THE FREEHOLD ALL ROUND

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16492, 6 March 1914, Page 6

THE FREEHOLD ALL ROUND

The member for Christchurch South was not venturing upon a very hazardous prophecy when he predicted at .Mr Russell’s meeting at Phillipstown last night that the Reform Government would “ sell Cheviot as soon as it got an opportunity.” Of course it would give the Crown tenants at Cheviot the option of the freehold just as readily as it has given the tenants in other parts of the dominion this privilege. Mr Massey has declared that his idea of a beneficent land policy is one that

would “give the freehold nil round" and there can be no doubt that if the public remain apathetic about the matter Cheviot will go with the rest of the public estate. AY hat has saved this settlement. from inclusion in the “all round” policy so far is the fact that it is part of a constituency represented in Parliament by an uncompromising Liberal who has refused to make terms with the monopolists and join in the scramble for loaves and fishes. The mere incident that it is gradually paying off the cost of its acquisition would not stand in the way of the Government for a minute. This, as Mr Massey would say, would be simply a matter for actuarial computation—one of those actuarial computations which always result in showing that the tenant ought to get the land at something less than its original value and that the public ought to bo very grateful to him for taking it. The country’s hope of retaining Cheviot as a monument to the courage and sagacity of a former Minister of Lands lies in the probability of Mr Massey never, having the opportunity to put it on the market.