A VICTORIAN VISITOR

Evening Star, Issue 14037, 19 April 1909, Page 7

A VICTORIAN VISITOR

-■ '. --.....',— + ON NEW- ZEALAND EXPERIMENTS. LAND AND^O-LICENSE. The Hon. &-. M'Kenzie, the Victorian Minister ,of Lands, to-day concluded a visit to New Zealand. Victoria has not yet gono in for the progressive land settlement.policy, that has so greatly helped to make New Zealand what it is to-day. Owing largely to land hunger, many young Victorians have left their parent State to take up holdings elsewhere, and Victoria, if she has not actually lagged behind, has not made the progress that her great natural advantages would havo ensured under more favorable circumstances. But theie are signs, not of awakening—for Victoria has been lying awake for more than a little time—but of actual rousing now; and Mr M'Kenzie has visited the Dominion to investigate our advanced land legislation and its actual working. lie waa in Dunedin on Saturday, having worked his way down from the North, and in the course of a brief interview that afternoon, he, rapidly sketched some of his impressions. - " I think you have already had from Wellington what I had to say after travel-ling-through the North Island," he said. " We were there ten days, visiting several estates at Featherstons, Palmerston. Feilding', and other places, also the. Government Agricultural- College .and 1 the Boys' Training College at Levin. Bince we came ■ dowotq the.Sooth Island we visited two 09 <hißa small places that have been settled by tha Government—village settlements near Ohristchurch. My idea is to get t«ia,*f €bo principlas of the land legislation yoa have been going, in for here. We. iatend in Victoria to introduce a Land Bill nest session, but I can't give you m; deductions from the information I- have gathered." Mr M'Kenzie here broke off to mention that a. had been cent from- Wetlingtan i» a Melbourne paper, stating that, he WSfJ. decided to recommend a> progres.-, land *a» to what -wei •call a graduated land 'tax WSre), and,fa<? (explained that the methods to lie adopted were purely a matter #or fiis Cabinet, .to decjda after hj» had placed before them the result of his investigations. "I am satisfied," he continued, " trltt' your country here lends itself to closer settlement much more> <easily than Australia—particularly the northern parta «f Victoria—because of your excelfenb collate and the splendid water availaßlc in -.11 parts of tha .country. Your settlers, .so fa* sia J foava seen fend talked with them—and I'liavo seea the man on the (and ab iiis milking, feis fi«ultjy rearing, and 'his frrrii-grewing— appear to be satisfied, although they have not in many instances had an easy time, havinrr had to carve a home out of the forest.' I- found, certainly, that there was a great demand for the freehold by those settled on the thirty-three years' lease basis, but the 999 years' leaseholders appear satisfied. What tho smaller settlers seem to be relying on to a great eatent is the export market, principally butter and lambs, just fig i 3 tho case with those in Victoria. I think that the Canterbury district is a very fine one. I had ho idea that thers -was so much flat country in New Zealand. I saw some verv fine land indeed, and I should think that those on it must feavery successful." Beiorß concluding his remarks on New Zealaad Mr M'Kenzie added: "We have recerretf every courtesy from your Government to Extending to us facilities in thp way of travelling, and officers to accompany us from one place to another and give us information. We have endeavored to get both sides of the question, and have interviewed large landholders as well as small. We have triad to obtain from all sources—bank managers, managers of freezing worts, the man on the land, Government officials, in fact everywhere—all the information we could possiblv got and I feel quite satisfied that the subdivision ot your large estates has been the means of bringing about a good class of settlement. Mr M'Kenzie was asked what had been clone in Victoria in the way of eloper settlement,, and he replied that about a million acres had been resumed by the Government, "Except in the case of one estate he explained, "this has all been done by voluntary treaty. Compared with yours, our compulsory system is a comnlicated one, because both Houses of Parliament have to be consulted before an estate can be taken. In fact, a new Act « f larhament has to be passed for every fresh estate acquired." ~ Th |l P r °PPted the query as to how far the Victorian Legislative Council (which was once dubbed the House of the Fortveight Rich Landlords) would conspnt to compulsory subdivision of estates, particularly m the favored Western district (fafleece) HHKrtters/and fine merino Mr M'Kenzie replied: "The Ur>,,e r House is certainly more conservative than the Lowe- Bc nse . Our Urper House is and I consider the present Legislative Coamal <sf Victoria is a much more Liberal boflf than fifteen or twenty veara ag °ij *n on \- know t0 what «*tent we could follow Sew, Zealand. No doubt some of our legislation will be ba«ed o~ your system, hut I don't suppose we conk! go in for quite as far-reaching measures as \ZhPZ ° f/f" ?- e adde(l that "° doubt there would bo a big fight uver anv proposal to subdivide the great estates in the Western district, but he mentioned that cW settlement had been tried with excellent remits in some good country between Hamilton (in the uorth of the WeandArarat <™ the southern fe g £,V if where much of V ictona s wheat is grown) Mr M'Kenzie was asked if he would car* to say anytn.ng in regard to what he had Beer, of the wo-king of No-license in New Zealand _ "Only ns a traveller," he answered, smilZ B '' -?w it™ that he went on: 'Well as a traveller, by all means give me the towns where the licensed houses are. From my experience in Australasia I consider that the drink traffic »vould be controlled better with a proper f llceilsefl houses. Prohibition means the most pernicious form of drinking. It means the taking of drink home to the house In many instances the work-in-man would never dream of taking it into the house on-a-Saturday night, say if he . could obtain it in a hotel before' .roh,« home. So far as the public are concerned: ' I Y V U *? b€tter serv «' >" a licensed house d,an m a boarding-house. You haveno control whatever over a boarding-L m «e Mmd, I am speaking of good hotels, and you seem to have good hotek all over this .State, even m the .Wl towns. But he funny thing about it is that I fi,„[ mai " v men here vote No-license and thev axe ll0 "t .teetotallers themselves. It S pcais to ma strange position. Can you explain whv they do it?' _ But as that question could be answered ma variety of ways-most of them probably wide of the mark—and as Mr M'Ken zie had to catch the south express, it was proclaimed rnanswerable off-hand, and the Minister, m search of further information about Land, went to Invercargill, where no doubt he would have further opportunity to study also the working of jc„. license: He left New Zealand for Melbourne to-dny by the Warrimuo.

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