PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15138, 31 October 1912, Page 8

PARLIAMENT.

THE LAND BILL.

DEBATE IN THE COUNCIL.

THE ILLOGICAL/LEASEHOLDER

MAORI LAND DIFFICULTY.

. [BY TEIiEfJKAMt*—-PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington*, Wednesday. The on! v business before the Legislative Council - * this afternoon was a debate on the Land Bill on a motion, for the committal of the Bill, which was brought, down, . with amendments by the Lands Committee of the Council. , Hon. H. D. 801 l said the amendments were purely formal. He moved the committal of the Bill, and in a lengthy speech explained; the measure and the objects, •sought to bo obtained by it. Explaining the provisions for the purchase of the freehold, Mr. Bell said the tenant could Buy for cash or for payments spread over 10 years. The advantage to the State was that this purchase money .would go into tho coffers of the Lands for Settlement Department. . Hon. W. Beehan: The tenants .wont take advantage of it. Mr. Bell: I wish to reply to that argument. Half the ; people of this country are utterly illogical. They say first of all that this is a monstrous surrender to tho tenant of a right which is vested in the State, and secondly,' that the tenant won't take advantage of it. i Anything more illogical than that, Mr. Bell said, he could not understand. If he know the tenants he believed they would take advantage of the,-after. But if they did not then the leasehold would continue, and. Mr. Beehan would have nothing to worry about. Subdivision Must Come, Dealing with the subdivision clauses, Mr. Bell Said -'the State assistance in the way of money offered in the past had_ not opened up the Land, srot that _ division must come. . They might, for a time, defy the growing insistence for subdivision, but in tlio end it must be . overwhelming. Some said that if the land was. wanted the Government must buy it and.subdivide. Those who said this had a pretty idea of the possibilities of finance, and of how far the demand had existed for subdivision. How could the Government supply this demand by borrowed money for the purchase of land? To a certain extent the Government must 1 kotow, but this proposal was one by which the land might be settled without the Government paying in debentures am enormous sum for -the- money to be spen,t on land. If the owner paid he would not subdivide, hut if h<s continued to hold the land, what followed ? Graduation of course, and graduation to a stage which would compel him ujxm far worse terms to subdivide • and dispose of his land. . Native Land Proposals, , The Minister next explained . the proposals for. dealing with, native land.: The j auction system was retained - there because the natives did not .understand tenders. He commended the Bill to the Council because it contained . provisions which had been endorsed by the Hoiifa and by the j country. .• • Compulsory Taking of Maori Land.