THE LAND BILL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1728, 6 December 1887, Page 3

THE LAND BILL.

The Land Bill, as introdnced by the Hon G. F. Richardson — the main provisions of which we bronght under the notice of our readers m a previous issue — is certainly not altogether devoid of merits. Its chief recommendation is that it renders the acquisition of land under a freehold tenure much more easy than it has been of late. It also provides for the acquisition, at any time now or hereafter, by the holder of land on deferred payments or perpetual lease, of the freehold of such land on certain conditions. But for all this it cannot but be regarded as a dangerous measure, for it reverses the policy of our land legislation for, at least, the last decade. It throws open the door to speculation by large companies and land sharks. Ostensibly there is a limit placed to the operation of speculators, but practically there is none. Section 10 provides as follows : "No person shall be entitled to purchase for cash m any one survey district more than six hundred and forty acres of ordinary land, and two thousand acres of second-class land under this Act, And every person applying for land for cash shall, before his application, or within three days thereafter, make and lodge a declaration m a form to be prepared by the Commissioner." From this il will be seen that there is nothing m the Bill itself to prevent any selector with sufficient capital, acquiring two thousand six hundred and forty acres m every survey district — an area of 'one hundred thousand acres — more than two and a-half per cent of the whole. There is not the slightest provision against dummyism, m fact not even a stipulation that a selecter under this Bill shall not be already a large land-holder ; and the absence of the " declaration " from the body of the Bill, or as a schedule, has, to say the least, an ugly look about it, by no means re- assuring to those who desire to see the balance of our landed estate devoted solely to the purposes of settlement. There is no guarantee that the " declaration " to be prepared by the Commissioner shall be a general one for the whole colony, or even for thn district itself — or, m fact, that it shall not be "■ prepared " so as to dovetail nicely with the requirements of the selector. The next section to the one already quoted would seem to provide against trickery being resorted to, for it enacts that " m the event of any of the statements m such declaration being false, the purchaser shall forfeit all right to the land and all moneys paid m respect thereof ', or if he shall have parted with the said land, then he shall he held, subject to a, penalty equal to fwenty-five per cent of the purchase money, to be recovered summarily." In the absence of the declaration itself it would be a difficult matter to assess the value of such a penal clause, as the declaration might be so " prepared " by the Commissioner, that there might not be the slightest necessity for any false statement at all. The Bill is now under consideration by the Waste Lands Committee, and we feel confident that this dangerous measure will emerge from that ordeal m a greatly altered form from that m which the Committee received it. The Bill throws .1 flood of light cm the feverish anxiety of a certain section of the community to secure the return of supporters of Major Atkinson or^ at any rate, of opponents of the late Government, who had incurred the resentment of the large land-holders Sod other speculators by religiously conserving the land for the purpose of settlement only,