THE LAND QUESTION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 606, 12 May 1881, Page 3

THE LAND QUESTION.

■ Mr Vincent Pyle, M.H .11.. addressed *\n s>ssi mbliige of ab<ut kOO persons at 'the Town Hall, JNaseby, on Saturday -evening last. .■His Worship the Mayor of Nasoby •(-Mr N. P Hjorring) Chair, and briefly introduced Mr Pyke. Mr Pyke said he thought it was only right thai, before he entered into his sub- ; je.et, he should explain why he was here. He had been invited to visit them', otherwise he., should not have been here at -all. He had no desire to poach upon the preserves of his friend Mr de Lautour, whom he mucii respected, and whom he trusted would long be spared to represent them. Fie was sure if he were "there he would be on the-platform with "him (Mr Pykel, if indeed H 1 were necessary for him (Mr Pyke) to be there at jsll. When Mr de Lnutour came to address theru he had no doubt he would en-dor-e the nc'ion now being taken. They had had differences on many points, but -on that of -the land they had always "worked t-ogether. Now was the time of ""the. people's temporal salvation, and unless- fhev bestirred themselves at once "the interior would be condemned to desolation, for another Ion? period. Other men might, could, and should have taken the mater up, but not having done so he had thrown himself into the. breach, hav ing no personal end to serve. The vunliolders told them, and no one.could deny it, that they have been the pioneers of "the country. Pioneers of an army were those who went ahead to clear awav all_ obstruction. But what would be scii of the pioneers if they turned round and Taised earthworks to prevent the army from marching on ? That was what the [ rtniholders did. The time had arrived , •when the runs mnst be dealt with. (Ap- I plause) The- were highly favored in Maniototo,.for they had more land fit for settlement than almost any other County of similar size. Vincent County was about double the size, bu'" it had hot nearly the nsea of cultivable land He wns much amused nfc aremark made by Mr Pulton recentlv. Hessiid thatheagreed with everything Mr Pyke had done, but, be deprecated the agitation going on. To wake the people up •to insist upon - their Tights was hi< object, and he could not "see how Mr Fulton could reconcile -his anomalous rema-k*. Already the agitation ■was having effect. It had been the moans of sendiug a Commission from the Waste Land Board to tbeKawarau. But for the agilatio" this would not have been done- They,fill knew the trouble there was to get any land. It was nil doled •outasboDes to hungry dogs. In a few mom lis some millions of acres were to be • •dealt, wilh. Jt, was for them to say -whether the. land was to be leaded in en-~ 'Ormous areas or not. . One man- at pre sent held '400,000 acres 1 hese holders of large areas employed one or two managers, a shepherd or two, and a few •dogs. Every farmer in decent circumstances would emplov as much labor as many of the runholders. The people .Tiad the right to say-what should be done with the lands, and the. law admitted it, -providing, howevr-r, that the Governor -should "see fit." "If tbe Governor - shall see fit " was really the texc of his ■ discourse. It was verv important to know-whet her. t-he Governor would "see j fie," or not. With the viVt of obtaining, an idea in the matter, Mr de Lautour i -m >ve.d in the FLutse last session that Ihe , Minister should give a distinct enuncia- i lion of his policy w'th regni-d to the I lands. Tbe reply to that motion was of i =a peculiar kind. The Minisler could" not find tinylhin? to say anything against the raat'er of the motion, so he criti•cised the manner in which it was made. His reply was most unsatisfactory, and -even Mr, . Fulton bad designated it j " saucy." What he wanted, and those | wlto were working with him, was the ad- ' ministration of the law. in its true spirit. , ■Clause 119 of the Land Act says : All.crown lands at the time of the passing •of the Act occupied for pastoral purposes, on -the determination of the then current licenses or leases, and all unoccupied Crown lands, shall, if the Governor-in-Conncil see tit, be •exposed to auction in runs of such extent as he shall approve: It then goes to say:—

Tsfo larger extent of such land than will be -sufficient, according to the estimate of the Board, to carry all the War round 5000 sheep or 1000 head of cattle, shall be offered for auction in one lot under the provisions of this Act.

That is the most important clause in •the Act as regards pastoral lands. In a previous clause—section 114—it says :

If it shall be determined th-vfc such lands, tne whole or any part, shall he let Again for .pastoral purposes, then a. new Isaa-i of the whole or of such part, as the ■case may be, shall be sold by auction at least twelve months before tbe expiration oi ihe existiug license or lease. f|r they saw that it in spite of the efforts of the people's representatives to compel the sub-division'of the runs on the expiration of the I present leases, it aov remains with th" Governor-in-Council, "if be shall see fit," to subdivide these runs in the manner which, until careful examination of the Act was made, it was supposed he would be compelled to do it. The Governor, even more than the Queen, is strongly bound down to carry out the advice tendered to him by his responsible advisers, and they again, as at Home, are placed in their .position and retained iu it only at the will of the people's 7'epreseniaiives. Therefore, when the Act says:—"lf the Governor shall see fit.." it behoved them, the people of Jfew Zealand, to say through their representatives to the Ministers, and-through them to the Governor, " You shall see fit." (Loud Applause.) There are nearly 3,000,000 acres to be dealt with this year, and Ihe balance will .be •dealt with in 1884, 1885, and 1886. If -this ' area is again re-leased they might as well take up their swags and go. He now wished to ft-aw their attention lo the question of surveys. The great point they had to decide was -maps or people? Surveyors think that the great aim and ■end of life is the making of a.nice map. They like'to have mathematically straight lines runnirig in every direction. He believed that-if surveyors had'been originally entrusted with the making of men jand women, they would have made them all slab-sided. (Laughter aud Applau-e.) Tf there is a series of ridges they D<;ver think of carrying boundary lines along these ridges. They will carry their lin-.-s straight across the ridges', which makes the fencing cost ten times more than it Ijfjnld if the line were drawn with judg-

inrnt.—(Hear, hear.) The idea of some gentlemen was that : » c It should be left to the Chief Surveyor to map out the interior to the best advantage. wtha view of producing the largest quantity of wool, and sustaining the largest quantity of stock all the year round. They would perceive that the people of the Colony were not to be considered at all. Only wool and stock were to be con sidered. They did not produce wool, and wcr- % not stock.—(Lauphter.) A.ll the Chief-Surveyor is to look to are wool and stock, and the country is to be mapped out for that purpose. He found that Ihe managers were much more unreasonable than the runholders themselves. One manager bad told hira at the opening of the Blacks bridge, that be (Mr Pvke) had personally insulted hira by saying *hat be wanted the land for the people. This manager bad said he did not want people —he wanted sheep There were few more honest men than Mr Henry; Campbell, and when he was asked if he desired* a railway, he soid," ■" We might get our wool carried to Port a little cheaper, but we wouldn't get so | much land; you know." They all knew l it, and that was why the railway was opposed. The railway and settlement n.ust go hand in hand together. To further these two things he would dwote the remaining yean of his life. They were of far more importance than most of the subjects that Parliament spent its time in considering. He was one of the oldest miners in the room. He was mining in Forest Creek in Victoria in 1851. He recognised the Divine Hand in the dis tribution of the gold in different parts of the earth. Were it not for gold-mining the Colony would have been' practically uninhabited for,.a very, long period-of time. As tlflmgs were at present it was almost impossible to obtain land, and people who wanted it were driven to other Colonies or compelled to purchase freeholds. He met a miner the other day in the Interior who wanted to invest his savings—some £7OO0 —in land, and he had to go to Mataura to obtain a farm. This was not a solitary instance. There was a very good instance at Tuapeka of what would be done, if people took things quietly. The license of a run there had expired and the Board and its officers insisted that the land was unfit for settlement. The residents protested ' most vigorously,- and Messrs Bathgate, and Reeves were sent up to inspect it. The result was that the lease was not let as intended. Even the ' Daily Times,' which favored the squatters in every way it possibly could, raised its voice against the re-lease of this run. He would say to them, "Be vigilant also!" (Applause.) It was well when great crises were at hand that the people should remember what hid occurred at previous dates. When the leases were re-let certain conditions were imposed, one being that 5000 acres could be taken from a run when wanted. On the margin of every lease the spot was indicated, and the lessees took the runs with a full knowledge of the circumstances. On the first occasion that the land was wanted the runholders refused to give up an acre of it, and took the case to the •Supreme Court, and the Court upheld them. No more dishonest act than that refusal ever occurred. But they 'were "all honorable men! " The classification 1 of the land "was a thing that had been 1 talked of for twenty years, and it was time it. was effected. There were, approximately speaking, four classes of land—lst and 2nd classes agricultural, and Ist and 2nd class pastoral. The hilly land should be given in conjunction with the low land, and the present holders of farms' should be allowed to acquire portions of it. The managers said most of the hill land would average four acres to one shepp. Give the farmers a right to the land and he would undertake to say they would treble the value of theland, instead of reducing it, as the runholders were at present" doing. An evidence of this was the fact that the latter were every year having their assessment reduced, because of the decreased carrying capacity of the runs. One of the foremost writers, on the land question bad remarked very truly, that if a man were given a lease of Paradise he would make it a desert, while if he were given the right to a barren island he would make it a Paradise. The Classification Commission should consist of two members of the Land Board, the Surveyor-Gene-ral (not the Chief Surveyor), and two independent gentlemen outside. It was said that if the present leases were interfered with, capital would be driven away. But be would ask, where would the present lessees be in the majority of cases, if the banks declined to back them any longer ? Aud would it not be as profitable "for the banks to leud their funds in sums of £1001) as in,sums of £10,000? There were some amendments required in the Land Act. The bonus in cases o disputed sectimsof land should be abolished. It was a most unfair thing to handicap the occupier, of the section 1 against all comers in such a way. And deferred payment selectors should be allowed to obtain 320 acres, even, if it were not all iu one section, and they, should also be permuted to acquire grazing land on. pastoral deferred payments. They should have opportunities to make a decent living, nut only for themselves, but for their families, and when their children grow up it should be possible for them to settle easily. on. the land. Diggers would not bring up their children to follow the pursuit that'they themselves had followed—they turned their attention to the land, and desired that their children should occupy it. Their desire should be fostered. It had been said, also, that the runs must be re-leased in large areas, in order that the rabbits might ]_-e kept down. Some of the squatters were actually preserving ' the rabbits to give color to this cry. He had a far better means of extermination to suggest—viz., children. If they had plenty people settled on the land, they would soon make it very hard for a rabbit to make a living in the country. The rabbits would then become as scarce as they are in the older countries of the world. So long as these large areas are held by a few proprietors they, would never get rid of the rabbit. They should work well together until they bad won the victory. The man who wanted rest now was a traitor and a coward. Whetier they liked it or not their destiny was now to fight for the land, and they must march on or be trampled upon. Such a destiny as theirs only happened to a few people in centuries, and it was their duty to endeavor to fulfil it. If .they did not do their duty their children might arise and call them cursed; they would certainly not call tUeoi blesged. He had begun his

add ress with a text, and be would end it with a song— We want the land before us, We'll make that cry our chorus. We'll have it yet, Though hard to get, By the Heavens bending o'er us. (Loud and continued cheering.) Mr John Creighton said he had been called upon rather unexpectedly to move a resolution, with the full import of which be had hardly had time to make himself acquainted. He was very much in favor of the League, however, and would do all hecouldtosuppoi-t.it. He moved— That it is desirable that a branch of the Otaso Central Land League be formed in Naseby. That .the work of the League should be first, to assist and co-operate with the other branches in moving to have the runs cut up in such a manner that the wants of every section of the community maybe supplied. That the League should also take into consideration the administration and working of the Land Law, and should take action to effect neccessary alterations and amendments in the Land Act.

Mr A. Sharkey seconded the motion, which was put, and declared unanimously carried, amid applause. ' Mr W. H. Ash, in rising to propose a member.of the JNaseby Branch of the 'League, said that he had no desire to pose before them as a public speaker, but he trusted that everyone fully recognised the' importance of the League, and would not only appoint a number of. gentlemen, to compose the local branch, but would give it their hearty .support and sympathy. For years some such organization had been required.. Dissatisfaction had frequently been expressed in the district at the existing state of things. There had been no recognised head —especially, since their member ceased to live among them —and moving in public matters was felt to be everyone's basiuess,but no one's in particular. 'The League would be an organization by which they could maku their voice heard. He supposed that the object ofthe League would be, first, to endeavor to bring about sub-division of the ruhs, v so that everyone who wanted land for settlement, or who wished to acquire a small piece on which he could keep a cow or a horse, or who desired to extend his present holding, by adding to it a slice of. hill land, so-thiaf he could become a graV: zier on a small scale, would be able to gratify his wish, but it would be quite proper for the League, in fact its duty, to move in any other matter connected with the land that was not as it should be. (Applause.) The ballot should be substituted for auction in disposing of contested .sections, and the League might well take the matter up. They had seen that the auction system worked badly. At WaiV>emo some time ago there was a great fight for the land, and enormous premiums were paid for sections, land was not worth what was.given for it, and the result was that it had to be abandoned, at a loss to the selectors and to tbe country. =ltwastobe regretted that Mr Pyke was not successful when he moved in tliat matter in the House. Then the League should endeavor to have the law altered so that a deferred payment selector could take up more than one section, if necessary, to make up.320 acres! These things might well engage its attention. Every person should have-a chance to obtain land for .purposes of settlement, lie trusted- that a number of good men would be appointed, and that the .residents of the district would support the League not only by word but by-deed. (Applause.) The following gentlemen were uuantmously appointed to form the Naseby Branch of the Otago Land League, power being given them to add to their number : Messrs John Creighton, George Currie, Plummer, L. Hore, M. Young, H Wilson, GulEe, JMulholland, A. Sharkey, A. White, P. Law, James Hore, and W. H Ash. A hearty vote of (hanks to Mr Pyke was moved by Mr Woodhill, and carried by acclamation.

A vote of thanks to the Chairjfifn*;' moved by Mr Pyke, concluded ceedings. •:<..;•'

The first meeting of the'Kaseby Branch of the League is.fixed for 'Saturday next, in the ante-room of the Town Hall, at 8 p.m.