THE LAND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 132, 5 June 1891, Page 3

THE LAND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

feM^xoUowiag extract from the Bpeeoh delivered last Monday by the Minister of Lands will be of interest to many of our waders :— Before referring: to the Land Bill Mr MoKenzie said he would like to put himself right with the people of the Colony as to his viewß on the land question. He had been accused continually by the Conservative press of endeavouring to prevent anyone from becoming a freeholder. He had no fluoh intention, and he had never lost an opportunity of saying bo when speaking on the land question ; but what he aid say, and what he waa going to say again that night and was prepared to stand by, waa that if the Government was going to give Bpecial inducement to people to settle upon the land they should ace that they got bona fide settlement. They could not possibly shut their eyea to the faot that in the past there had been a great deal of speculation with these special settlements, people forming themselves into associations and taking up the land for settlement on speoial oonditions, and never doing anything to the land but retaining it until suoh time as they could dispose of it at a profit. He had also been accused of taking away from the . people of the Colony rights whioh had been granted to them by his predecessors iv office. Be had seen it stated by the Conservative press that he (Mr MoKenzie), had amended the regulations made by the Hon. Mr Riohardaon, the late Minister of Lands. Now, the faot was, Mr Riohardson never made any special settlement regulation b. The regulations whioh he (the Bpeaker) had amended, and which were now in existence, were first made by the Hon Mr Ballanoe (the present Premier of the oolony) in 1886, under seotions 162 and 163 of the Land Aoc, 1886— Mr Ballanoe'B own Aot. Mr Ballanoe created a number of special settlements under those regulations, but Mr Riohardson did not form a single settlement under them. It was quite true that he (the Hon Mr Richardson) had carried out some negotiations that were pending for the settlement of certain blooks when he took office, but he himself had not oreated a single speoial settlement These regulations when he (Mr MoKenzie) came into offloe were a dead letter. He, however, immediately took the regulations in hand, amended them both— the Village Settlement and the Farm Homestead Regulations—the < former to meet' the demands of the people who had little or no capital at all, with the hope that a little enoouragement might induoe them to leave the towns and beoome useful settlers, The farm homestead regulations were amended to meet the requirements of people who had a little oapital but not suffioieut to beoome freeholders, and under those regulations he h»d provided that the land should be taken up on the perpetual lease system, Ou the .other , haftl, the Hon Mr Richardson's amendment of the Land Aot of 1887 gave Mr Ballanee'a homestead settlers the right to purchase, and wbb the means of opening wide the door for speculation. Thero could be no doubt of this being the faot, aa he could prove it from returns in his possession and in the possession of the Department in Wellington in connection with these speoial settlements. Therefore, to prevent further ■peculation and. to retain the freehold in the hands of the Crown, he had deterjmiried only to provide for perpetual leases. The village settlers had never been granted the right to acquire the freehold, and he attributed to this role the faot that at the present' moment so many of these people were still retaining possession of the land. H e bad notioed in hit travels, through these village settlements that very large progress had been nude, and that in many oases people who were destitute when they first Went on their village allotment were now in A fairly oomiortable position, They made no complaint that the right to aoquire the freehold was denied them.. The only complaint of the kind oame from older people in the different distriots, who were inolined to bay up the village settlement allotments, and who were vory muoh disappointed that they oould not do so. The farm homestead Bpeoial settlements, on the other hand, were in many oases a wilderness and the process of creating large estates ont ol them was going On extensively. He himself had seen one property of over 2000 aores oreated out of one of these settlements. He had gone round it himeelf. (Applause,) Speaking ot the Land feair in general, he had predicted iv 1887, when speaking on the seoond reading of the Bon. Mr Biobardson's Land Bill, that the door would be opened wide to speculation, to dummyism, and all sorts of frauds, inoludiog false dealarations in oonneotion with our Land Laws. He was boohed at at the time for doing so, but he thought the time had now arrived when the people oould see what the great evils of that measure bad been. The necessity for an amendment of the Land Law was reoogniied not only by himself, but also by bit predecessor, and every right thinking man in Uwaolony. Tbeo if they were going to amend the Land Law, and take a new ttepartnie,>hey should oertainly try to avoid the , errors of the paat. Going over the whole of flew Zsaland anyone must be struok with the immense estates, He would meet with it i m every portion of the oolony. He had recently travelled through the Hawke's Bay Profiaoial distrioi, where these Urge estates predominated, fie bad driven ten miles through one estate, comprising the most *eautilul land, without ever seeing the smoke 01 a bouse, or meeting a single individual, ana that was only one of the great many more ot the lame sort. They were told that (here were 47 people owning three million acres ol land, and he asked them if it was possible for this oolony to prosper under such ohronmstanoes. He bad had ' a return pre* pared by Mr Percy Smith, the Surveyor. General of the oolony, and the head of the liands Department,, whioh shewed that they hao.bnly 2,800,000 aores of Crown lands suitable for settlement (first and second olass land) left. He also had another return, showing that daring the lest three years the colony bad disposed of under oasb, deferred payments and perpetual {ease conditions, and lot small grassing runs, rural land to the extent of 1,826,842 aores, or very nearly one hall of what was now left. If they oontinued the same prooess for six years longer the whole of the land would be gone from us for ever. The oolony bad, as they were aware from, the list census returns lost a large number of its population ; not only had it lost a number equal to the total number of immigrants who oame to the oolony, bnt it bad also lost twenty thousand of its natural increase. What, did this mean 1 It meant that we had reared and educated twenty thousand people in New Zealand to send them away elsewhere Was it not then our duty to stem that fatal tide 1 And was it not also as great a duty to carefully husband the land we had left, and secure at any rate that no further large estates would be oreated out of that area, He proposed, therefore, in the measure whioh he would submit to Parliament in the forthcoming Session to provide bona fide sefctle-i ment. He was quite propared to give any person who paid a freehold, pure and simple, the right to acquire a certain area of land but only en condition that suoh land was improved, and not held for speculative purposes. This then would give an opportunity of acquiring a freehold to those who wished to do bo, but the area would be our* tailed, though it would be suoh an area as would enable a family to live in comfort and plenty. He aloo intended to continue the deferred, payment system on oon« ditions of residence only. Thus would another opportunity be given to those who Were desiroae of obtaining a freehold, and were unable, through insufficient means, to purchase the title right out. But, as he said before, they would be compelled to eettle upon and improve the land. He also .proposed to provide perpetual lease for those who wished to have land on that system ; and the terms would be such as he hope< would be most popular, but tbe terms would be perpetual lease only, so that they would see that be had provided for the moneyed man to get bis freehold it he so pleased. The man who eventually wished to beoome a freeholder oould also do bo, and the man who would content himself with perpetual lease, ' in bis MoKenzie's) opinion, would be in possession of quite as good a tenure as any other in existence. The email grazing rune tenure, he contended, should remain in force, but it would be surrounded with safeguards whioh would prevent the areas becoming the property of large owners, and would aleo provide for tbe subdivision of snoh email runs amongst families ; that is if a man wished to take op ft smalt grazing run be oould do so, »nd divide it during bis lifetime or at death amongst the members ol hiß family. Be Would provide that the large area of pastoral country which was left, and of the olasaes of tenure be had referred to, should be disposed of for the future in a manner whioh would be more oondnoive to tbe public interests of the the oolony. Under this tenure to be introduced tbe land oould not possibly be held in suoh enormous areas as K is at the present time by foreign companies and individuals.

Owing to the loss of the e.s. Lawrenoe, the Mokihinui Goal Company, whioh hac the oontraot to supply the New Zealand railways with' some 80,000 tons of coal, hae made arrangements with the Grey Valley Coal Company to supply the balance of the coal oontraoted for, The secret o! the suooess o! Feilding is twofold. There is the system of settlement offered, and there is the system on whioh the settler workß. The system ib to road tUe blooks before opening the land for sale, to offer the freehold on deferred payments without any interest or payments of any Wad for three years, and to provide work rg good wages. The men who were brought out by the Corporation have in a largo number of instances done well. Capital ? There is a case well known of one new arrival with a family who, when he was landed on his blook, had juet twenty shillings in his pooket. To-day he owns his forty aores, having paid £3 an aore for it ; he delights in garden (flower and vegetable), house, orohard, and he is independent ot the world, This man begun life in the Old Country as a farm labourer. We may add that one of his sonß who came out with him and began life with him on his sootioa is now the owner of a 800-aore farm. There are other oases of men who have been equally suooeseful. They have had to work hard, to uxeroise thrift, and to cultivate enterprise. But they have shown that easy terms of purohasa and pavtial employment will enable a man without any means at all to beoome freeholders of the soil, independent oolonißts, produoerß of wealth, and employers of labour. That is the result ot the twofold seoret of Fielding, whioh has made such a record in the census returns —New Zealand Times, A Vienna correspondent of a Home papor tells a shocking story of the results of a oruel pieoa of April fooling. An anxious mother, whose eldest boy began to serve big three years as soldier last Ootober, received a letter rom Buda Pesth, where he is garrisoned, This letter told her that her son had been shot dead beoauee, in his oapaoity aB cobbler to the regiment, he had fastened the beelß on to the soldiers' boots the wrong way ; that he had been buried with all military honours, and that even the general had been present at the funeral. The letter was not signed and was dated the Ist of April, The poor mother dropped the letter from her bands and fell dead. Her daughter, aged 13, who was alone with her, waa paralysed with fright, had a fit, and died the next day. The police are doing all in their power to traoe the author of the brutal hoax. THREE CENTURIES have rolled by Binoe Baoon said " Coffee oomforteth the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion." Use Cbbabb'b A. 1. Ooffbi, Bold only in lib. and 21b, tins. For the seasonable, the attaaotive, the faaoinaling in material, shapes, style, and the very lutes! fashions and novelties just to band per steamer Rimutaka, ladies should not fail to embrace the opportunity now offered, and pay a visit to the roamlo department, at Te Aro House. We are now showiog some marvellous " oreations " in ladies' aealette jaokets, and speoially note the following :— "The Melba," with deep beaver faohg, high Fife collar, whioh oan be worn in four distinot ways, and at prioes ranging from 3 to 6 guineas : " The Ramsay," faoed with nutria fur, reversible oollar, ooi d ornaments, latest styles, from 2 to 4 guineas, at Te Aro House. An exceedingly handsome garment is " The Douglas " sealette jaoket, faced with Persian lamb and real BStraohan, high reversible medioi collar, lined silk throughout, from. 2J to 5 guineas. An equally oharmiog sealette jaoket it "The Isle of Wight," with deep facing and collar ofpnre squirrel far, price 6 guineas, at Te Aro House. In pluah, seal, plushette, and sealette jaokets we have an immense variety, A finer assortment waa never yet shown in the oolony. The new stook is larger, better selected, and more complete than wo have ever previously been able to exhibit, and we are sore that any lady requiring the latest fashions in jaokets of every description, ulsters, mackintoshes, fur-lined cloaks, travelling wraps, &0., will find everything desirable now on view, ac Te Aro House.