THE LAND QUESTION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 606, 14 May 1881, Page 3

THE LAND QUESTION.

Mr e, M.H.K., addressed an aF.R^irblape l of"8bcul i"00-persons 'at the Town Hall; —-Naseby, on Saturday evening-last. . ! . His ■ Worship the Mayor (Mr'lJ. v P Bjorring) occupied the Chair, and briefly introduced Mr Pyke.' 1 -" 1 ; 1 Mr Pyke.aaid he:thought only right that, before he-entered into his sub.'jecfc, he"should explain, why'he was here. « He had been invited to visit them; otherwise he should not have beeVhere >at all. He'bad no desire to poach upon the preserves •of Mr. i whom he much respected, arid whom he

*s trusted v.would loug.be spared to represent them. 'He was 'sure if he were there he would be on the platform with him (Mr Pyke), if indeed it were necessary for him (Mr Pyke) to be there at all. When Mr de Lautour came to address them ho had no doubt he would endorse the action now "being taken. 1 -They had had differences on many points, but on that of the land they had always worked together. JN"ow was the time of the people's temporal salvation, and unless they bestirred themselves at once the interior would be condemned to desolation 'for another -long period. Other men-might, could, and should have taken the ma'ter up, but 1 not having done so he had thrown himself into the breach; having no personal" end to serve. The run- % liolders told them, and no°one could deny it, that they have been the pioneers of the country. 1 Pioneers- of an army were_ those : who went ahead to- clear away all •obstruction.' But what would be>said ; of the pioneers if they turned round ' and raised earthworks to prevent.the army from tnarching on,? That was 1 -what' the runholders did. The time had arrived when the runs mri'st be dealt with. (Applause.) The 7 were, highly favored; in ~~Mariiototo, 'for they had more land fit for : settlement than almost any other County -•of-similar size. Vincent County-was -about idouble "the " size, but it had not: "nearly '.the 'area of cultivable -land. He, was much amused at aremark made by Mr Fultonreeently*. He said that he agreed with everything Mr.-Pyke had. done, but 1 deprecated the agitation going'on. To wake .the: people.up ,tp insist .upon. ..their xights was his object, and he could not how Mr- Fulton, could reconcile :his anomalous remark®. Already the, agitation' was having effect. It had , been the means of sending a Commission, from the Waste Land Board to the Kawarau., But ; forj the agitation this would riot been done, They all knew the trouble . there was to get any land. , It, was all doled out as bones . to. hungry dogs: In a,few months some millions of acres were to be dealt , with. It was for, them to say whether the land was to be leased in enormous areas or not. One- man at present held 400,000 acres These holders of Jarge . areas- employed one or two managers*-aisbepberd or two, and a few dogs. Every- farmer in decent circumwould employ, as much : labor as 'many, of" the runholders. -."The £ people" j. < v=had the right to. say what should "Be done -with"the•'■lands,- and. the law admitted it, <i u.providin'g, A h'oweve'r, 'that "the Governor ' '"should' fit:' ? ." If the' 'Governor shall see" 'fit" was really the text of his discotxrser," It" was "very ' important, to know whether tbe Governor would " see ■ :> fit,'.' 'or not. 7 ■ 'With"the view of obtaining .an idea v in the matter, Mr de Lautour J moved in the, House, 'last session that the 'Minister [should give a distinct enunciation of his policy with regard to the lan'ds. The reply to that motion was of " a peculiar' kind., ; The Minister could . not find anything to say.anything againstthe matter of the motion, so he critic cised the manner in which it was made. His reply was most unsatisfactory, l and "even Mr Fulton had designated it "saucy." . What he wanted,* and those who' were working with him, was the administration of the law, in its true spirit. .Clause 119 of.the Land, Act says.: ■ All crown lands at'the time of the passing of tlie Act occupied for pastoral purposes, on ■ the determination of the then-current licenses or leases,- and all unoccupied Grown lands, if ' the Govern or-in-Couricil ,see fit, be ; exposed to auction in runs of • such extent as he shall approve. It then goes to say:—

Ifo larger extent of such land than will be sufficient, according to the ■ estimate of the . Board; to carry all thejyear round 5000 sheep or 1000 head of cattle, shall be offered for auction in one lot under the provisions l of this Act. ' ' ' That .is' the most important clause in the Act as regards pastoral lands. In a . -previous clause —section.ll4—it says : / If it shall be determined that such lands, either the whole or any part, • shall be let again for pastoral purposes,' then a new lease of . the whole , or of such part, as the ■ case .may be, i sball-be sold by auction at least twelve months before the expiration of the existing license or lease. So 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 present -leases, it " -now ; - remains with the ; 'Goyernor- •- t -in-Counci],"if shall .see fit," to sub- / 'divide these runs" in the mariner, which, until careful: examination of .the Act was _madej it was supposed he would be com- , .pelled to do it- The Governor, evenriiore than, the Queen,, is strongly .bound s down. to carry.out the advice tendered to liim by his responsible advisers, and they .again, as at Home, are placed in,; their . position and retained in it only at the will of the people's representatives. Therefore, when the-Act says:—" If the Gov-, ernor shall see. fit," it behoved them, the people of New Zealand, to say through, their representatives to the Ministers; and through them to the Governor, " Ydu shall see fit." (Loud Applause.) There are nearly 3,000,000 acres to be dealt with this yeai*, and the 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 d-aw their attention to the question of surveys. The great point , they had to decide was—maps or people ? Surveyors think that the great aim a'nd end of life is the making of a They like to have mathematically straight '- lines running, in every'direction. He believed that if surveyors had been originally entrusted with the making of men . .-.and women, ,they would have made thom all slab-sided. » (Laughter and Applause.) If/there is a series of ridges they never think of carrying boundary lines along •' these ridges. They will carry their lines - •straightacross the ridges, which makes -the fencing cost ten times more than it if the line were drawn with judg-

mrnt.— (Hear, hear.) The idea of some gentlemen l was l -that: —

It should be left to the Chief Surveyor to map out the interior to the best advantage, with a view of.producing tbe largest quantity of wool, and sustaining the largest quantity of stock all tbe year round. They i would perceive .that tbe .people of - the : Colony iwere not to be considered at all. Only wool and stock were to be I considered; They did not produce i wool, and were ■ not . stock.—(Laughter.) [ All the ' Ghiefc-Surveyor iis to look to are i wool and stock, and the country is to be mapped out for that purpose. He found i that the managers were much more unreasonable than the runholders themselves. One manager bad told him at the opening, of. the Blacks bridge, that he (Mr 'Pyke) had personally insulted him by saying that be wanted the land for the people. This manager bad said he did not want ppople—he wanted sheep There were few" more honest men than Mr Henry. Campbell, and when he was asked if he desired a railway, he said, " We might get our wool carried to Port a little cheaper, but we wouldn't get so much land, you know." They all knew it, and that was why the railway was opposed. The railway arid settlernent must go hand in hand together. further these two things he would devote the remaining- year# .of his life. They were of i far more importance than most of the subjects that Parliament e pent its time in considering* He was one of the oldest miners in file room. He was mining in Forest Greek (in Victoria in 1851. He recognised the Divide Hand in the distribution of the gold in different parts of 'Were it riot for gold-mining Colony, would have been practically uninhabited for a very 'long' period ; of time. As things were at present it was: almost impossible to obtain: land, and people who wanted it were driven to other Colonies or coriipelled-to purchase freeholds. He met a miner the other day in the Interior w ; ho: 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 instancei There was a very good instance at-Tua'peka; of i 1 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 settlements The,-residents , protested most r 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 sqnatters in every-way. it possibly coiild, raised its voice against the re-lease of this run. He would say; to them, "Be vigilant alsol" (Applause!) It 1 was well when great; crises were at hand that the people should |rbmember what had ' occurred at previous datefc. 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 ifull 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" of the land was a thing that had been talked of- for twenty years, and, it was i time it was effected. There we're, 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 aeries to one:sheep.. Give the farmers,a right'to the land and he would* undertake to say they would treble the value of the land, instead of reducing it, as the-runholders were at present doing. An evidence of this was the fact that the latter were eyery year having their assessment reduced, because of the decreased carrying capacity of the runs. ' One of the foremost writers on the land question had remarked very truly that if a man were given a lease of Paradise he would \jpaake it a desert, while if ! he were given the right to a barren .island he would make it a Paradise. The Classification Commission sho.uld consist of two ptembers of the Landßoard, the Surveyor-Gene-ral (not the Chief Surveyor),, and two in-, dependent gentlemen outside. lt ; was said that if.the present leases were interfered with, .capital --would be driven away. But he would ask, where would the present lessees be in the majority of cases, if; the .banks.declined to back them any longer p, ;And would it not be as profitable for the'banks to lend their funds in sums of £IOOO as in sums of £IO,OOO P There were some amendments required in the Land , Act. , The " bonus in cases o disputed land should be abolished. It was a most unfair thing to handicap the occupier of the section against all comers in such a way. And deferred payment selectors should be allowed to obtain 320 acres, even if it were not all in o'ne section, and they should" also be permittedto acquire grazing land on pastoral deferred • payments. They should have, opportunities to make'ade-' cent living, r not only.,for; themselves, .but for their"families, and when their children •grow'up "it shouli'be 'po'ssiblefor' 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 theiand, 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 be .kept down. Some of the squatters were actually preserving the ; rabbits to give color to this cry. lie 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 asscarce as they are in the i 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 had; won the victory. The man who wanted rest now was a traitor and a coward. Whetaer 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 them blessed. He had begun his

addriess with a text, and he would end it with & song— We want the land before ns,. We'll make that cry ourchorus; 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 he bad hardly had time to make himself acquainted. He was very much in favor, of the League, however, and would do all -he could to support it.. He moved— That it is desirable that a branch of- the Otago 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 may be .supplied. That the League should also take into consideration the administration and working ;of i: the Land Law, and should take action to effect neccessairy alterations and amendments in the Land Act. -

Mr A. Sharkey seconded the motion, Inch was put, arid declared unanimously carried, amid applause. Mr W. 11. Ash, in rising to propose a member of the Naseby Branch of tjhe 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 ihbvirig'in 1 public matters was felt to be everyone's one'sjin particular; ' The League would be an organization, by which they could make their l voice heard. .' He supposed that the object of the League Would be, first,' to endeavor to bring about sub-division, of the runs, so that everyone who wanted land for settlement, or who wished to acquire a small piece on which he could keep a cow of a horse, or who desired to extend his (present holding, by adding.to it a.slice of hill land, so that be could. become a,grazier on a small scale, would be able •to,'gratify .-his wish, K but ? ,it would be quite proper. for the League, •in fact its 'duty, to mov'e?'"in any other matter connected with the viand that was not as it should be. (Applause.) : - The ballot should be substituted for auction in disposing. of contested sections, and the League I: migh r t' well take,' the matter up. ..Tjhiey Bad system .work'ed^^.badiyV. I 'At^Waihemq;sbnle ago there! was .a .great fight for the land, and enormous premiums were paid for sections. The 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 the country; It was to be regretted that- Mr Pyke was not. successful when he moved in that matter iu the House. Then the League' should endeavor to have the law altered so that a de-, ferred 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 He .trusted that a number of r ,good men . would be appointed) andi'thatV-tbo. residents of the. district would support tho League not only by word but by deed. (Applause.) The following gentlemen were uuanimously appointed to form the Naseby -Branch of -the Otago Land League, power being; given them to add to their number Messrs John Creighton,,George ;Gurrie, Plummer, L. ,Hore, M. Toung, H Wil--'s6n, 'Guffie,- Mulholldnd, - A; Sharkey, A.. White, P. Law, James Hore, and Wi. H Ash:": "■ '■ -"i '"■■■■■ '"•■■■

;• A hearty vote ; of tthanks, to. Mr Pyke "was inoved by Mr "Woodhillj and carried by acclamation. . A vote of thanks to the Chairman; moved by Mr Pyke, concluded the proceedings. : ; The first ineetirig of the Kaseby Branch of the League is fixed for Saturday next, in the ante-room of the Town Hall, at 8 p.m. - : '