CROWN LANDS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1495, 7 December 1881, Page 2

CROWN LANDS.

(To the Editor of the H*RALD.)

Sib,— You will kindly tind space for the following and oblige you obediently Geo. H. Wilson.

Gisborne, Sept. 26th, 1881. To the Honorable F. WhiUker, Attorney-General, etc. — Sir,— l beg to request, that you will answer this letter. In Council, July 14th, 1881, when moving the second reading of Alienation Land Bill, you are reported in Hansard, No. 10, a* having aaid :— " Mo doubt there are theories as to the state resuming possession, v there are also proposals to make a compulsory division of the land ; but I cannot say that I wish to see these plans carried out. I question both their practicability and their desirability. But if any reasonable proposition can be brought forward to go still further, I shall always be quite ready to give my I best attention to it"

I am emboldened by the tone of genuineness that runs through your speech on this Bill, to a*k you, Sir, to give me your opinion as to whether you can, or can not support a proposition such as I now lay before you. It is— That the Crown lands of the Colony, and these alone, shall be at once set apart by the Government on the Nationalization system ; in order to test the honesty and truthfulness of the people in its now pretty widely-known views upon this burning question of the land for the people, and all such cries, or principles. The fee-simple of the&e lands to be held by the Government ; and that portion of the people desirous of occupying these lands to pay a rent, and to hold their several allotments on lease, number of years to be determined by the Government, not lees than twenty-one years at the least. This with a view to atop the accumulation of landed property and its attendant evils. No power to sub let, or to mortgage ; power to will such land to wife or childrun only for term of lease unexpired at time of original lessee's death. The above is, 1 think, a fair statement of my views on this matter ; and in all truthfulness, and anxiety more or less mUms«, I hereby aak your opinion. G*O. H. Wiwo.v Auckland, 19th November, 1881. Sin, — I have given full consideration to your letter of the 26th of September, in which you ask me if I could support a proposition for leasing instead of selling the Waste Lands of the Crown. Such a mode of dealing with the public land appears to me open to the gravest objections, and with my present light on the subject, I at once answer I could not support such a plan. Without going fully into the subject, I may mention that there appears to me on the surface to be two objections, which I consider fatal — (1) I am satisfied that the inducement to become a leaseholder, instead of a freeholder, would b« very unattractive to persons intending to settle in the Colony ; and (2) experience in the neighbouring colonies has shown that the periodical payment of money t> the Government on account of land, by way of rent, or as instalments of purchase money, operates most prejudicially. To my mind the true way to prevent the accumulation of unimproved land in the hands of individuals la a judicious system of taxation. I remain yours truly. Fekd. Whittaker

Mk. Editor,— These letters tell their own story, each in its own way. But I mast here notice, as bearing directly upon my crude politics, the passing of the Irish Land Bill by the British Parliament after one of the longest parliamentary campaigns the history of that assembly furnishes— a seven months' 6ght A fight, sir, far more important than any ether witnessed by us during 'he last forty years — whether it be the fall of Sebastapol or Plevna, or the defeat of British arms on Majuba Hill. These were but passing trifles compared with the successful agitation that has won the grand harvest of liberty to the British working man. Although it has not been won without blood, and crime, mid shame, and terror accompanying its progress, I aslc what change in all human affairs — what revolution in the states of our society — has ever been effected and perfected worthy of the name, or of an enduring character, without the shedding of blood ? I answer, nol one. Therefore. Mr. Whituker is wise in deferring the evil day as long as prudence dictates. Yours obediently, O. H. Wilson