MR ROLLESTON AT BLENHEIM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6852, 7 May 1884, Page 3

MR ROLLESTON AT BLENHEIM.

[by tei/egeaph.] Blenheim, Tuesday. The Hon. Mr Rolleston addressed a crowded meeting here last night. The Mayor, Mr Henry Dodson, was iv the chair. Mr Rolleston, who was very well received, began by pointing out the necessity for Ministers, and especially a Minister of Lands, travelling about, making themselves personally acquainted with the various parts of the colony and the circumstances with which they had to deal. One great advantage of doing so was that it brought Ministers into personal contact with the civil servants who carried on the largest part of the administration of the colony. To them it must be a source of gratification in performing their duties, that they would be subject to the personal knowledge of Ministers going through the colony. After congratulating the Marlborough people on the opening-up of the road through the Awatere, and making reference to the temporary hot water he was in with his friends at Canterbury, Mr Rolleston Bpoke of his cold bath in the Waiau, his pleasant hot bath in the Hanmer springs, and the warm and cordial reception he had met with in Blenheim. He predicted that in two years coaohes would be running from Blenheim to Christchurch , and that the Hanmer springs would be as largely resorted to as Wai w era or Itotorua. He expressed a hope that the Bettlers, now they had their road, would develop the resources of the district by fencing and freeing the country from scab, and providing comforts for the people engaged in working the stations. Mr Rolleston then spoke of the present depression in the colony, remarking that greater patience, hopefulness, and perseverance were never more required than now, though the depression would be temporary. The colony had for years past beeu incurring public and private liabilities that rendered circumspection very necessary. The Department of Lands was largely responsible for expanding the resources of the colony, and the Department of Immigration had to increase the population, so as to increase those resources to the utmost. He contended that the continuance of immigration was the real key to the prosperity ' of the colony, as it would keep employment at fair rates for working men, besides being the onl> thing which would justify the colony in going to the London market to borrow, cither publicly or privately. With regard to the land policy, it was a matter to which he had devoted his attention for some years. He believed that a good deal of the failure of the land systems of the Australasian colonies was due to monopoly and speculation. No policy was sound which did not provide for the pie~ vention of both. It wsb folly under the present circumstances of the colony not to make provision out of the remaining Crown landa for the relief of taxation and the payment of the interest on the colony's debt. It was folly not to retain out of the public estate some part by which the State would get the benefit of the increased values of the land created by the expenditure of the increased taxation of the colony. The question of the occupation of the land involved a serious question. Upon the creation of large landed estates, as in the old country, rested those extremes of wealth and poverty to which attention had been greatly drawn recently. The evils of landlordism in the old country were seen

in the cruel sufferings of the outcast poor. Even in New Zealand they need not go far to see signs of the -ffects of land monopoly. Already in the large towns the working classes were unable to obtain residences except at high rents, speculators having bought up the lands and held them till those who desired to be occupiers had to pay very high rentals. Mr Rolleston then pointed out that it was too late to say that a non-inter-ference policy was what the Government should adopt in land matterß, as already in the postal, telegraph, railway and education departments, and almost in every relation in life there was more or less interference by the Government on behalf of the community whose representative the Government was. As such representative the Government was continually interfering to protect the people from being victimised by undue monopoly or by the grasping greed of those who would sacrifice everything to the attainment of wealth. The Government of the colony could not therefore divest itself of the duty of securing a fair apportionment of the land between the present and the future populations. His opinions on a land policy were formed, not on theories, but on long years of administration as a Minister and as Superintendent of a province. He did not adopt the theories of Henry George on land nationalisation, but taking warning by the past he wished to secure the occupation of the laud by the greatest possible number of settlers. Ifc was wrong to allow the land to be handed over to speculators and companies, who would enjoy the benefit of the public funds raised from the taxation of the people. With regard to pastoral land, there should be no alienation in future, but the holder should pay the best rental and get the largest amount of produce from the land that he could. Mr Rolleston deprecated the cry against woolgrower3 as fashionable humbug, and pointed out that the wool was paying nearly the whole of the interest od the public and private indebtedness of the colony, but still in the past there should have been a grazing tenure only, and tenants would not have had to speculate to protect themselves from the consequences of a cheap land policy in the future. He advocated pastoral leasing only, without giving a pre-emptive right. He knew in the past of men who were simply ruined by having to borrow money to buy land to prevent interference with their work as graziers. With regard to semi-pastoral land ho advocated the plan of his last year's bill, which he hoped would become law next session. It provided a system of perpetual tenure, and full compensation for improvements as the leases fell in. If the bill did not paBS in the coming session he hoped the people of the colony would at the general election insist on members supporting the principle of the measure. With regard to agricultural lands he advocated a system of interspersing deferred payment and cash lands, which rendered it impossible for speculators to come in and obtain big blocks ; but to avoid the evils which had attended the purchase of big blocks it was necessary to place a certain amount of land under a system which rendered it possible for the State to permanently retain it. That system was at present only in force on the diggings, where deferred payment, perpetual lease, and cash lands alternated. He would not stand in the way of men acquiring freeholds, but the object of his plan was to enable them to get the land first of all at moderate rentals, so as to save capital either for improvements or for afterwards taking up land with. Mr Rolleston quoted the Waimate Plains as an instance of a highly successful settlement policy, and pointed out how large a population could have been settled in the Awatere and other parts of Marlborough had the same policy been adopted. The lands could then have held numerous people instead of simply carrying sheep. He condemned a land tax and a bursting up policy, and considered the property tax answered all necessary purposes. It waa the fairest tax, and fell on shoulders that were best able to bear it. The abolition of the law of entail, the facilities existing for the transfer of land, and self-interest and the effects of speculation and borrowing would in a few years tend to cut up the large estates, and would lead to their dispofal at less values than was now being asked for them. He did not dispute that there were cases where public interest might demand the resumption of the land by the State for public purposes, but such circumstances had not yet arisen. Mr Rolleston then warmly urged upon the holders of large pastoral and agricultural properties the duty of doing away with a system under which estates were worked by swaggers. Property had its duties as well as its rights, and the present system was an opprobrium to civilisation. It was the boundenduty of holders of large estates to provide comfortable homes for those who worked with them, and then men would not be condemned to a life of single cursedness for the whole period of a laborer's career in the colony. Upon the lowest ground it was the interest of landholders to put an end to the embittered feelings which would not fail to arise should that system of working their properties be continued. In conclusion Mr .Rolleston strongly opposed any scheme for insular or financial separation, and argued warmly in favor of a system which would break down provincial isolation and class prejudice, and would foster the growth of a united people. In reply to questions, Mr Rolleston said it was for the Treasurer to show to Parliament how the deficit was to be met. He was not of opinion that at present the Main Trunk South Island line could be carried through any route, as the colony was not in a position to borrow enough money to construct the line, but so far as he could judge from what he had seen as he had come through to Blenheim he did not favor the central route. Mr Rolleston was cordially applauded throughout his address, and a hearty vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to him. He leaves from Picton by steamer for Wellington to-night.