The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1907. The Land Policy.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 320, 18 July 1907, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1907. The Land Policy.

Although there will naturally be some who will yet take exception to the land policy outlined by the Government, there can be no question but that it i» immensely more favorable to the genuine settler than the original proposals of last year. For instance, the £15,000 limit of estates, which threatened to be a stumbling block in the way of obtaining money on mortgage, has been dropped altogether, and the only limit is the graduated tax on estates of over £40,000 in value. Then the idea of compelling a man who desired to alter his tenure from lease-in-per-petuity to freehold to compete in the open market for the right to own his own land, has been altered to give him the option of making it freehold at a price to be fixed by arbitration without competition. The 66 year's lease, which previously only allowed for one renewal, with revaluation, has been altered to perpetual right of renewal, if the tenants desire it. The amount to be set aside as endowments, which in other words means the tenure of lease witu revaluation, has been reduced by nearly half, and as most of the land is already held under the pastoral lease system, there is nothing much in this. Taking the land proposals altogether, there is no doubt that, compared with last year, their teeth have been drawn, and the outlook is very much more satisfactory than any one opposed to the Government dreamed it would be.