The Land Commission.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 8657, 6 December 1904, Page 4

The Land Commission.

By Telegraph. (From Our Own 'Correspondent.) Wellington, December 5. The Land Conference had a long da-v today, and, I understand, the business done was fairly satisfactory, bringing the labors of the Conference to a close. A long agenda paper was gone through from first to last, comprising the constitution of ■ j :ml Boards, the tenure of land, the question of the restrictions of tenantry conditions, including special mention of the residence conditions, the question of altering the conditions of offer, the reintroduc,ion of the homestead system, the ballot, the procedure in the case of applications, and the general conditions of the Grown tenants. The weight of opinion was, I understand, against elective Land Boards, and, as regards the tenure question, most probably—though there is acute difference as to freedom of option—the majority will be found not disposed to recommend so drastic a change, preferring the lines of the compromise suggested by Mr Carroll at the Hutt and by the Premier at one of the meetings. The lines on which we find them agreeing are that restrictions ought to be raised generally in certain classes of cases ; in the matter of residence, and also in the enlargement of areas allowed to tenants in certain districts —rough, roadless, and remote—without endangering the certainty of settlements by making the enlargements too great.. About the ballot the agreement is—as was that of the Commissioner who reported at such vast length on the famous Paliamentary paper of 1903 —that the ballot is a difficult tiling to change, but that there should be no room for speculation under its wing; that the system of application should be altered to effect that object, and that there are reasons for making that system in other ways somewhat more elastic.

(Lyttelton Times Correspondent.) Wellington, December 4. The Conference of Land Boards, after reducing the time limit to five minutes this morning, adjourned to the Hutt at the invitation of the Minister of Lands. After lunch there were' speeches as usual, and they meant more than speeches post-pran-dial usually mean. Mr Duncan, for instance, enlarged much on his old friendship with Sir John M'Kenzie, and as he spoke all cot a glimpse of how he came to be Minister of Lands, and realised how in the strength of that connection he was strong enough for all the assaults made on him! since he came into it. Mr Carroll said a few judicious words about the land question, touched it without gloves, frankly and ciosely. H« began by saying that they were aware that the main question of the land resolved itself into leasehold v. freehold. He went on to declare the freehold demand natural, but proceeded to the warning that much of the demand is nothing but speculation. He pointed out that all the evils- can be avoided, and all the legitimate grievances can be remedied by simply making the Land Act and its regulations more elastic, and ended by exhorting those present to remember that the land is the property of the people, and cannot be trafficked away by reason of a sentiment. It was a powerful appeal to the Boards to do everything but report in favor of the freehold. The Premier's speech at one of his southern meetings was, I hear, on the same lines, and was listened to with much interest. The only difference was that it took two hours to say what Mr Carroll said in fifteen minutes. Mr Humphreys, the Canterbury Commissioner, told the company that in a tour his Board lately made they did not find' four freehold advocates in a batch of two hundred tenants, and; only two had grievances, and they were small. Mr Strahan, the Commissioner of Wellington, largely corroborated him. There is a wish- to end the Conference on Monday, but as the members have only touched the fringe of the question of land tenure, it is -hard to see how it can b© done.