THE LAND BILL

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 138, 10 December 1906, Page 2

THE LAND BILL

anothekTexposition by the PREMIER. THE iUi.xUiiER FOR OTAKI IN I EXPLANATION. : At the banquet tendered to Mr W. H. Fetid at Packakariki last Saturday evening, the Land Bill was very much in evidence. An explanation by Mr Field of his attitude to the Bill was responsible for a lengthy speech by the Premier. Mr Meld ! said he was one of those who wag not ■ in entire agreement with the policy 1 outlined by the Government, and he ; thought he might say a few words I concerning his position. Ever since he entered the House he had always been an ardent freeholder — or rather an ardent freehold-tenurist. When he was asked to stand for Parliament years age he felt that the onlyquestion on which there was a possibility of his not being in agreement with the Government was the land question. At the time he had asked the late Mr Seddon if his (Mr Field's) views conflicted with the late Premier's and Mr Seddon's answer was: "If the people want the freehold they must have it." For this reason he saw no bar to his joining the Liberal ' Paity. As time went there was a sqlit or a difference of opinion. The desire of uotn sections was the same, but the methods they would pursue to attain the object in view differed. They wanted to see the land settled and no very large estates. When the Land Bill was introduced they had all hoped that the Government would have seen its way to provide the freehold for the lands held by the Crown, and also those acquired under the Land for Settlements Act. He wanted to make his position clear. He had been returned to Parliament as an advocate of the freehold tenure, ; and it was his intention not only to stick to his pledges but to battle for his views no mattre what might happen. There was no man in the colony more anxious that he (Mr Field) should keep his pledges than ' Sir Joseph Ward. "Better," he „ "aid. "to suffer a thousand defeat" than to go into private life discredit- • cd." (Applause.) He affirmed that ' the Government should not, in set-, " tling the land question, do anything ' : that would result in increasing the rate of interest in the colony. The whole matter centered round the question of whether people were to have the option of acquiring the freehold or not. Before next session he hoped that such amendments wpfld / be made in the Bill that al lwould be able to join hands and place it ■ on the statute book. (Applause). THE PREMIER IN REPLY. In replying to the toast of "The Ministry" the Premier said that he did not intend to deliver a political 1 speech, but he just wanted to say j tnis: That there were things on ; which there was room for. differences \of opinion. He was a country mcmi ber, and represented a farming con--1 stituency in the House. They must ' necessarily have different ideas and ' different opinions if they were going to get the best out of every thing. Some country members differed from 1 other country members on the Land j Bill, but he desired, emphatically, to ! make it clear that the Government never proposed at any time to take away from the people in New Zealand their freehold. There were 77 1 millions of acres of freehold land in the colony, and there was not a line 1 in the Bill which had been before the House to take away » foot ot~4kaa — j freehold. There was a proposal ia < j the Bill to limit the freehold, and. ' j the reason for this was to prevent ■ that ruin which had swept in the j trail of people in England, Ireland (and Scotland for years where huge ! areas had been; turned aside from I cultivation and were converted into j deer-shooting and fishing preserves. { Surely then it was right for every : man in the House to try and mould our land legislation in a way not in--1 jurious to the large land holder, but in a way that would insure the balance available being cut up and placed on offer as a freehold to anybody who wanted it. That was what was : ' proposed by the Government. "We may be persuaded to the contrary . before we are done," he added. There were seven men in this country who ' owned 300 square miles of land in one district. If Paekakariki had been .• in the centre of such a district there ' would have been no settlers in the place. He affirmed that under these circumstances those who owned vast % : areas of land like this should be given the option of selling portion of it at fair prices — that they should not ; be 'compelled to lose it or sell it to 1 the Government, but that they should | have the right to sell it to any one they saw fit. As for those who held ' laud under the optional system, at I present there was not a line in the i Bill, which proposed to take their rights away from them. There Dms an agitation that those who held land under the 999 years' lean should : have the right to acquire it at the? ' | original valuation. The value of such ' t lands in the bast 20 years had been I greatly added to by the expenditure I of Publio Works money and the industry of others. He strongly condemned any such proposal, and stated that there were cases where land which had been acquired under' the lease in perpetuity system, if put up at auction to-day, would bring ruS value and in some instances even: more. If the Government was not asked to make the land legislation or the colony retrospective it would* b«> the easiest question in the world to settle. And what was the dif- , . ference between the out and out free- ■■" holder and the policy Outlined in tlie Government Bill? There were only some two milion acres of Crown .■■-■ lands left, and the whole had bean ..;.• valued at an average. of 7s 6d per j acre. The Government did not pro- J pose to put its finger millions of acres in the country. Unless \ths , . opponents of the Bil Isaid legislation' , was to be retrospective, and tfiat. . the man holding lease-in-perpetuity land was to have the right of acquir- , ing it. at the original value, then theu whole trouble applied to only twV million acres of Crown land of poor '•... quality. The Government was de- . sirious of promoting settlement, and, . he hoped a calm and dispassionate; i conclusion would be arrived at. Me^- • and their representative, too^—wan|i|ea TJo~~do irtofctJiß thought wag right, <BflML_^. they waal&HbaTAr ?ii>.an »j#pSrtttnn^; , arose, the right ,<jf, saying thronga t , the baljdfibox that their view was. in a a certain direction. (Applause*) He .i, .was persuaded that the good sense* of their representative would lead; him in the right direction. (Ap- „ phi use.)— Posfc • ■;.