THE LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1676, 13 April 1904, Page 61

THE LAND QUESTION.

A PRACTICAL SOLUTION. (By A. W. Hogg, H.ILR.) I have been asked to explain my views on what I think would prove a reasonable and satisfactory settlement of the vexed question of land tenure. The conflict of opinion on this subject is reaching an acute stage. I am speaking from experience when I mention that during the last two general elections the right of everyone to acquire the freenold, or. in other words, the practical abandonment of the Crown leasing system, was a test question applied to all candidates for 'Parliamentary honours. It is therefore obvious, I think, that until the issues at stake between the freeholder and the Crown leaseholder can be reconciled by an improved method of land administration, the conflict will go on. The proposal 1 nave to make is so simple and efficient that in the hands of r politically educated people such as we, happily, in New Zealand possess, I believe it could be carried out most satisfactorily. It is simply to place tbe administration of all lands held or acquired by the State in the hands of those who are immediately interested. Mr contention is that if the income derived from Crown lands and the expenditure thereon are entrusted, not to a Government Department to swell the consolidated revenue and extend political patronage, but to the people who are. the genuine owners, the best management will be assured. There will certainly be no specious arguments about the limited freehold, every man under his own vine and fig tree with a mortgage preying on the loots, or the natural aspirations of every Britisher to feather his' family nest and force his poor relations into the workhouse. My impression is there will be neither idle land nor idle people; the Rabbit Nuisance, Noxious Weeds and Orchard Pests Acts will be relegated to the ranks of the unemployed; and slums, swaggers, and destitution generally will be permanently burieu in the rubbish-bin. PROPOSED LAND TRUSTS. Enough of preliminaries. Let me submit what I believe to be a reasonable method of land administration anu its probable effects. Trusts should be established in the centres nearest to tfte lands that are dealt with, whether Crown lands or lands acquired under the provisions of the Land for Settlements Act. The trusts must be elective, and the franchise should be the widest possible. That is to say thern embers of each trust should be elected, as far as practicable, by the people directly interested in the administration of the land, every adult, male and female, within a defined area having a vote. '1 ne elections should be held periodically, the term, if no annual, not to exceed three years. The trustees should be invested with full power to lease within a limited period—say twenty-one years—subject to such conditions as they think iiu The fund arising from rents, etc., should be devoted in the first instance to the payment to the State of interest on the value of the land and the creation of a sinking fund by which eventually the debt would be extinguished. Any surplus remain"ng might then be expended on improvements of a general character. Progress at first will be moderate, if not stow. There is the "dead horse” to work off. Interest and redemption money for a time will prey heavily on income and reduce to a minimum the troubles of the trustees about the expenditure. But the unearned increment will assuredly - grow, and the vines, once fruit bearing, will every year see larger clusters. The wealth that now disappears m a few pockets will spread itself like bonedust

and superphosphates, fertilising the most sterile soil. Let us see WHAT THIS FUND W 7 TLL uO FOR THE COMMUNITY. Few things have done more for the settler on Crown lands than his tnirds or fourths. This means a portion of the money paid by the landholder to the Receiver of Land Revenue. Subject to the approval of the Land Board, the thirds are handed over to the local authority County Council or Road Board —to be expended on works that will benefit the land from which the money is derived. Instead of thirds, I propose that the surplus from rent shall be applied to public works, such as roads aiul bridges. This surplus, instead of being payable as in the case of thirds, lor a strictly limited term of years, would be payable for all time. When the road works are completed, and the best of access to market and harbour provided, the fund would be applied to other desirable objects such as domains, botanical gardens, free public baths, libraries and reading rooms, schools and' galleries of art, museums, gymnasiums, schools of music, technical and training institutions, and in fact an infinitude of things that would make the existing purgatory as near an approach to paradise as the Gospel has yet depicted. THE TWO SYSTEMS CONTRASTED. At present the interest taken in local government . in the ' country —viz., in counties and road districts—is most trifling. What else is to be expected while the plural vote and a restricted franchise are perpetuated? The ordinary settler, whose family is often out of all proportion to the size of his holding—for some of the childless or wifeless are the greatest land cormorants in the colony—if he visits the ballot-box at all, approaches it with a humiliating sense of his abject weakness. If he has allowed his rates to get slightly into arrear, he finds that besides being penalised, he is disfranchised; and if he pays promptly, he has still very little say in public matters, for wife and family count nothing in the scale against broad acres, and his single vote is a contemptible counterpoise to the three, four, or hall-dozen votes of his aggressive neighbour. Now, by placing the lands in the way I suggest, under the control of the resident population, every man and woman will stand on equal terms. Instead of councils or boards representing a few land magnates, we will have trustees representing the crowd. The effect of this will be that everybody, actuated by a sense of his or her importance and weight, will take a keen interest in public affairs. It is maintained that the effect of the freehold is to arouse a sense of patriotic ardour in the landowner. Here we have a whole community of freeholders ! The quickening of a sense of responsibility and desire to excel in furtheringl the general good will manifestly be enormous. A healthy and vigorous development of social and political aspirations, contemporaneously with the educational improvement of the people, will consequently be promoted. IS THE REFORM PRACTICABLE? Many will say that what I have suggested is impracticable. Others will declare that my views are too optimistic. Is there anything impracticable or absurd in giving everybody a specific interest in their own property—the land designed for them by Providence, or which is being bought with their money or credit? Why should the question of tenure have a disturbing influence on general politics, if, by giving everybody a selfish interest in the distribution and administration of the land, it can be removed above the polemical sphere. Let me give a demonstration lesson. I have not to travel far. In the prosperous little up-country town where I reside is a very good object-lesson. I refer to an endowment known as the Masterton Trust Lands. It is a model, par excellence, for our land reformers. This endowment consists of only a few acres scattered over the town. Between thirty and forty years ago, these acres were made a gift to the half-dozen pioneers from Wellington and the Hutt Valley who founded the Masterton and Greytown small farm settlements. They were “surplus acres” left over when the small farm settlements were formed. Masterton and Greytown at that time were only towns on paper, the acres were of no particular value, and the pioneers generously converted them into a permanent endowment for the people. The Act of Incorporation provided for elective trustees, power to lease, and declared that the proceeds' should be devoted to educational purposes anu objects of public utility. With the growth of population and expenditure on public improvements the acres have grown 'n value, and in Masterton the rent-roll produces over <£looo a year, and is rapidly increasing. No better milch cow for a community grazes in this part of the colony. It has planted and beautified a fine public park, gives the people a Town Hall that is certainly one of the most substantial, completely equipped and prettiest, if not exactly the largest upera House in New Zealand; established an institute containing Municipal Chambers and offices, library, free reading-room and museum;; and- contributed largely to a technical school, where drawing, plumbing, carpentry and the higher branches of education, are carried on. Every school—State and) denominational alike—receives a substantial endowment from the fund annually. In. other ways, too numerous to describe in this contribution, the Town Lands Trustees have been enabled to help on thedr legs invaluable institutions that might otherwise have been stillborn. With such a vivid illustration before my eyes, surely I'would be dense indeed if I did n)oh perceive the facility with which the warfare between leaseholder and freeholder can be terminted, and in the realms of peace, the land made to minister to the wants of the people. Lately the Land for Settlement Board has been inspecting some of the land round Masterton with a view to its purchase and distribution. Why not handi it over to the Trust Lands Trust ? This would simply mean an extension of the property to be administered and also of the voting area. Greytown has its trust, but its revenue is smaller than that of Masterton. Why should not the State

assist the trustees there to enlarge their property ? DECLINE OF POPULATION. For years the people of Masterton, Carterton, Greytown and Eeathenston have been crying aloud flor land and asking the Land 1 for Settlements Board to help them. It is true that in the Mas- i tierton district the population has increased, but in Wairarapa generally the census returns show a falling-off. Considering the large areas of land fit, for close settlement, is it creditable that families should be expatriated, for that is what is really occurring ? Every little town amd hamlet resembles a nut or fruit-stone on the shelf Th© kernel is there, full of life and potency, but hermetically sealed and rendered useless, when, if liberated on the soil, it would grow and multiply and" produce fruit in abundance. The land is crying aloud for labour, and labour is crying for the land. Not only does the population Tail to increase, but spine of our little towns are growing smaller. Why ? Because the land ist locked up. Almost every week I receive letters from country teachers, compilainng that their schools are growing small and unretmunerative. Here is a,n extract from one of the latest to hand:— "The families about here seem to have, for the most part, grown past school age; and,: through amalgamation of properties, instead of the land supporting several families, it supports only one. In one case, wliere three or four properties have become merged info one. the present occupier is useless to the school, as 1 his family resides in Masterton.” 'THE REMEDY.

The vesting of the management of W'l'.l in trustees locally elected on a universal franchise would stop amalgamation, and keep the people on thei land.. The method suggested is simply aiUapplication of the co-operative principle to land settlement. | The Land for Settlements Act makes the process 1 easy. Not only would, country lands and townships he helped by being placed on a sound and prosperous basis, but largest centres would be greatly benciited if the trusts I suggest, were once established. The people that flock into Wellington from all parts of the. colony are constantly raising the value, not only of the city, but of the suburban and surrounding country. All around the city are hills) bare and steep in eager demand for residential properties. Even the harbour foreshore, covered with sand and shingle, is fetching almost fabulous

prices. The values are due to the unearned increment, which, properly speaking, should belong to the people, instead of enriching the lucky speculator. By the process I have suggested, this unearned increment, created by the public, will be conserved for the people, and used for their benefit. Into the merits of the graduated land tax, used as a lever for the. of large estates now locked up against labour and settlement, I have not entered.. That question is .one that would require an exhaustive paper for itself.