Taranaki Herald. MONDAY,APRIL 25,1904. THE LAND TENURE QUESTION,

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12538, 25 April 1904, Page 4

Taranaki Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1904. THE LAND TENURE QUESTION,

The Colonial President of the Fkrtaiers' Union/ Mr J. G. Wilson, has done good service on behalf of the farming 1 comtnwhity by visiting Ashfburton and stating the case for the freehold tenure of land, 1 'in reply to' Mr Taylor and ;Mr : J^ajurensOn, advocates oi tjie leasehold. Tthe desire for the freeholdi does nbt appear to be nearly, so strong ir( the South Island as it is in the North, • for the reason', perhaps, that the South Islajnd is the home of hMige estates. . For all tfcat, we cannot accept without reservation tie statement '" of \ the.' Lytteltcn 'Ames that ."tie advocates of the sale of Crown, lands .have not, a particularly large following . in ,' the Ashburton district." , Judging fr om our experience, ot the- farmers in this district, . it .will rtake' »som«thing morel than an aoademio disciission of land tenure to arouse filoeiiblders'" ' 'into- vl'"v 1 '" defence ■ . ofi -their l^inciples. A' single' - ?t»J!Mr nnd land nationalist might

come to Tara^naki and obtain a i vote of confidence in his theories ' at a public meeting, although the J landholders are almost universally ( believers in the freehold. Even a , pronounced advocate of State \ ownership admitted in our columns i recently that the best of all ten- ] ures is the freehold, if it could be 1 stripped of its abuses. In Taxana- 1 ki we tave it fairly free from { a"buse, and we invite camipaxison of i tliis district— of that portion of it ' settled between 1875 and 1890— - ( with any other in New^ Zealand j for successful land settlettnent. ( Take, for instance, the Moa and Ngaire blocks of land, which were : chiefly settled when the choice of terms lay between cash an-d de- ! f erred payment— it was all freehold. The settlement dates baok over a gjuarter of a century anid to-day ] is no more prosperous district in New Zealand, nor . any ! more free from the evils of landlordism or the aggregation of large estates. Nor yet is there any district carrying a larger rutfal population or producing a better return per acre than the one under notice. A favoiuirite a«giUment with leasehold advocates is 'that their pet system enables men' without means to obtain land. We yenture to say that throughout the length and breadth of the colony there is no class of settlers who have succeeded so well as those firlio took up land under the deferred payment system in this disitrict. Many of them started absolutely without capital, but by working a portion of the year on the roads or for other people who had the means to emjploy labour, ;and devoting the other ptart of the year to improving their awn sec-J {ions, they were able to, pay their 1 annual instalments as they became fdue and also to gradually meflce a< hotne for themselves. It was. a hard life, but the settlers hail the | satisfaction of knowing' that they ; 'were working a 'good part of their time for the future, and so theyi persevered, and now they are reap- J ing a well-earned rewatß. But the,, land nationalist will say that the. State is entitled to what lie calls ' the "unearned increment.' 1 The ; railways and other State expeniii- j jture have, he will claim, given a large added value to the land. To * certain extent this is so. . In* some 'districts it is no dottbt true that the construction of a railway at the State's .expense has made landowners wealthy without any effort on their part. Here, 1 however, the settlers' own efforts' in the first place, and the price of butter in London in^tfce' second place, have made the value of the land. If „ it is, claimed that tho construction of the railway ' at the expense of the State has added to the value of the land, it may with equal truth be claimed that the settlers themselves, by theft industry in prodhicing butter, have made the value of the railways. The State, of which they are a part, has constructed tihe line, but they are the chief contributors to the cost of working it, and, in ' addition, they are* helping to make tip the deficiency on lines which ought never to have been cotastrue- ; tecL Mr "Wilson, at AJsWNurton, maintained that the railways had not raised the value of land to any great extent. Proof of this state^ tnent may be found on this coast .where .values have increased 4s much where there is no railway as •where there is one, whick shows that the price obtainable for produce is tiie main factor in, affect'tng rural land values. Again, Mr _ Wilson referred to tihe diffikiulty the leaseholder meets witih in iborrowing moneyj asserting) that the freeholder can 'borrow at 4% per cent., whiie the leaseholder had to pay 8, 9, and 10 per cent. This statement was contradicted, but it „ is nevertheless a fact Ufoat the Government lending! departments • discriminate in favour of freehold- ~ ers and against the State's own tenants. We have said above that something, more than an academic discussion of land tenure is necessary to arouse freeholders to " however, it will interest them and defend their principles. Perhaps, ] stir them up a little to know that . pne of the members for Dunedin City advocates a raluction of the .voting, power of country constituencies. The Axt of 1899 very pro- , perly directs that in computing for electoral purposes the population of ' tho colony 28 per cent, shall be ' fettded to the country population. ( Mr Arnold would reduce this, and -, as the tendency lias for maay years j been in the direction of placing ,'i more power in the hands of city '-j electorates, farmers will do well to U stand up for their privileges. Theji agitation for the abolition of the 1 J ireehold comes from the cities. I]