THE LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13470, 24 April 1907, Page 6

THE LAND QUESTION.

The Leader of the Opposition in his spccch at Hamilton on Monday evening dealt effectively with the Land Bill, although he developed no new lines of attack. The leading objections to that measure are so cogent and unanswerable that it is not necessary to seek for fresh arguments against it. These objections are threefold : it destroys security of tenure ; it renders the acquisition of the freehold impossible to all save the rich, and limits that privilege even to them to those districts in which individuals at present own more, than £50,000 worth of land ; it would, if it became law,, discourage instead of promoting settlement. All | experience proves that population is attracted in the greatest numbers to those new countries which offer the best inducements to the newcomers to settle on the land. And in the opinion of the majority of mankind no inducements can compare with those of security of tenure and the right to acquire the freehold. The source of New Zealand's wealth is, and must long continue to be, the land. The progress and prosperity of the colony depend solely on the steady development of its agricultural resources. Its true policy therefore is to assist in every possible way to bring about the speedy settlement of its waste lands and to render them productive. This should be the common aim and object of both of the two great, political parties in the colony. But no one with an unprejudiced mind can honestly believe that the Government's Land Bill is in accordance with such a policy. It has been framed, not with a single eye to the true wellbeirig of the colony as a whole, but for the purpose of placating a small but aggressive and politically influential section of the community holding distinctly socialistic views. It is the j work of a politician bent only on securing votes rather than of a statesman looking to the general good without regard for party exigencies. That is one of the evils of our present system of party government. It makes true statesmanship impossible except in special circumstances. The Land Bill may or may not be forced through Parliament next session, but if public opinion becomes, as it is giving signs of doing, fully alive to the real dangers which threaten the prosperity of the colony from such legislation the probabilities, we believe, are that the measure will either be dropped altogether or shorn of its more objectionable features.