THE LAND QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 178, 14 July 1911, Page 11

THE LAND QUESTION.

REMARKS BY MR. MACDONALD, M.P.

NEED FOR SPEEDY SETTLEMENT. Touching upon the land question at his Motu meeting on Monday evening, Mr. MacDonald, M.P., expressed the opinion that with the growing demand for land the Govenrment, after the next election, must- go thoroughly into all the available waste lands of the Dominion. Mr. MacDonald considered that, the Government had pursued the only possible course in dropping the Land Bills of 1999 and 1910. As far as the 190!) session was concerned, there was no possibility of getting a Land Bill through the House unless the session was continued well into the next year. The 1910 session did not afford an opportunity for the passing of a Land Bill, as there was so much otherwork in hand. It was not advisable to tinker with land legislation, and unless a radical and beneficial change could lie made, it was much latter to continue on the present lines, seeing that very satisfactory progress was being made as regards settlement.

For himself, he was a freeholder, but felt that the chief difficulty in regard to settlement was the high prices asked by the owners of improved land. The work of settling the remaining Crown lands must necessarily be somewhat slow and costly, in view of the need for reading. etc. Even at the present rate of progress, it. would only be a few years when the. whole of the lapels would be under profitable occupa tion. When the Opposition inferred that the present Government was a leasehold Government if misrepresented the position, for. with the exception of national endowment land, mining leases, etc., all the Crown and waste lands were open for selection on the optional tenure. Mr. MacDonald added that he believed the Land Sertelment Finance Act would prove a popular and use ful measure.