THE GOVERNMENT’S LAND POLICY.

Lake County Press, Issue 589, 25 January 1894, Page 3

THE GOVERNMENT’S LAND POLICY.

Certain of the capitalistic papers, now that they find it impossible to stem the tide of public opinion in regard to land settlement, are professing that they are anxious that settlement should be arrested for the sake of those whoirr its advocates seek to benefit. They say that it is not right to place people on land for which the rent is so high that a living cannot be made out of it. Of course it is not. What we are surprised at is that these papers did not discover this fact years ago when up to .£3 per acre was charged tu croppers under the most stringent conditions. These papers never sciva mad until land monopoly was inteii'cred wit' , and then, from a public standpoint, they always screamed at the wrong tim.. Did-they utter a sound when the meagre remnants of the Crown lands in Canterbury and elsewhere were grabl-ed by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company and others? That would not have suited their book ; and

their present attempt to run with thehare and follow the hounds is too transparent to deceive anyone. But what is this about the Cheviot 1' Does the editor of a third or fourth rate paper pretend that he knows more about the quality and r.iie value of the Cheviot land than the men who have taken up that land ? That could be his only excuse for alb-ging that the prices are mere t‘>an sensible nvn should give. We remember that the papers which, arc now pretending that the pricesI paid by set lers for the Cheviot land are too hiah, stated when the Government effected the purchase that rimy would never realise what they paid for it. That prediction has been-falsified j by the financial results, for these paprs lare never right when they attack the; Government, and now they have no o'h-r resource than to pretend that the I men who have taken up the land are I going headlong to ruin. As it is- with; j the Cheviot es'at**, so it is with the j Pomahakn, and the lend purcha ed | from Mr W. Meek. The Government' know what they are about If the disinterested experts they consult 'd over these pu-chases do nob know their values better than does the editor of a common humdrum newspaper, then there is no advantage in possessing technical and practical knowledge, and the newspaper in question could be better conducted with an Italian 0 ,- gan grinder in the editorial chair. Those who denounce the Government’s land purchases conveniently ignore the advantage which is conferred upon the lessees through their rents being fixed at a price based upon a rite of interest not much more than half what original holders had to pay on their mortgages.

It is useless to try to convince persons whose direct interest it is to raisrepresent and to look at things political with a squint. But, when fhtss persons are forgotten except for their uselessness, the good that John M'Kenzie has done and is doing, in restoring the land to the people, in order that it may be used as much as possible to their advantage and for the benefit of the State, will live in the memories of the people of New Zealand.—Oamaro. Mail.