MR BALLANCE ON THE LAND LAWS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1435, 18 December 1886, Page 2

MR BALLANCE ON THE LAND LAWS

Tne Hon the ivlinister for Lands addressed a crowded meeting at the Athm foam Hall, Oamaru on Thursday eve ini'. Following is >hat po tinn of hie spe ch which dealr, with the existing

laws :—He said that the Land 4o , 1885, 'hou h in io y a consolidating measure, hud cleared t ie wr.y for carrying oat on a liberal scale groat principles n«t previously enforcahlo, ■ hat Act, for example, cnn’ai' ed in clause 168 the principle <£ Gov'mmenlV haying back fro hold land for vMage settlement purposes. The clause had been introduced

o’U'inaliv mainly through the agency of Mr W J. Steward, am, unfortunately, aa fin I'y passed by the I eg>a'ature, it Was practically Inoperative. Nevertheless, be wa« doing hia irrnnst to carry oat fn connection with <he work of settlement the HVe-al principles be had alwava held —*he p- ; mi;il3B of which the danse just mentioned hsd been. In it-original shape, an oinanition. As to the legislature, it was no , ho believed, inclined towards any large scheme of nationalisation, bat if. in the meantime they educated the

peop’e —namely, themselves-—they wonld find the day of nationalisation not so very far distant (\pplansi) Some of the »dvanc d systems of se’tlement already fn fore ol were paving the way for eompr - henaivo nationalisation, for they were dlrsip ting that old bogy, the assumption that p-oolc would not improve land unless h«>’d it, in th > form ->f sbsolne freoho'd (dr-ar, bear). w a it on y with agricultural land that that was going on, for nnd- r the small gr-zing runs ey tem of Act of 1885 the process of nationalising ten million acres of psstoral Isnd h d been begun, and instead of all that being held in large pastoral pr p Tiisi, It would, as the present leases fell in and where he 'and wai at all soi nh'e f> r subdivision, be divided I'-to 60C0 acres areas and leased on the perpetnai terse system to men who would in coatsof time ' «c 'me a num rous class ■ f prosperous small pis oralists, Tbe special s *ttlemont system, under which associations of people may buy or obtain on perpetual lease blocks of anionltural Iml, was described, and its extraordinary success was indicate-) bv the statement that during twelve months no fewer th-n families h d been settled on land ond'-r the provisions nf the system. The v’llage settlement provisions of the Land Act were also described. That was especially the = vstum for tbe working man for, as a m-ittiv of fact, be could obtain land under

i' oven if ho had u > mwj, or at least, even if ho had vorr little indeed. All other systems rendered the possession of some necessary, but under the vill»eo 8--ttl-■ment scheme a man conic 1 obtain his bit of land by ballot, would have to pjy no*h’nsr for it the first year, would, that, have to pay a yearly rent fqml only to five per cent., on the ctpita’ nine of the land, and could obtain mo l ey fr~m Government at the same rate .f in f-(rl to bu'ld a house wish. It was, he iho uht, to that kmd of land law thei b«d to ’oo" fa- relief ftom tho unemployed difficult y-■ Jt was 'O that kind of thiev the ioa'ret h a to 10-'k for a prospect of livr-jr hnppi'v and s" ting in, and it was topu-h opportunities t-> the mass of the people -h-t the c untry as a whole had to look for its gteatest oollec’ive happiness and prosperity. (Applause ) As a nia"er • ( faot in 'ban three months 250 f .milie had been se’tled in Auckland under tho villieo settlement system, and in Canterbury—where land was so d ffi al to get 77 families had been p Meed on the land in the same brief period . (El '>'T hear ) As to the homestead system, it seem d to him that there was a good do il of misapprehension abroad in regard to H Its name, and the fact ilia' under it a mm could get by paying

r.nly th-' survey f-es 50 acre* of land for each member of his family, had led to mioapprehenulon, no d übt; bnt the bj'so m utterly failed In practice aa compared with other systems In fo r oe Under i> aetflera had for the moat part to do with' uf road a or make them them—ae’vea »nd only 30C0 aorea a year could be Berried under it In any provincial district. In connection with it a too common result w*a, that the land finally fell ioto She hands of large proprietors, end everything that, tended to that waa directly opposed to the main tendency of liberalism in land settlement—that tendency being a l towards land nationa'isation, and removing the laud from the control of individuals and placing it under the control of the t-tate in the interest of the people at la go—giving all a chance of becoming land occupiers under terms conducive to the wellbeing of all(rthaers.) [We pn pos? to give at next Issue Mf Ballance's proposals lor future rnglsla- . tfon. —Ep, 1