Land Settlement.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 27

Land Settlement.

The Minister for Lands has been good enough to forward to us a pamphlet which he has just brought out (and whieh is published by Messrs Lyon and Blair),' setting forth “A. National Land Policy, based on the principle of State Ownership.” It» contents consist mainly of a series of articles contributed by Mr Ballance in ISS2 to the Dunedin JEcho, whieh was then edited by Mr Ballance’s present colleague and chief, Sir Koberfc Stout. They set forth a plan, for the nationalisation of the

land of the Colony Crown lands, reserves, Native lands, and private lands. Mr Ballance in his preface remarks that he wrote those articles then because he “ thought the theory had been sufficiently discussed and expounded, and that the time had arrived for a practical proposal to embody the principles in legislation.” And he reproduces them now because he thinks the present time “ not inopportune to bring before the public a plan by which nationalisation might be obtained.” He believes that “ the freehold sentiment will die away in the ’presenco of the hard logic of facts, and there are already symptoms of a reaction in favor of the perpetual leasing system.” Mr Ballance anticipates that the Colony will be roused from its slumbers when it comes to realise the small quantity of arable land, as public estate, which is left, and that politicians may then begiu to feel that they have duties which transcend the mere exigencies of the hour. He holds that the land laws of the Colony are very far from having reached finality, but that the ownership of the laud by the State —with the consequent regulation of tenure, and conditions tending to promote at the same time the welfare of the tenant and maintain the interests of the community—seems the only final solution of the agrarian problem. Sentiments change, and he is convinced that the time is not far distant when the cultivator of the soil, as distinguished from the speculator, will only ask himself the question, Are the conditions favourable to success? Mr Ballance asserts, indeed, that this question is now being asked «very day in some part of the Colony, and that the answer is most frequently in favour of perpetual lease. He admits that the republication of these articles has a secondary purpose to serve, namely, as demonstrating that the claim so often heard on the part of members of the late Government, that they originated the perpetual leasing system, is not well founded. The first intimation of intended legislation in that direction was contained in the Governor’s speech which was delivered on the 19th May, 1882. Mr Ballance points out that his second article in the Echo, “ which might really have served as instructions to the Parliamentary draftsman,” was published on the 22nd April, 1882, and he deduces from that fact the conclusion that Mr Rolleston must have seen the plan some time before his measure was announced in the Speech. Mr Ballance acknowledges, however, that “the honour of boldly bringing down a measure of so startling a character and carrying it through the Legislature, even in abridged form, remains to the Ministry of that time,” and he disclaims any wish to see it withheld or obscured According to Mr Ballance’s view, the settlement of the Crown lands has been revolutionised by the development of the special settlement clauses cf the Land Act, especially in relation to the system of village homesteads. Recognising that there have always been many advocates in the Colony for employing labour to prepare farms for sale and occupation, he urges that the essential feature of the village homestead system is that the owner prepares and makes his own home, receiving advances on which he pays interest.; the security to the State being the land and improvements, and he contends that those who advocate “ giving the land away ” would destroy the system at once, by destroying the security. The failure of small settlements hitherto has, in his opinion, arisen from the following causes: —The freehold system, leading to consolidation of properties and to mortgages at high rates of interest; want of outside employment ; isolation of the settlers from markets and from each other ; inferior quality of the soil; want of capital to make a stark Reverse these conditions, he says, and prosperity will take the place of failure. The undoubted progress of the village settlements which have already been founded is held to he due to the correction of the defects which attended previous movements of the kind. The Minister for Lands maintains that the system affords the only hope of the country carrying a large and well-to-do population, and of providing relief of the chronic congestion of labour in the towns, and that when the Road Board, as the true unit of rural self-government, receives the whole of this rent for the most important of local-governiug functions, road-making, “ the freehold sentiment and the quit-rent craze will vanish, and the expansion of the village homestead system will go on while an y j

available land remains.” He argues that the legislation of the last three years shows a marked progress in the direction in these articles, and that, though modifications in the detail have taken place, the end has ever been “ kept Bteadily in view,” as Mr Oliver would say. While we may not agree with all the views either held by Mr Ballance or put forth in this pamphlet, we do full justice to the ability with which he promulgated his theories. The zeal and labour that he has devoted to the important'work of settling the lands of the Colony we have always most cordially recognised.