THE LAND COMMISSION

Evening Star, Issue 12523, 6 June 1905, Page 8

THE LAND COMMISSION

SOUTHERN SECTION. [Special to the Star'.] MAvnAWFKA, Jnn« 6. AfteT their Sunday sitting „t Taihane the Commiss'oners returned to Margaweka. At eiVht o'olock yestpHiv morning thev set out in cnan> e <,. The trround was covered to a depth of 3in with s-nw, and the wirney was a lone and tedious one. A sitting was'he'd hen at noin ..David Fe.nrv Owhrie, with 638 acres u. V. in RuaWe district, said he represented the Farmers' Conferee recently held m Wa.npanui, and the Marton small farm settlements. Witness, and those Crown settlers whom he represented, wanted the right to aeomre the freehold t>f their land. Fe det-i'ed a list of why 1 i.n. spftlers asked for the freehold. The ohieeHnns put forward were irt sympathy with those whjVh have heen. advanced by farmprs throughout the colony. The difficulties of transfer, exorhitant rates of interests because of the tenTire (1 i.p.), and other erievances which hare b»en fnll v set forth already, were pone into by the witness. Fe maintained that it was only justice to the Crown tenants to give them th» right of purchasing on terms that would b* emial -o thoso offering if they had originally settled on land under o.r.p. Witness read !he reso lution on (he subject passed hy iho Farmers' Confjrence which recently pat at Wangamii. and tahled a petition signed hv about fortv Crown tenants asking for the freehold. Fe sav that not we refusal to sign had been recorded. The settlers were of oninion that land board's should be emoted bv the farmins rom.nranity. They favored the verinn S tenures in the following order deferred payment, occupation with Ticrht, of purchase, and l.i.p. with the right to* convert into freehold at any ti~e. Witness complained about the restrictions of Crown tenants. He favored the relaxation of the residential resolutions, and asked for better classification of land. Tn many cases the* loading for roads h>d been spent fully by the Oovernmc-nt on co-operative work IJlit the results had not been so good as those usually looked for on the small contract system. Fe maintained that Ihe condition of the settlers on Crown lands with riVht of jnirchase was buffer than those on lerse. Onlv the introdupt : on of a Fair Rent Rill ! hnvght home to h-'m the insecurity of bis tenure. L.i.p. settlors were snhjeot to the vhims and canrice of (he peonle Tn answer to "U"st : ons. the witness said he favored a limited freehold for Crown tenants Speaking of the ad'-ances to setters, be said the sums ofered were ridiculous. Fe knew a. ease where £9OO bad been annlied for and £46 was offered. Witness did not know the valuation of th° applicant's land. Th" rest of the sections as to residence y ''■(. not necessary to down dnmmv- "• '; Lease in nernetuitv was a bad bar- :■ t for both th° tenant and .h e State. r ohn W. Marshall, with 2.000 neres.fre*- '• 'd, and fhnirman of the Raneitifcei Ccnty Co"ncil. said he desired pan-en. 1 rly tn sriva evin*e-"e,i at, to the erpendit-i-o p'' thirds an J fourths. 7t wis commonly! supposed that the local borlv haJ control

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of the expenditure of thirds ami foirtbs, but this wa3 not bo. Practically the'Lmd Board had the control, inasmuchas they laid flown in what manner the money was to bo expended. This system led to'-* ci.'bidejable amount of friction, and a considerable amount of delay. Some ago it had been suggested that the Governirent Engineer was the proper person to supervise the work of expenditure, and the Cotmtv Council agreed to it. After the Engineer ha<l the matter in hand for a year he gave the thing up, and sent bat k what money he had in hand. Rmill su.t.ts had to be. emended on raids through the lard from whirh the money accrnsd. and little, if any, good resulted. He advocated that road-making should be carried out bv raising loans under the Loans to Local Bodies Act. Local bodies also required larger borrowing powers. The bnrrowinsr powers of a county should be reflated bv |ts sire The lard board should srive the 'ocal body assistance in the collec'ion of rates from defaulting settlors. He 'ave instances where the Tates accrued on ■•. piece of land had been lost to the local 'ody thro«ch want of proper control. Thos. Fitzpatrick, farming a 200-acre p i:rm homestead pear Tnihane. said his holding <v : is too small. The limit was 320 acres. His son had a section of 200 acres under the sam° tenure, contiguous to that of wit-iess, and tho"eh his son wished to transfer to witness, he was precluded from doing so by the provisions of the existing law. I Michael John Renrdon, journalist, Mangaweka, also gave evidence. He said he wished to enter an emphatic protest against the system of grants for works. He heard an engineer declare recently that he could buv votes in hundreds by beer and promises. The Chairman reminded the witness that this was outside the order of reference. Michael Tnnsey, settler on occupation with right of purchase at Mangaweka, as president of the locil branch of the Farmers' Union, endorsed the evidence given by Mr G"thrie. If every Crown tenant could tret advances up to three-quarters or two-thirds of the value of his improvements it would do away with much of the ohiection to the lease in perpetuity. He did not think the country would have been so well settled but for "the leasehold tenure. Revaluation, in his opinion, would not be allowed by our constitution. He believed in seeing the people settled on freeholds of restricted areas fit to support them. j Reginald Edward Beckett also gave evidence, and at 4 p.m. the Commission took train for Feilding, where a sitting was to : be held to-day.