THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8292, 22 November 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1906.

In tbe oourse of a speeoh which the Minister for Lands made' at Blenheim, on Tuesday evening, he made it clear that, whatever his own view 3 may be in regard to tbe Land Bill, he does not grasp the views of the great body of freeholders on the land question. Mr MoNab is reported as saying : "If they were to satisfy all the demands of the people in the direction of settlement they would at one fell swoop wipe out of existence a large proportion of freehold, and put it under the perpetual leasehold system. He was not one of those who believed in the nationalisation of the land, but he warned the people of this country that unless tbe present policy was changed that was what it was going to end in." Mr MoNab then went on to say that be did not think it would be a wiße thing to nationalise large areas, as that might end in financial ruin. Surely it is verging on absurdity for the Minister of

Lands to declare that freeholders are desirous of large areas of land being nationalised? The freeholders of this country are, of oourse, opposed to laud nationalisation, and it may be said that the great majority of them favour the proposal that Crown tenants under the lease-in-perpetuity system should be given the right to acquire the freehold. The demand for closer settlement that is rampant throughout the oountry does not—as Mr MoNab curiously interprets, it-mean that freeholders are land nationalises, but that they favour oloßer settlement, even if people are settled upon the land under no better sys tem than the lease-in-perpetuity. Occupation with right of purchase for everyone is really what the freeholder wants, beoause he clearly recognises that the freehold tenure, if the producer can possibly acquire It, is the bast both for the State and the individual. Mr MoNab does not believe in the nationalisation of large areas as it may end in financial ruin, yet in his Land Bill he proposes to nationalise, praotioally, enormous areas, by setting aside all the remaining waste Crown lands In the country as endowments for different proposes. If the nation, alisation of large areas tends to bring ahout financial ruin, and Mr MoNab says it does, would it not be advisable for him to strike, the endowment clauses out of his Bill?