SPEECH AT ALEXANDRA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 18

SPEECH AT ALEXANDRA.

(Br Otte Special Reporter.) ALEXANDRA. April 19

Mr W. F. Masse}-, M.H.R., Leader of the Opposition, addressed a meeting of about 400 people in the Town Hall to-night. The local band, under Conductor Bringan=;. turned out in honour of the visitor. The chair was taken by the Mayor (Mr Cha?. Spencer). Messrs John Smart (Clyde) and Robert Gilkison alsj occupied seats on the. platform, together with a number qf the borough councillors. *"

The Mayor briefly introduced Mr Massey to the meeting, saying it was a compliment to the people that the hon. gentleman should come into the wilds of Otago and address them. — (Applause.) Mr Massey, in opening his address, said' he was visiting the south on political business connected with the party to which he belonged, and which he had the honour to lead. He had to congratulate the people on the apparent prosperity that prevailed, and the probability that it was most likely due to the extensive dredging operations that were being carried on. He also congratulated the people on the fine climate of the district. They ought to live to be centenarians. He would not say much about the soil, but he was convinced that water was required, and it was a difficulty that he hoped would be solved°-at an early date. He intended thafc night to deal with the land question. When the lease-in-per-p&tuity system was placed on the Statute Book in 1892 the people were ghen to understand it was as good as the freehold. Many people thought so, and took up land under that tenure ; but they soon found they had made a mistake. They were subject to all sorts of harassing restrictions, so that it was almost impossible to comply with the conditions, and they were in the hands of Land Boards and Land Board officials. If they did not pay their rentin advance their sections were liable to be forfeited'. — (A Voice : " Prove it.'') Yes, he would prove it. He held in his hand, a letter forwarded to a settler in the Wellington district, in which the Land Board informed him that as he was in arrears with his rent to the extent of Is he was required to show cause why his interest in tha section should not be forfeited. This man had put years of labour into his land, and wao called on to pay Is exchange on a cheque, and was threatened w ith forfeiture if he did not pay. — (A Voice: '"I do not believe it.'") That gentleman was an unbelieving Thomas. — (Lanark ter.) If an Irish landiurd had threatened 25 years ago to evict a tenant for being L- in arrears with hi- rent, what wou'd harp happened? — (A Voice : " Shoot him.") Yrs, and quite right. That then was one of the difficulties of the leasehold. It was also said settler? who defied to obtain the freehold wished

I to break the contract between tliom^eh es ) and the State. Well, what was. the po»i-

tion? What about the Fair Rent Eiil? It had been introduced 11 rimes since he had been in Parliament, but he was sale in saying it would not pass in the present House because a majority of the members were* freeholders. That bill provided that a board of three men was to ha\e the right to rrasei s e or lower rentals in the colony, including Crown lands. If that bill had passed, whore would the lease m perpetuity have been? It would not have been worth the paper the lease was printed on. and icase-in-perpetuity holders would have been absolutely at the mercy of the board and of the Government of the day. Could anyone wonder then that under such circumstances th"> settlers had become disquieted? And who was responsible for that feeling of disquietude? It was the Premier, who had told the people that his back was to the door to prevent settlers from getting the freehold. Then what was the position fiom the point of view of the State? There were hundreds of thousands of acres of laud leased under the lease in perpetuity from which not a single shilling of land tax was collected. The leaseholders were told they were much better off as they were. Nothing of the sort. The settlers desired a securer form of tenure, and they were willing to pay their fair share of the taxation. — (Applause.) For several sessions the Government had been promising to give Parliament an opportunity to amend the land law, but it had not done so. Instead it had set up the wretched Land Commission that was now perambulating the country. The object in settingup the ocmirnissibn. was, he believed, to shelve the question until next Parliament. But in the coming session it would not be shelved if he could help it. — (Applause.) It had been said that the late Sir George Grey and the late Mr Rolleston were in favour of the leasehold. — (A Voice: "And Sir John M'Kenzie.'") "When John M'Kenzie wanted land," said Mr Massey, '"he bought it." — (Applause and laughter.) At anyrate, the other day he looked up one of the speeches of Sir George Grey, who was the father of Liberalism in this colony, and what did he say about land tenure? He said: —"A man must be 10 years on the land before he can call the land his own. Is h-e not a slave before he can buy that which he ought to be paid to go upon? The land is the common property of all, and it is an injustice to take away for ever the right of the freehold. Lot the poor man have the right to buy his freehold. Let him be taxed like every other man." Sir George Grey was in favour of the option of the freehold. It was also said that people ought net to be allowed to purchase their allotments because it had been purchased by the Government. "Why should these people not; be allowed to purchase in the same way as the people pn the Crown lands of ihe colony? And if they were proing to give them the right of freehold, it ought to be given at the original value.— (Applause.) The homestead system, he believed, was a most liberal provision, but it was repealed in 1592 by an act that was introduced by the present Government. It was an act" that had assisted to promote settlement, and there were many settlers in the colony who owed their present position to the provisions of that system. If a Government had been in office which understood the first principles of land settlement, and that land settlement was necessary to the prosperity of the colony, hundreds of thousands of acres of second-class land now lying idle would have been taken up and occupied under the Homestead Act. With regard to some land he had passed that dayr he believed with Sir George Grey that the man who went on it ought to be paid for doing so. — (Applause.) He would be a benefactor to the colony. As for the Land Commission, he had thought when it was appointed if would cost £5000 or £6000, but he ventured to say now it would cost more than double that sum, while the report would be worth absolutely nothing. It did not require a Royal Commission to know that every sottler in the country who was worth his salt desired the freehold of the land he occupied.— (Applause.) He believed it would be in the interests of tho bta-te and settlers that the option of the freehold should be given to settlers on rr ° w7 >.. laudi; —(Applause, and Voices : • °" >• .1* would l>e in the interests of the State because there would be increased settlement. Land would be taken up that no one would touch at the present time. There would be an increase in industry and an increase in expot ts and in production, and more money would coir.? into the country and more roveniie would be obtained from the land — (Applause.) At Dunedin ho was asked if he was in favour of a general Referendum Act, and he said "No." He admitted that the referendum was right in theory. In Switzerland they had a referendum that worked v/eli, hut ihe- bill submitted to the House. last yoar was a fraud and a delus'on. He would say this: he thought it would be a good} thing to do in the case of difficult questions submitted, to Parliament, such a? the Biblc-in-schoola question, that a special act should be passed dealing- with that special question and no other. "But such an abortion of a measure a? that of last session

should not be pa s -ocl. — (Applause.) Raform \\;i< lvquncd hi the local government system. The aci ought to b"> amended to allow ratepayers to say v hich form of local government they preferred— county councils or road board. There should not be the dual control. Local hodies ought to have an a^stircd finance. He would suggest to that end that the main arterial roads ought to be maintained by the Public Works Department : also that graduated subsidies might be allowed on the rates collected. It would be well. too. to reduce the interest to local l-odies under the Local Bodies' Loans Act. Local government reform was a part of the. platform of the Opposition. — (Applause.) Mr Maisey went on to refer to the waste of public funde practised by the Government, to the Hi^h Commissioner Act, and to other matters touched on by him in his Dunedin speech, and resumed his seat amid hearty cheers. In answer to questions. Mr Massey said he. was in favour of reasonable borrowing, because the colony could not carry on its public works without borrowing. He would borrow, particularly for the completion of public works, but he was anxious that the money borrowed should be properly expended co that the colony woulct get fair value for it. — (Applause.) Mr Terry, jun.. said he had brought to the meetina: some locally-grown fruit for Mr Mapsey's acceptance. It would show the hon. gentleman what the. district was capable of producing. Mr Maesey accepted, and thanked Mr Terry for the fruit. He said he believed the one district in the colony where fruit-growing was Roing to be a success in the future was Central Otago. In time to come Ihe wholei of the colony would look to Central Otago for its fruit supplies. — (Applause.) Mr Terry, sen., brought up a bag of fruit and handed it to Mr Massey, .and Mr Iversen gave him a plate of tomatoes and grapes. Some quinces, onions, etc., were afco laid on the table, amid applause. Mr Massey said he would t-akei some of these products of the district back to Auckland to show the people there what oould be grown in Central Otago. — (Applause.) After several other questions had been answered, Mr James Rivers proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Massey for his able and instructive address. The motion was carried with acclamation, and Mr Ma«ssey expressed his pleasure at the vote and with the reception accorded to him by the people of Alexandra. The usual compliment to the Mayor closed the meeting at half -past 10.