The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1907. NATIONAL ENDOWMENT BILL

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 2773, 23 July 1907, Page 4

The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1907. NATIONAL ENDOWMENT BILL

The National Endowment Bill, intro, duced by the Premier in the House of Representatives, provides for the setting aside or nine million acres of j Crown lands as a national endowment I for the purposes ot education and oldJ age pensions. No land so set aside 1 is to he sold or disposed of by way of occupation with right of purchase under the provisions of the Hand -Act, 1892. hut it is to he administered and dealt with in the same manor as other Crown land under the provisions of the Act named. The gross revenue received from national endowment after March 31st. 1903, is to be paid by the Receiver of Land Revenue into a separate acount, called the National Kndowtnent Account. After providing for the cost of administration of the Act, the balance to the credit of the acount. 70 ]>er cent., is to be devoted to education and 30 per cent., for the purposes of .old-age pensions. Clanuse 8. shows that “educational purposes" under the Bill are not limited. The endowment provides for higher secondary and primary education, whether general or technical. The residue of money available shall bo paid, as the Colonial Treasurer directs, to the Education Boards for educational purposes in accordance with law, and in aid of the annual appropriations made to the boards. An account is to be taken periodically at intervals not less than one year, showing the amount of money received by each Education Board;

and tlio amount .'received ( I>y each hoard is to lio deducted from the total sum payable to tlmt board by any annual appropriation. Tbo money available for the purposes of old-ape pensions is to be paid into the Post Office Account, and shall be then applied in the payment of old-ape pensions in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Provision is made for any portion of national endowment land heinp set apart as a reserve for any purpose under the authority of any Act. Land Hoards arc empowered to sell, with the consent of the .Minister of hands, and on such terms as tin' Land Hoard and the

said Minister think lit. any portion of such land, not exceeding five acres in any one case, as a site for any building to be erected for any educational, religious, charitable or public purpose, or for any other purpose which, in the opinion of tin l Board and the I Minister, renders such a sale expodi cut in the public interest. Purchase money of land so sold shall he paid into the National Endowment Ae count. Trie Colonial Treasurer is authorised to apply sums of money, not exceeding in any .one year the sum ol (Ifty thousand pounds (as are appropriated by Parliament) lor tiro purpose of the formation ol roads and bridges upon any national on dowiiicnt laud or lor the purpose ol facilitating the settlement of such land. This money is to he in addition (o and not, in substitution for the sums mil liori 'i'd to be expended by I

the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1901. The following figures show the area of lands set apart in the various provincial districts for the national endowment Auckland, 900,000 acres; Hawke’s Bay, 135,000; Taranaki, 90,000; Wellington, 90,000; Nelson, 1,350,000; Marlborough, 450,000; AVestland, 1,035,000; Canterbury, 1,800,000; Otago, 2,250,000; Southland, 900,000—total, 9,000,000. Members on both sides of the House have already shown that the amounts accruing from the national endowment will not bring in the revenue required for educational and old age pensions, and we are anxiously waiting to see what the Premier and the Hon. Mr McNab have to say in reply to these critics. The cost of State education for the ensuing year will in all probability he something in the region of £l,000,000. For this reason alone the public should be given proof that the scheme is based on a sound actuarial foundation. For ourselves, we are not enamoured of endowment schemes, in view of the rack-renting process that has been adopted in connection with the AA T ellington Corporation’s Pahiatua endowment. We would rather prefer to see the lands indicated disposed ot under the optional tenure, and the money for educational purposes and old age pensions continue to come from the consolidated revenue of the colony.