the ruin which impended upon the country unless the sorry remnant of the public estata was parcelled out among private owners forthwith, tho Minister of Lands was actually requested by Ohakune settlers to disppse of the neighbouring Crown lands by way of lease only. The reason given for a requeej; which those who a year ago were loudly clamouring against the Government's Land proposal would at that time have declared to be impossible, was that the alienation of the freehold had given such scope to the speculator that the bona fide farra.er was squeezed out: This, be it remembered, wag no academical argument of the kind which is often allogcd to constitute the whole stock-in-trade- of the advocate of the leasehold. It was the practical complaint of men who spoke of what they had seen and know, and who realised that for those who desire to cultivate the land, and for tho State which desires to see it cultivated, the leasehold offers the only sure protection against tho gambler who is the common enemy of both. On tho principle that a grain of fact is worth more than a ton of theory wo may well regai'd this auspicious incident as more than enough to counterbalance all the angry declamations with which the last recess was filled by the freehold party ; and beforo its moral effect has begun to stale, it is' admirably supplemented by another overwhelming argument of the same practical kind. '"Theoretically some of your arguments may be very strong," tito freeholders have repeatedly told us, "but practically they will not work. The true test is not what the city man thinks will bo good for the farmer, but what the farmer thinks will bo good for himself. The man who has to work the land wants the freehold, and you will not get tho land! taken up unless he gets it. And! of all forms of the leasehold tenure that have been suggested he will most abominate tho renewable lease." If Ohakune has supplied one conclusive answer to this kino, of talk, here is another now to hand from Otelcaike. Thia estate is the first which has been offered for selection under the renewable lease, and signally indeed; has the result falsified the confident prophecies of disaster. Close on 30,000 acres, divided into 49 sections, were thrown open, and instead of going begging on account of the odium alleged to attach to the 33 years' term, with renewals for similar period, the estate has attracted over 900 applications, representing no less than 701 applicants. With more than eighteen applications for each section, the Government will be entirely free from the predicted embarrassment, and out only regret is that a system of tender has not taken the placo of the ballot, and provided an automatic method of selecting the most suitable applicants. But as this defect is one which the freehold patty insisted upon retaining, it is not for^thom to take this objection. For them and for the country tho main point is that tho land hunger is conclusively proved to be not solely of the freehold or "eternal" lease variety. To have secured more than eighteen applications ior each of tho Otdcaike sections is a brilliant triumph indeed for the new tenure aud for the Ministor to whom the country ..owes iM institution.