THE GOVERNMENT LAND POLICY.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 53

THE GOVERNMENT LAND POLICY.

MR MASSEY'S CANDID CRITICISM.

"MINISTERS SITTING AROUND OX FENCES."

MILLIONS OF ACRES IDLE.

(Fbox Otib Own Corhesposdekt.) AUCKLAND, October 2,

"T:his country needs nothing more badly than it wants a vigorous policy of land settlement with security of tenure," declared Mr W, F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, to your representative to-day. The remark arose out of a conversation on the Rangitikei election, and Mr Massey went on to say that a very curious position — an extraordinary position — had arisen. Two or three years ago Cabinet Ministers were loudly declaring that the Government had nailed the leasehold colours to the mast, and now Ministers were going on to platforms to support candidates who declared themselves straight-out freeholders. The other night Mr. Reed, M.P., at Kawakawa, declared that nothing but the freehold would do. Thus arose- the curious position of members pledged to the freehold supporting a Government that Bad declared it would ~;tand or fall by the leasehold. "The fight for the freehold is going on, T> declared Mr Mass>ey. "It will never slacken tiJl it attains its object, and no quarter will be asked and none given in that fieht. The sentiment is gaining ground daily, and I feel certain that in a very few years Parliament will, wherever it is possible to do so, give the option of the free-hold to Crown tenants and over all lands thrown open. The Government has- persistently blocked all movements for fthe opening up of Crown and Native lands, and thereby has placed a brake on the wheels of progress. How great that brake ha* been is really realised by very few people mi this country, probably because only a few Lave figured out what a ■vigorous land settlement policy would mean to the Dominion under the present policy of stagnation. Industries are beinc; Jiandicapped. enterprise is being crippled, town and rural business alike is being hampered, and our younff men are going off to Oi"<ensland and Canada and other countries." MILLIONS OF AICRES IDLE. Mr Massey went on to say that in the ■North Island, out of a total area of 28,459,520 acres, there were about 13,000,000 acres not in profitable occupation, while, according to Government officers, only atout 900,000 aores of that 3ot were unfit for settlement. In tlie South Island, out of a totaJ of 37,456,000 acres, there were over 20,000,000 acres not in profitable occupation, of which about 9,000,000 acres were unfit for settlement. Some of the very richest land in the Dominion was included in the 13.000,000 acres unoccupied in the North Island. Taking as an average 500 acres to a farm, those idle areas would make 43,000 farms. The Hon. Mr Buddo had boasted that the Government was opening 195.000 acres in one month, but Mr Buddo foreot to add that out of that total over 160,000 acres consisted of a few large sheep runs on pastoral license, and tlie remainder included a number of second-class areas offered mainly under renewable lease. 'Again, Mr Buddo had proudly exclaimed that the lands opened for "selection in September totalled 19.389 acres, but again Mr Buddo forsrot to admit that 5326 acres of that lot were in one pastoral run in Hawkes Bay at a renewal of £33 6s per year, and that the remainder were scattered sections, the cash prices of 12s 6d to £1 per acre indicating their worth — and also the worth of Mr- Buddo's statements. " What would it not mean to tfie Dominion, town and country alike." added Air Ma-^ev. " if those idle areas now held by the Crown and the Natives were opened up -to settlemsnt? After more than «nough had been reserved for the use of the Maoris there \tn"ild be vast areas left that, opened to settlement, would menu an enormous increase in our exnorts. Land ts only worth anrHiin.o- to a when it is producing. What i* Auckland drawing from her millions of idle acree' Xot a- Rn-rk .of potatops a var. Think of 30.000.000 acres in this Dominion adding .nothiiinc to it« export* and think of th/» hue« money loss whveh the locking up of the*"" land* repre>=ent« to Yew Z°aland annnnllv. F><»rv riass ir the community is affected. The city artisan, the shon'fceeper, the professional man. and the «>untry workers are all concerned. Evctv lndustrv nnd pverv br^'Tipc* jp town ptvl country are being: Tohbed of «o much tratje nnd ;r-«w»j-/-*>anove hi- * '**• fnil>T-r«« *•- open up the idl*> Native nnd Crown lands." A FREE POLTCY. What is the Government policy on the tand nnestion ? asked th a interviewer. "Tt hasn't pot one." laughinelv replied Mr Massey. " except a torn nnd patched apologr that has lon^ since lost all semblance of its original form. Not so long ago it was a straight-out leasehold policy ; then, as the wind seemed to blow in the other direction. the flae that had been nailed nn was tnken down and a ?ialf-and-h.ilf sort of thine substituted. Now that's cone, and a banner labelled "Taihoa" is at the mast head, and Ministers are sitting round on fences watching it anxiously to see where the wind is coming from. I "think they all will a G { 3 bit frightened a little later, and paint the wo.'d "Freehold" beside "Taihoa." The fact of the matt?r if that they ai-p badly in need of a policy, and I will present them with one free — a polfy of vigorous land s=*ttement on the optional tenure, and I'll nail it to the mos,t for. them. The man who goes on the land has to face years of hard, heavy toil. His wife has to do work that is iot' women's work. Together they labour, rising vith the sun and going to

bed toil-worn at dark. Their homes at first are shanties. They ha\e to exi^t on the roughest kind of faie. Little or no pleasures, such as townspeople know. come their way, and veiy oit-en they aie shut off from civilisation by impassable roads for months at a time. They want to make a home. It is the love of home that takes them into the bu.-h. and I say they have the right to know, when that home i- made, and the election i« bearing the harvest of their toil, that the place is their own. I wonder what some of the town workers will say when I fell them that it -Hiould pay the State to open the millions of idle acres free to wouldbe settlers, and that it would mean more work and greater trade in the towns if the locked-up Crown and Native lands were opened. There would be a wave of settlement and a tide of prosperity in town and country, the like of which this country has never experienced, and the revenue that would pour into the State coffers would carry the railways through to their destinations at a rate that would give the present Public Works Department palpitation of the heart. We had an acute unemployed problem recently. Would there have been any unemployment if it hadn't been for the " Taihoa " land policy? What keeps your- port busy ? Wliat keeps your factories going, your shoos and warehouses open ? What keeps your cfty alive, but the volume of produce pouring in from the occupied country lands, and, therefore, what but the opening up of the land is going to swell your trade and increase your prosperity? What a big thing it would be for Auckland, for instance, if a million acres in Auckland Province were thrown open to-morrow. The impetus would be felt in every vein and every artery of work and business throughout Auckland Province. We want a vigorous land settlement policy in this Dominion. We don't want tc let our countrymen wander to other fields, and I believe the people of New Zealand are beginning to realise that if the present Government wen* to the country on its administrative, including the administration of Crown and Native lands, it would meet with the severest kind of treatment at the hands of the electors. It is a curious thing that the present Government is styled "Liberal" whereas the real Liberal policy is being urged by the Opposition." NATIVE LAND SOPHISTRY. In fiurther conversation, Mir Massey noted that Mr Fowlds had lately joined Messrs Buddo ""and Carroll in attempts to justify the Government on the land settement question, and the three between them had succeeded m making such a mess of it that the Prime Minister must be feeling rather sorry they had opened their mouths. Mr Fowlds's Native Land figures were futile and empty -explanation.. Mir Fowlds said 2.790.400 acres of Maori land were leased in various ways, but Mr Fowlds probably didn't know that the " settlement " was a mere nothing compared to what it would be if the same area were cut up and thrown open on the optional tenure. The conditions of Maori leases were so absurd that the genuine settler would not touch them with a 40ft pole, unless driven to them by the acute land hunger Tliose 2,790.400 aicres wei-e not carrying as many settlers as 800,000 acres would if opened under the optional tenure. It would be merely waste oi tiime to go further into Mr Fowlds'e figures : they were so absurd to anyone who knew anything of the situation — and the country wanted settlement, not empty explanations by Ministers who didn't know the first principle of land settlement. The Government was apparently content to go on trying to blind the people as to the actual facts of locking up the Crown lands, a-nd leaving the Native land problem to the Hon. Mr Carroll, who in 16 years had accomplUhed nothing. But this was a young and vigorous country — a country that would progress and become gieat, — and sooner or later it would wake up and give the ao-called Liberal Government and its "Taihoa" policy a shock that would send some Ministers into private life for a very long time to come.