The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1907. LOOKING OUT FOR A SOFT PLACE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 71, 25 March 1907, Page 4

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1907. LOOKING OUT FOR A SOFT PLACE.

In Wednesday's issue of The Express, dealing with the always interesting topic of the Land Bill, we remarked, "It is from Dr. Findlay, if from anybody, that we shall hear whatever sound reasons there may yet he left to urge in favour of the Bill in its present shape. It may be that he will reach new conclusions concerning it that may tend to yet further alterations, and make of it in the end a workable measure." Since then the Attorney-General has spoken, but it cannot truly be said that he has justified the hope expressed or implied in the sentences quoted above. He addressed a meeting at New Plymouth on Thursday night, and whether the frivolity of the audience was catching, or whatever it was, the speech was little more than a repetition

of the stock arguments of the Minister for Lands and the Acting-Premier. It is true that he foreshadowed modification of the measure, though he did not descend into particulars in this connexion ; and it is to be noted also that he laid much less stress upon the leasehold and endowment provisions of the Bill than upon its assumed capability for bursting-up the big estates. The centre of gravity has been shifted. The Minister for Lands began by making an appeal to, and relying upon, the support of the leaseholders, who, six months ago, were believed to constitute a majority in the country; at the present moment the Government (which,has absorbed the Minister) is boldly bidding for the votes of the small freeholding class.

We are no longer told that the reservation of the public estate, actual and prospective, is to provide funds for our grandchildren that will enable them to run the government of the country without recourse to taxation. Thr< endowments are not expected to provide for more, than education, old age pensions, and hospitals and charitable aid, which, by the way, is a quite sufficiently large order. Whether it is feasible to earmark the public endowments for such purposes, or whether the lands now1 held by the Crown are sufficient to yield the required revenue, ara points that, need not detain us now. The circumstance to be noted is that Dr. Findlay has disclaimed any intention on the part of the Government to increase the area of the Crown endowments. There is to be no more buying of private estates for settlement on the leasehold principle, and the lands now in the hands of the natives and not required for profitable occupation by- that interesting race are to be handed over to Europeans either for cash or on the" optional principle. Everything that is practicable is to be done for the man who wants a " piece of landV that he can call his own." AH the big freehold estates are to be turned into small freehold farms. If the Opposition or the country party objects to the bursting-up machinery contained in the Bill as it now stands, the Government will be quite agreeable to substitute for the ten years' grace a substantial increase irithe graduated land tax. Ministers, according to the latest utterance, are ready to make any changes in the measure, provided such alterations are not calculated to operate to the prejudice of the small freeholder! •

The New Plymouth meeting appears to have taken the Attorney-General's exposition of the Bill in a Pickwickian sense. In all the extended reports that we have seen the Minister's remarks are freely punctuated with " laughter," and the resolution carried at the close was quite characteristic of the rest -of the proceedings. The terms of the motion were that the meeting had |*>niidence in the Government, but helped the provisions of the Bill would "Be greatly modified. In returning thanks the Attorney-General said in effect: "Them's my sentiments." What does it all mean? The original Bill started with two clearly defined objects: No more public land was to be alienated, and the big estates were to be ground down. Where are those objects now? At the instance of the Premier, who is known to entertain but little affection for the endowment scheme, the Bill has been divided into two, so as to make it more easy to jettison whichever proved to be too difficult to hold on to. The Government Had announced—or Mr McNab had. announced on its behalf— that it would stand or fall by its land policy. By splitting the Bill the Government got two chances. But it would now. appear that two chances are not enough. The endowment scheme is sickly, and the limitation of area proposal is not by any means so vigorous as its sponsors could desire. And so we have been introduced to the increased land tax". The Government still intends to stand or fall by its policy, but'the puzzle just now is to find out what is meant by the term.