A LEASEHOLD MEETING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14225, 23 November 1909, Page 6

A LEASEHOLD MEETING.

THE REFERENDUM URGED.

OBLITERATING PARTY LINES. [BY TELEGRAPH. ASSOCIATION-]

! ' , : Wellington," Monday... Over a thousand leaseholders and sympathisers met in the Town Hall to-night to protest against the Government's land proposals. Mr. W. T. Noot, president -of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council, occupied the chair. He explained that/ the Council had called the meeting.

Mr. D. McLaren, M.P., said the people should be consulted on this most important question. The Budget, had never been before the people. The Government was in a tight position financially, and thought it easier to sell the country's lands than face the position. He moved, " That before any legislation is passed, sacrificing the people's interest in the leasehold over existing Crown lands, or in lands settled under the Land for Settlement Act, and before any more of the publicly-owned land is sold, all the people of the Dominion should' have an opportunity of saying, by means of a referendum vote, _ whether they are willing that the proposals now before Parliament shall become law, or whether all existing Crown land shall remain the property of the people, and be dealt with under the leasehold system, so that future increases in rental value shall be available for reduction of burdens of taxation. This meeting further holds that to change existing leases into a freehold would create a privilege which is not in the covenant entered into by the lessees, and would .give to such lessees a decidedly unjust advantage over all other, applicants for such land, by exeluding the element of competition, whereby the real value of the land can only be arrived ; at."

Mr.; A. W. Hogg, M.P., declared the Government's land policy to be absolutely dishonest. Every member of the Ministry which proposed it should be brought before the Supreme Court. ■ Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., said gambling had been allowed to go on in State-owned farms, which had created a class of rackrented tenants. If there was any gambling to be done by the resale of farms, the State should get the benefit. He protested against the sale of a single acre of Crown lands. The land proposals of the Budget really obliterated party lines. The motion was carried with but two dissentients. • ..■'-■''',■■:.• '"-;"/"■' '&■"■■

"COMPROMISE; NOT COURAGE." [BY TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] * Wellington, Monday. " Mr. T. E. Taylor, at to-night's meeting of leaseholders, said: "The land question raises the question whether the Government represents the people's political ideals. ;In my opinion it most assuredly does not. The next election, it seems to me, will be, or ought to be, the occasion of . the rebirth of the Liberal party in New Zealand. I am not exaggerating when I say that, on broad lines, apart, from a .few proposals which must commend 1 themselves to a majority of the people, the Budget policy is based upon - contrivances more than upon convictions, and that compromise, and not courage, is the principal characteristic of the men who should guide the destinies of the Liberal party." Mr. Taylor added that he believed that the Government's land proposals would be modified before they got into the Bill. He urged that the Maori lands to be purchased by ; the Government should be nationalised. • - : ' -\