“A REASONABLE PRICE.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15862, 27 February 1912, Page 6

“A REASONABLE PRICE.”

Or course figures' can be made to prove anything the financial experts want them to provo, and if it pleases Mr David Jones to show that the Cheviot Settlement is costing the State £l3 a year or any other sum that takes his fancy we need not interfere with his enjoyment of his little calculation. The fact that the surplus revenue from the settlement is rapidly extinguishing the cost of its acquisition still remains to comfort the taxpayers, and they,' after all, are the people chiefly concerned. But even if we admitted that Mr Jones’s figures were correct the admission would not affect in the slightest degree our contention that the option of the freehold, if granted at all, should bo granted at “ a reasonable price.” A reasonable price would bo one that conserved the interests of both the State and the tenants. The original value might be in some cases too high a price and in those cases cur proposal would adjust the price fairly between the State and the tenants. Our contention all along has been that now the issue of leases-in-perpetuity has been discontinued Parliament should give facilities for the conversion of the existing leases into freeholds on equitable terms. Mr Jones and his political friends seem to imagine that we are not being frank about this matter and that our reasonable price means something more than a fair payment for the State’s interest in the land. We can only regret their suspicions.* We have tried with such plain language as we have at our command to make our position clear to our critics, and if we have failed we think we mav fairly place some of the blame on our critics* understandings.