LAND TENUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12317, 8 July 1903, Page 6

LAND TENUSE.

VIEWS OF THE MEMBER FOR ■' YVv MANUKAU. A PLAIN, PRACTICAL SPEECH. [NY TELEGKAriI.—SPECIAL correspondent.] ■■v...".'v' : Wellington', Tuesday. Mb. Kirkbriok, the member for Manukau, spoke on.the Address-in-Reply this afternoon. Ho devoted the greater portion of his speech" to comments'on the paragraph in the Governor's Speech, which expressed a desire that the colony should get an increased number of immigrants of the farmer. class. He was a farmer, and he thought it would have a bearing on the subject if he told the House what induced his people to come to New Zealand. They came to get a bit of land of their own, and they chose the Auckland province because a free grant of land was given by. the .Provincial Government to immigrants who paid their own passages from England. The land laws of those days were , liberal compared with the laws of the present day. There was the grant of 40 acres for every man and woman, and 20 acres for every child, and there was a homestead system, one of the best systems for settling land that ever obtained in New Zealand, for the bolder could pay for the land by instalments till he made it his own. The first thing a fanner wanted was security Of tenure. The farming classes of the Old* Country would not come 16,000 miles to get a leasehold. They could get leaseholds at Home. ■ The Premier: Not for 999 years. Mr. Kirkbride: Yes, but there is a suspicion getting abroad that. that . form of tenure is to be smashed up. .

The Premier: No. ill". Kirkbride stud the trades and labour councils had been urging the Government to revalue all Crown leases,, and some of them had even gone the length of suggesting revaluation every live years. Would that induce farmers to come to New Zealand from the Old Country while they could get freeholds in Canada or America? ; if New Zealand wished to induce the farming class to come to the country they must offer something else than leasehold ; and the ballot. A farmer of small capital could hot afford :to • come here .to be , dangled about - from ballot to ; ballot. Two years ago the Pre-: mier described the ballot as a huge system of duinmyism. ■ The Bremer : Hear. hear.■,.-. ■ • Mr. Kirkbride said it was surprising t in view of the Premiers opinions l that the system had not been altered. - The Premier : We did alter it. Sir Wm. Russell: And made it worse. Mr. Kirkbride said some other scheme of allotting land would have to be devised. '■■: The Premier: Wo will be 'glad of Mr. Kirkbride's assistance to devise; a system. Mr. Kirkbride .said his experience went to show that if they gave a man the freehold; of a ban-en ', rock he would : turn it into a garden, and if they gave him nine years' lease of a garden he would turn it into a wilderness. There was a suspicion in the public mind that the Government was in favour of -leases being revalued, •■ and this suspicion, he claimed, was justified by speeches of , the Premier and Sir Joseph Ward. He (Mr. Kirkbride) did not wish to push the freehold on anyone; but: he held that the man ; who went out to the backblocks, and took up sections of waste lands, should have the right to say upon what tenure he was to take up : the laud.' Sir Joseph Ward, in a speech in Auckland, expressed a fear that the continuation of the freehold would lead :to' the' aggregation of large estates. -Well, ,if the Government wanted to stop that they, could"fix-,a limit of area, or a limit of the value of land that could be held by one individual, and he (Mr. Kirkbride) would go a long way- with them in ■'.that direction. Then the Premier had expressed fear that freeholders would mortgage their lands, and lose it. The Premier: Has it never been done?

Mr. Kirkbride said he could give his ex!)erience.: He was a small farmer, and he lad to take on a mortgage, and his experience was that 10 out of every 20— 99 out of every . 100—by nard work, care, and: thrift, rubbed of! the mortgage. v The Premier: Yes, with ■ the help of the Government advances to; : settlers and cheap money. '."■'■ ' ':-' '. ' ",''■,.''■■''■'■' Mr. Kirkbride saidmany people held that lease in perpetuity was as good as the freehold. Well, it would be very near it if they had an assurance that it would be continued, but they had hot.: that >- assurance.■'■'? ■ (Applause.) :,;■;<; Mr. Kirkbride also referred to the; question of preferential tariff, 'emphasising the fact that Canada had made a reduction of; 33i per cent, on British goods, while the Premier proposed -to "give Britain a preference by " raising the tariff oh goods "from foreign countries. - - > • The Premier : Canada brought the : total up 40 per; cent., and then gave British goods a rebate of 33£ per cent. '•■--.-. "■'.;. * : Mr. Kirkbride proceeded to point out that the Premier's proposal to raise duties on goods from foreign countries might lead to raising the price: of fencing wire and agricultural machinery, and urged the Government to go slow in the matter. ? The Premier :; I said ■we could ; not raise duties indiscriminately, ; Mr. Kirkbride closed by expressing himself opposed to compulsory preference to unionists. ■■;;■'.''': ■'.

■: The speech was listened to with interest from all parts of the House. Mr. Herdman, who spoke' soon after,, congratulated the member, for,Manukau.on/ his maiden speech, summing up what was probably the general opinion about it when he described it as good common sense, founded on practical experience. v ■