The Northern Advocate FRLDAY, SEPT. 21, 1906. OUR NEW LAND POLICY.

Northern Advocate, 21 September 1906, Page 2

The Northern Advocate FRLDAY, SEPT. 21, 1906. OUR NEW LAND POLICY.

The cable news published in our columns has given a synopsis of the views expressed by the Australian press on our new land policy, but a fuller, account of the standpoint taken by " the other side " journals cannot fail to be of great interest. Commenting on this great question, the Sydney Daily Telegraph says :— " There is this to be said for the plan of giving large owners ten years' notice to reduce their holdings, that it is honest. It is undeniably a public right to declare what the limits of possession shall be in land, or, as far as that goes, in any property— a right, of course, to be exercised with prudence and justice. When ample notice is given, however, the owner has reasonable facility for realising on his excess. That is where the New Zealand scheme differs from the " progressive " land tax proposal of the Australian Labour Socialists, the effect of which would be to either tax the whole value off the land above a much lower figure than the New Zealand Government fixes, or compel owners to overload the market and sell at a sacrifice. Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues also propose that in dealings in private land the transferee, before he can complete a purchase, shall be compelled to sign a declaration that, including what he is about to buy, he does not own more than 1000 acres of first-class or 5000 acres of second-class land (except in a borough or city) in the Colony. In -other words, the £50,000 limitation applies to present owners, and there is another for future purchasers which is somewhat anomalously conditioned by area instead of by value. As for the present leaseholders, they will be offered a 66---years' tenure, with a right of renewal on re-valuation for a similar period, or practically a 132 years' lease ; and in consideration of certain expenditures by the tenant he will be freed from inspection and all other official interference, and hold the land fbr all practical purposes as though it were a freehold. That is one way in which a balance is sought to be struck with the discontented leaseholder, and another is seen in the prospective creation of a small army of new freeholders. Taking this into account, and remembering that it strikes the blow— long-desired of the Radicals— at the big landholder, brings land on to the market without Government expense, and restricts the area of estates for the future, the scheme is most adroit, as well as progressive. To anyone who imagined that political tactics became a lost art in New Zealand when Mr Seddon passed away 4 it may well revivify the old saying about there being as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it."