SIR R. STOUT ON LAND ADMINISTRATION.

Colonist, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5778, 16 April 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

SIR R. STOUT ON LAND ADMINISTRATION.

In compliance with a requisition from residents of Oainaru and North Ofcago district, Sir Eoberfc Stoat la*t night addressed a public meeting ou the subject of Sand administration at the Public Hali, Oamaru. The chair was taken by the Mayor of Oamarn, Sir Eob?rt Stout, on rising to speak, was received with loud and prolonged cheers. He said he first heard of fhe requisition st the railway station on bis way North. He mentioned this because it had been suggested that tho meeting had been got up by hiros&lf. He kaew nothing of it until he was told by a commercial traveller at the raiiway station that this requisition was beiag got up. Ha appeared there that evening not in opposition to any political party in New Zealand — io fact, when he reached Wellington he ' asked Mr Hislop if he had any objection to hia delivering an address on this momentous question in Oamaru, ant! Mr Hislop at once told him that he had not the slightest objection to his doing so. With reference to that gentleman, he considered that Mr Hislop had been subjected to very shabby treatment by his colleagues. In his (Sir Kobert Stout's) opinion the whole Ministry ought to have resigned when Mr Hislop sent in his resignation last year 1 . It had been represented that Mr Hislop bad changed his views on the land question since he became a member of the Government, but it was grossly unfair to that gentlemen to say so, because no change had taken place iv Mr Hislop's views on the land question. This great land question would not be seLtled in one, two, or three years ; nor did the mere Bale of the land, dispose of it. He doairedto approach this question in a reasonable

way. Land was nofe that kind of property that men couH he left to we it or abuse it, jrat as they thougM prooer, after it was Grown- granted to them. Land had not only an inherent value for what it wouia produce, bnfc it bad aIBO a positive value. A man might purchase lar»a ana go away for years without doing anything to it, ana it might become of great value without his ever having laid a pem> y out upon it. It was the duty of the State to ccc tbat when lana was takn up a proper use was made of it, . ** that it might be a benefit, not only to the individual, hut to the State itself. An individual couia not be left Jo de^ with the lana as be pleased." It must not be supposed that tbe mere disposa. of the lana alao disposed of the lana question. No civilised country could afford to ignore the responsibility of the State in seeing that, no single individual should be allowed to do what he pleased witfcfc tbe land. Twenty years ago one ofc the first essays he ever wrote was on this very land question, and in tna& eesay ha took up the same position which he held during all these years. Sir Bobert then proceeded to reter to leaders which bad appeared in the 1 Gfcago Daily Times' and • Star, anA declared that the writers of tboso articles had displayed great ignorance as to the land law, and particularly with reference to tbe Act passed m 1885. Tbe object which bis Government bad in view in passing that Acfc was to keep tbe control of as much: land as they could in the hands of the State. Whilst at the same time they gave tbe cultivators of the land ample security for improvements, they provided that pastoral laad should be leased up to twenty-one years, and gave tenants some 320 acres for their homesteads that they might lease or purchase. Then they provided the small tun system. No run was to comprise a greater area than 5,000 acres, and eaob run was to be submitted to public auction by tbe land board of the district. The StoutYogel Government also provided the small village settlements, the deferredpayment and the perpetual- lease systems ; but all of those bad been, destroyed by the land administration of the present Government, under wbioh all the land of the Colony coulct be disposed of for cash wiihout auy conditions whatever as to settlement; upon it. All this meant that the land of-the Colony, unless the Colony took a determined stand against it, would become the property of wealthy individuals or of large companies. This conduct on the part of the present Government could only be characterised as iniquitous. The • Otago Daily Times ' defended all that, and gloried in it, and the ' Evening Star ' shouted ' Hip, hip hurrah 1' The Government was ready to part with all tbe land of the Colony for cash, and in this they were backed up by the two newspapers referred to. Then with reference to the land belonging to the Natives, the Government introduced what wasp called freetrade in land — which meant, of course, that the Natives would part with all they possess, and the proceeds would be spent in rum and dissipation, and in other ways, and in the end what was in many respects a noble race would be swept off the face of the earth. Now, the Government of which he was a member insisted that the Natives should sell their land under Government inspection and control, and for their sake the money was to be protected. Under the freetrade system introduced by the present Government, men could buy blocks from the Natives of any size they pleased ; and it "was just like sending a child to make fir bargain with a grown-up-man when a Native was allowed to deal with a European in these matters. Sir Robert next referred to tbe land given to the Midland Eailway Company, and complained that the present Government had given them far more land than the Stout- Vogel Government proposed to give, and the former had actually given the company land in Selwyn county which was sold the other day for £4 15s per acre. The present Government had put on more property tax than the fcStout-Vogel Government asked Parliament to impose, and more Customs duties than the Stout Yogel Government proposed. The present Government was unable to manage the railways, and handed them over to three irresponsible Civil servants. They bad dealt several blows at the democracy by reducing: the number of members and by reducing the honorarium, whereby any poor member would be prevented from obtaining a seat in the House. The whole object of the present Government's legislation was anti-deniocratie. They also attempted to destroy the education system by raising the school age and lowering the standards. A democratic government would have said that grammar schools and the university should be as free as the primary schools, in order that the poorest boy should hava the best education, and without cost. The present Government had done nothing but injury and and iniquity, and the electors ought to remember their acts when the next polling day came round. He was neither in search of office no of a seat but as a citizen of New Zealand he considered it was his duty to warn the people to take a determined stand on tbe land question and not to be led away from this all-important issue by a red herring drawn across the seent — by such a question as the Bible-in-schools, for example. He hoped to see young NewZealand saying tbat not a single acre of land should be sold, and he should never rest content until that detennin* ation was arrived at. Sir Boberf. spoke for an hour and a-balf, and resumed bis seat amid loud cheers.