PARLIAMENTARY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2903, 15 July 1882, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Wellington, July 14. The Council'met at 2.30 p.m. BILL PASSED. The Auckland College and Grammar School Bill was read a third time and passed. FIEST BEADING. The*Nelson College Bill was read a first time. ADJOUENMENT. The Council adjourned at 2.50 p.m. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30p.m. TRIED BEADING. On the motion for the third reading of the Wellington Harbor and Corporation Land Act Amendment Bill, Mr DeLatour, at considerable length, opposed the Bill, and moved that it be postponed for a week. . After two hours and a half’s discussion, the Bill was read, a third time on the voices. The Ashburton County Council Empowering Bill was read a third time. PETITIONS' ; , A discussion took place with regard to the reception of a petition of an informal character through each sheet not being signed. ; Mr Foldwick suggested that a printed form of petition, with directions,, should be sold at a nominal price at all postoffices. Mr O’Callaghan suggested < that directions for drawing up petitions should be exhibited at post and telegraph and railway stations. The Hon. Major, Atkinson undertook to take steps to disseminate information on the subject. _ , EXPENSES OF 3IEMBBES. , A message was received from the Governor, convoying a draft of a bill to reimburse the expenses, of members attending Parliament,' and to’ ’provide for the same. QUESTIONS. Replying to Major Marris, the Hon

Major Atkinson promised to consider the reprinting of the Provincial Highway Acts in the event of the Road Boards Bill not passing this session. VAGEANT ACT AMENDMENT BIEL. The Vagrant Act Amendment Bill was read a third,'time and passed. The House adjourned at 5.30 p.m., and resumed at 7.30 p.m. THE LAND BILL.' . Mr Sutton resumed the debate on the second reading of the Land Bill. Mr Seddon considered it one of the most important measures before .the House and affecting the future of the country to a very great extent. He thought the attempt to force settlement within the last few years had been carried too far. The public interests would not have suffered, nor the slttlers, if a great deal of deferred payment land had not been taken. It was a great hardship to inflict upon men . without money to go away and settle on remote lands without having any experience. He did not think the arrears due by deferred payment settlers would ever be paid up. The military settlement schemes had also proved a failure. He considered the auction system the fairest and best, preferable to either ballot or tender. He did not thiflk those who had paid high prices at auction had any claim to relief. He would support the first 48 clauses in Committee only on the distinct understanding that : their application bo . confined strictly to land in mining districts. He did not think the Crown tenants would be the better, of being allowed to borrow or rather being allowed to give security. Really the tenant could hot borrow. The deferred payment settlers had found tbe hardship of not being able to borrow. No man going in on a leasehold had a chance in the race of life with a man on freehold, even if acquired on borrowed money. He did not think the Bill was really a liberal land law, but there was one remarkably liberal proposal. To answer the question of What shall we do with our girls? the Minister of Lands said— Make them farmers and let them have 640 acres each. They would have to provide Agricultural Colleges for the girls and for the boys. He commended the practice of opening up lands by roads before sale. This was the best for really promoting settlement. He entered into elaborate calculations to show that men of small capital could not profitably take up and occupy 640 " acres under the proposed leasing coni ditions. The leaseholders would, he was certain, come in time to Parliardent for -relief, as the deferred payment settlers were now doing. The leasing system would also tend to create an inferior class, as the leaseholders would be looked down on by the freeholders. .. If deferred payment settlers were to be released, then perhaps the plan ’proposed by jlje Bill was as good as any. He was sorry that it was V not proposed to place all native lands ... under the administration of the Waste Lands Boards. This was an urgent ne- ' cessity. The colony itself was borrowing money, and it was absurd for it to refuse to sell its: lands for cash. * He ;? would support the second reading, but try to improve the Bill in Committee so as to make it workable and worthy of the Parliament. MrJ.W. Thomson differed entirely from Mr Seddon’s views in regard to the deferred payment system. Where it ■ had . failed the : auction system was', entirely to blame., The Bill simply proposed to add another to the already, existing various systems, and ho. thought , a variety of systems tended to promote settlement. ■

Mr Moss said,the Government seemed - to have been converted to the principle that the'unearned increment belonged to the State. He disapproved of the leasing system: : Mr Ivess criticised, the Bill in detail and, condemned many of the clauses.' The country had not demanded, and did ’ not require it. Onr laud laws required to be simplified and liberalised, but not in the way proposed. He advocated a scheme of village settlement. . ....... .v Mr Joyce objected'to the principle of the- Bill as it would still farthercomplicate the already coraplexable land laws. The abolition of ; : the ballot system was a great blow at the success of the deferred payment scheme. The : same spirit which dictated 1 this change i - seemed to have inspired thjs Bill. He was in favor of making the education endowments common propety, ad- > ministered as. other Crown lands were.

Ho objected to subjecting the deferred , : payment settlors to the prolonged torture proposed by the BUI.:: He would prefer to give thorn the 76. per cent and allow them to go and start somewhere else. He was iti favor "of trying the experiment of elected Land Boards. Sir John Hall bore testimony to Mr 1 Donald Reid’s great devotion to the . cause of land reform and the settlement ..., ’of the people on the land. He would support the second reading of the Bill, as it contained many valuable provisions, but it also, he was sorry to say, con- . tained much, that was. unsatisfactory, and which lie hoped would be eliminated in Committee. He contended that, his Government had always given the deferred payment settlers the very pick of .the land. The leasing proposals were open to both ' political • and economic objections. Tile tenant farmer, iU a sensible man, would know that if he left his land in a state' of high fertility, at the end of his lease, ' he would have to pay for it when renewing his lease. It was such a tenant’s interest simply to,get, as much as he. could out of the land while he held it. The freeholder on the contrary, was always trying to improve his land and increase its value. The attempts to lease educational reserves had failed because people wanted to have land of their own. The system of leasing might be necessary in mining districts in order to preserve the right of mining, but it should not go beyond this. The provisions as to preemptive rights were far from clear andnot satisfactory. He did not think the proposed relief to deferred payment settlers was anything real... Ijb was not at all prepared, however, to revert to the system of ballot, remembering; the evils attendant upon it when "in force. He gave the Government every; credit for theirgood intentions, add felt sorry to have to criticise their proposals adversely. .The Bill was not a liberal measure, and the leasing proposals wore fraught with grave political danger, and he hoped the House would not grant them. Mr W. C. Buchanan opposed tho leasing clauses, but 1 would vote for the second reading of the Bill. He was in ■ favor of elected Laud Boards. Mr J. Mckenzio was strongly in favor of elected Land Boards. The L relief proposed to bo given to the deterred payment settlers was a delusion. The disposal of pastoral lands as recently exemplified in Otago was very wrong. Ho hoped that in Committee tho Bill would be altered so as to become a credit and benefit to tho colony. Mr Munro thought the Bill unfair to the proposed tenants, and denied that the provisions of the Bill were adapted to ffiining districts* i Mr Pyko moved tho adjournment, and the House rose at 12.15 a.m. till 7,30 p.m. on Monday.