THE-MINISTER OF LANDS

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14169, 18 September 1906, Page 8

THE-MINISTER OF LANDS

SPEECH AT SHANNON. [From Ora COEKESrOXDEXT.] .. SHANNON, September 17. The Minister of Lands (tbe Hon R. ' M’Nab), in replying to the toast of Parliament at a banquet tendered to Mr John Stevens by his constituents here this evening, made some further references to the land question, and the general policy of the Government In regard to agriculture and the flax Industry. At the outset Mr M’Nab *aid he intended to take advantage of the opportunity to say a word or two in connection with one object of Pai Lament which he was directly connected with, and he proposed to say sometiling about the Cabinet of the colony. It was the first time he had the honour ' of speaking at a banquet as a Minister of toe Grown. They had been told a meat deal about the. functions of a Parliament. The functions,of no government in the world, he undertook to say, presented as many aspects as did these of the Parliament of this country. Any person travelling in another country must- have this impressed most vividly on his mind. He referred to the State-owned railways; ■■remarking that in New Zealand, with the exception of thoManawatu Railway, - they knew of no others but the State-owned ones. Without speaking at any great length h© proposed to say something about political questions of the day. Now Zealand was now under a new Government, and with the advent of that Government it was only to be expected that a new policy would bo placed before tb© people of the country. The Government realised what had happened in the past, and it had deteimined that it would not happen again, that ho man would put himself into an early grave in serving the people of his country.. The greatest loss a country, could suffer was the loss of its Ministers, and in the- present case it was decided that each member oi the Cabinet would have to bear his load, and he would say in this connection that if no member of .the Cabinet was more anxious to work himself into an early grave than he (the speaker) , was, then they would all live long. Coming to the land _ proposals of the Government, h© said it did. not matter to him whether the meeting was favourable or hostile. . He would speak his mind: The Government had taken a step into the future, such, as no other Parliament in the world had ever taken. He referred to the £50,000 limit. The Government did not say what steps were to be taken by owners who held land in excess of this value. Tho Government, proposed to put on tho Statute Book another proposal which provided for the very large • estates being reduced in volume. The Government was going to take care that in the future very large estates would not be built up. After touching briefly on the i area limitations, he said the Government'did not say one’thing for the people 'of the colony - and. practise ■ another for themselves. The very man who proposed to put these proposals on tho Statute Book of the State would be debarred'from purchasing another acre himself. “We don’t say that you are to do brie thing and that we are to do another,” he repeated. There was a man in Canterbury who was opposed to the proposals of the Government, and who was cutting up his large estate, and he proposed to sell it to the people of the colony*. It was possible for any man to buy. these lands, “ but,” he ■ continued, “ if the moment our Bill becomes law, and- a syndicate proceeds to purchase, tho land to-which I have referred, it would have to sell that land to . exactly the same class of people as would have been able to hold it if it had been ! their own. They will require to make a declaration that; they do not hold in excess of the limitations laid down in our propcsal ; and these, immense estates that are. being sqld, passing from one man to another, will be cut up into the game class of settlement as they would have if the Government of the day had purchased them. This will produce an amount of settlement which we at the present time cannot realise.” He went bn to say that the Government had raised a great deal of criticism, and he believed that any Government would have been compelled, to bring'down a policy such as the present Government nad. The State railways now marked the face of the land, and the people of New Zealand were so used to the Government purchasing land that j they would not care to go into the back | country and on to poor land, as most of j it undoubtedly was The people of this colony did not want to ride in first-dose i carriages along the railway lines through large estates, and they asked that such places should be settled, and the policy of the Government would promote settlement, and altogether the settlement of these large areas would be more productive than forcing settlement into the'backblocks. Any Government, he- reiterated, would have been obliged to ■ provide land from these large estates for settlement, and in tackling the Land question tho Government had to tackle a big question, and it would, no doubt, cause a lot of row from one end of the colony to the other. , A revision, of the Customs would also cause a row. Any Government which faced these two • questions would have. been obliged to face , a row. The present Government decided to face the lot at once, and make one big row do for all.. Passing on, Mr M’Nab referred to the needs of agriculture and to the growing requirements of flaxmilling. Ho oould' not .refer to the subject at great length, but bo would say that ho believed as time went on and better methods of dealing with the flax industry - were discovered it would ; not only become one of the most important in New Zealand, but one of the greatest in tho Southern Hemisphere. In Southland and in* other parts of New Zealand in the old days flax grew on the plains and on the hill tops. It did not, as many people supposed, only grow in swamps. The Government hoped one. day to again see flax growing to perfection on cultivated areas. In regard to tho experimental stations the Government had arranged for their proper classification. In the past there did not appear to have been any definite idea regarding them. With respect to their location it was the intention of the Government to go through them from the North Cape to tho Bluff, and to weed out those that were not to remain, so that those which were left would be made experimental stations | in the very best sense of the word. In 1 the. past the Government had done ?;ood work for agriculture. In the uture the Government intended to offer facilities to these sons of farmers and others who were desirous of scientifically carrying on agricultural work. Young men who entered on the course it was intended t-o arrange would, the Government hoped, turn out useful farmers for the country as a whole, and in the dissemination of the knowledge so gained an immense amount of good would be done. It was intended to train farmers in the best methods of doing the best work. In tho past they had not been able to do. tbe best for New Zealand conditions. In the past Lincoln College might have done good work, but unfortunately its operations had been to some extent nullified. There would be no limitations of the kind this institution had laboured under in regard to the experimental stations of which he had spoken. The Government intended to teach every lad who oared to avail himself of the opportunities offering, and so long as the lad was prepared to learn, the Government] would be prepared, to teach him. •