MR McNAB ON HIS DEFENCE.

Mataura Ensign, 9 November 1908, Page 4

MR McNAB ON HIS DEFENCE.

COtago Daily Times.') The Minister of Lands clearly felt, when he faced the electors at Gore on Thursday night last, that he had been placed on hi-, aefenco. Three yearß ago when seeking their support as a candidate he had offered them ample assurances of his conviction that the optional system of the disposal of tho Crown lands should be retained with the important addition that tho right to acquire the freehold of the land they occupied should be conferred upon all Crown tenants. It was upon his avowal of his adherence to a policy of this kind that he sought the confidence of the Mataura electorate. There was absolutely no lack

of definiteness about his pronouncement on the subject. He declared that "ill 1902 ho stood as a supporter of tho optional system in regard to the disposal of Crown lands, and in regard to land for settlement his opinion had not changed." What that opinion was he explained at some length: "Were they going on for all time buying estates and piling up debt and difficulty? What he urged was that there was now sufficient invested in land, and they could keep it there, and, at the same time, keep it in a comparatively liquid condition. If they gave the right to pur-

chase the freehold they would not need 1 to borrow more. What the tenants 1 paid for the purchase of their land the * Government could use to purchase other land, and they could restrict the aggregation of estates. . . . Four millions were now invested, and it was time they gave the right to acquire the freehold, and did away with the necessity of borrowing for the purchase of further estates. ... Of course, if tenants yiere allowed to acquire the freehold it should not be at original values, but at the value of the land today, less tho improvements that the tenants had put upon it." Mr McNab's policy in 1905 was, it will bo seen, one under which all Crown tenants—those holding leases under the Lauds for Settlement Act as well as the holders under the original Land Act—would be granted the option of acquiring the fee simple, and the purchase money so received by the Government would constitute a fiiud to be utilised for the purchase of estates lor subdivision for closer settlement, so that the necessity for borrowing for this purpose might be avoided. On the faith of {lis adherence to this policy Mr McNab was re-elected to tho representation of Mataura. In a few months' time he accepted a place in the Government as Minister of Lands, and, as one of the first questions to which the Government, as reconstituted, directed its attention was that of land legislation, Mr McNab was afforded the opportunity of instituting proposals to give effect to the views enunciated by him and endorsed by the electors. In what way, however, did he furnish proof of tho depth of the convictions he expressed? He brought down legislation, which, he threatened, was to be passed unless the country was to be deprived of his services as Minister of Lands, that involved, if not a distinct reversal of the policy he had advocated on the platform, at any rate an absolute abandonment of its cardinal features. For his electioneering proposal to give a light of purchase to all Crown tenants was substituted a proposal for a complete cessation of tho sale of Crown lands. In this respect Mr McNab executed a volte face which was only preserved from being complete by the reservation that the holders of leases of ordinary Crown lands might, if they liked to surrender their leases, take their chance of buying the freehold at auction. But as no Crown tenant would ever have been likely to avail himself of such a precarious method of securing the freehold—since to do so would expose him to tho risk of having to compete at the auction with men of longer purses and greater resources than himself, and consequently expose him to the risk of losing his land altogether—the reservation might just as well have been omitted. But this option was withheld from the large class of Crown tenantry which is composed of those occupying settlement lands. The proposed legislation "of 1906 really represented, therefore, an abject betrayal of tho principles which Mr McNab advocated in 3 90-5. And although Mr McNab hastily withdrew these proposals when it was suspected that tho country would not submit to them, he is rightly judged upon them, especially when it is remembered that he spent that greater part of the following recess in tho vain effort to break down tho opposition to them. The legislation of 19JJ7 presented various points of difference from the proposals of the previous year, and was a great improvement upon them, but, in supporting it, Mr McNab still resisted the policy he had himself advocated as a private member. It is true that a certain right is bestowed upon one section of Crown tenants to acquire the. freehold. But it is upon terms which, unless there is to be a heavy and general fall in laud values, forbid the possibility that there will be any large acceptance of them. Moreover,

once more the option of purchase is withheld from the holders of leases under the Lands for Settlement Act. And, though the provision of the bill of 1906 for the discontinuance of the sale of Crown land was omitted from the legislation of last yoar, Mr McNab admits that one and a-half million acres have, under the National. Endowment Act, been reserved from alienation that might otherwise have been disposed of on freehold conditions. The spirit of the land laws, for the passage of which Sir McNab, the freeholder of 1905, is responsible, is, indeed, strongly anti-freehold. "The distinguishing features of the present leasehold system," it" is said in the Oflicial Year Hook," "involve the principle of State ownership of the soil, with a tenant right to recurrent terms of lease by the occupier" ; and this sentence expresses not inaptly the principle, which runs through the legislation on the subject. Mr McNab defends his tergiversation by feebly pleading that it was not to be supposed that the policy of the Ward Government in connection with the lands of tho country was to be absolutely identical with every point advocated by the individual member who became Minister of Lands. Of course it was not. It must be recognised by every reasonable elector that the decision of the Cabinet upon a question constitutes a composite judgment ill which due weight is given to the personal opinion of every individual member of the Government. Necessarily, however, the views of the Minister of Lands carry a special authority in respect of land legislation, just as those of the Minister of Finance do in regard to financial questions, and those of the Minister of Mines in connection with proposals affecting the mining laws. And the community is at least entitled to expect that a Minister who attaches any importance to principles shall not surrender tho bulk of the convictions he has expressed and shall be no party to tho enactment of legislation that is directly opposed to the views lie has advocated. Mr McNab clutches desperately at a straw when lie compares his own position in the Cabinet in respect of land legislation with that of .Mr Millar in respect of labor legislation. "Was it suggested," lie asks, "that the policy of the Ward Administration in connection with Labor ivn:-. idcnticnl with the position taken up on that question by the Hon. Mr Millar when lie was standing for the HouseV' Wo shall not ourselves answer that question. It were better answered by Mr Millar himself, and his reply to it was given in the House last session, and again in the Garrison Hall a few nights ago, when lie quoted evidence that was given by him hefore the Sweating Commission in 1900 in order to show that tlw provisions contained in his Labor,, legislation are consistent with the views he expressed before ever he became a niPinbr of Parliament. Mr Millar fails Mr .McNab. therefore, as a witness, and the indictment against the latter that, as Minister of he deserted the principles he upheld .as a private member and consequently betrayed the settlers who supported him stands substantially unchallenged.