ME REID AND THE LAND ACT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 274, 1 May 1873, Page 10

ME REID AND THE LAND ACT.

-- , ....< *■ The following is the substance of Mr Blid's remarks on the Waste Lands Act at his BtWiel meeting : — 7 There had been some critteiwiis by -the Press on the Bill, but they wire" liafr%ntttag,« * quibbling criticisms — mar«f nests — and there * was nothing whatever in taem. He had no doubt that the Press, as it elisted in the Empire City, wished to find fault wjth something, and he had no objection, if the papers chow to take the Land Act, that they should be employed in; that way as well as in any other. > He*ras not -present at that meeting to say thjlt ttoSre weye 1 not many imperfections in the I&nd Act ; 4n the contrary^ it would .be surprising if there were not, tfeefng~that it was composeck.of so many clauses, dealt with bo many diversified interests, ana that concessions had to be made. It might not be the best measure that could be passed,, but he f thought it'4utrd that the egdeator should be mad#Vto fasten the of the Bill upon -Mm, simply because he had charge of it. But? in so far as it cjuld be shown that htf had made, or authoris«d'to bo 1 made* any innovations son the old Act, which 'had & tendency in the least prejudicial to the province, he was quite prered to take the blame. But that lie should blamed because tbe new Act retained some of the imperfections of the old one was really too much. If he had had tc^pass the Aft himself, he might have had it very different ; but in the Assembly, as at present constituted, it was a difficult matter to move in the direction of making Land Acts more liberal. The quesnow was t*Was this Act more liberal ? was it likely to be of greater benefit to the Province than the one of which it was an amendment? If properly administered, be had not the slightest hesitation in saying that it could be made more beneficial. In the first place it simplified the law by embodying four Acts in one ; in the second, it enabled the Government or Waste Land Board to deal with every part of the Province, #hich under the old Act could not be done, aa part of the lands was dealt with under the Goldfields Act ; and in the thirdj it gave the Government far greater facilities for obtaining land from the runholder, and for securing population on it. These were great considerations. He wished to Bay. that, had it not been for the valuable and persevering assistance of the Hon. Dr Menzies, in the Upper House, it would have been impossible to have* 'got the Act carried through the Assembly at all. And he knew that that gentleman held a strong opinion in .regard to 'the advancement of the country : that it must be secured largely,-, in connection with the proper adntimstmlen of the waste lands. In that, he (Mr Reid) was entirely at one with Dr Menzies. He (Mr Reid) had seen some strange views as to the occupation of our lands brought ! forward lately in the Press. He had seen articles which attempted to show that the ownership of land by the working man was his greatest enemy: that the tummum bonum of the working man's happiness consisted of his being engaged by Mr Brogdeh, or some other contractor or person who endeavored to ' get the greatest amount of labor from him, and sent 'him adrift &t a moment's notice. He did not say that every- working man ought to have land : on the contrary, many made a mistake in going on tad j but the working men them-

selves are best able to judge whether or not it was to their advantage to have a freehold, upon which they might produce the necessities and, in many ca.«es, the luxuries of life. It was not for us to say, " The land is there ; you are not to have it; you cannot get it." If we were to have a yeomanry which would make the Country a groat one, it must be by giving them a prospect of a home in it. It was an object dear to all to have a home : a place in which to bring up a family in comparative independence. He next referred to the administration of the Act by a non-political board. Hb did not know what was meant by a non-political board ; but gue&ed it meant the securing of persons who not only had given no study to politics, the government of the masses of the people, or the economical working of Government, but had never formed, and, consequently, never expressed, any opinion on the subject. If it were so, he could only say that he had very little faith in the administration of the Land Act by such a board. He would just as soon entrust to a person who had never studied mechanics in the slightest degree, the repairing and keeping in order of an intricate machine which he had never seen nor heard of, as to give. to men who had never formed an opinion ■On tfte subject the administration of the Land Act. • He presumed we had^ now got a model non-politicnl board. He had seen it stated in a letter written by the present Provincial Treasurer, Mr Turnbull, that his object was to secure competent and impartial men to administer the new Act nnd to give it a fair trial. If the present board were the impartial men, he had very little faith in it. He would sooner see the land laws administered by a political board, which would be amenable to' the Provincial. Council, and would have to give an* account of their acts. They might depend upon it nothing would better secure a faithfuV honest, and fair "iviministvfitiop of the land laws than tbe bo^rd being accountable for its every act. Once remove that accountableness- that safeguard which acted On all our public institution!— and the result would be ta'xness. He did not say — foi he guardedjsjmself against so saying— that nny member" OFB-* .present*' board, nor did he think any membenH any^board that had been in the Province, won, wilfully do wrong, but the "tendency of reoflK Action was to make the board become dull, jipr give. w*y to pressure, so as to grant aggeessions^hatjnight appear trivial to the persons granting them, but be a great injustice to others .against they were granted. They should not imagination they would secure the better administration of the land laws, simply by appointing men who had never given the subject much consideration, by appointing a "non-political" board as it was termed. He contended that was not the proper way of securing efficient administration: on the contrary, the board should not be composedof men chosen haphazard, because ~shey had never expressed any opinions on, nor taken any interest in the subject ; because if thejpeople wished*so see theiadministration of the Land Act made a successful means of colonising the country, that would never be obtained from those whose sole aim and the end of whose existence had* been money grubbing and the hoarding of wealth.