OUR MEMBERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1888, 9 July 1888, Page 3

OUR MEMBERS.

FAIR RENT BILL. Mr Buxton. — I have great pleasure In supporting this Bill. I consider it to be one of the moat necessary Bills that could be brought before thin House. I could adduce scores of instances where it (rill be a great benefit to tenants who are occupying land at a higher rent than they can possibly pay. To my mind, it will ba a great benefit to the tenants, to the land* lords, and to the public at large. It a man haß lard at a rent whioh prevents him from making It pay, he not only gets behind m hia rent, bat he gets into dobt with tradespeople, and ultimately he maat fail, and all mast share In the loss. As regards the private Interest of landlord?, this is a matter the Bill does not at present interfere with. It is a fair-rent Bill, and if it Is carried out as a fair rent Bill there Is no necessity at all for interferenoe with private Interests. The landlord can deal with his tenant himself, and if his tenant ia not able to pay the rent, the landlord will generally meet him m some way or other if he is a good tenant, rather than fetter him and canee him to leave the land to go to waste. The private landlord can deal with his tsmant ; but those whom this Bill deals frith have no power to deal with their tenants except m accordance with law I have great pleasure m sapporting the Bill. Bat i do not wish to detain the House, although I cuuM speak for an hoar on this Bill, and 1 thiujf J ooald say something worth hear]ag~;~but 1 do not think there Is .an^- necaasity for doing B0 «_ - __.-- - '' Major Steward. — I desire to congratulate the Government on having presented a Bill for which I tfcink there is a great necessity ; and I think also that the honorable member for Auckland Central is to be congratulated, inasmuch as he has been the pioneer of the legislation wlrch is now before the Houße Ido not propose to deal with the Bill at any length, but on'y rise for the purpose of expressing my sympathy with the object m view. I

should like to cay, with regard to the remarks whioh were made by the honorable

member for Wanganui just now, that it seema to me tho honorable gentleman confounds two things. He objects to the Bill as interfering with the permanency of tenure, the point really being thnt it interferes with the permanency of rental* These two things are by no means ideot'cal, and the fact that the amount of rent to be paid may be subject to revision under certain circumstances m no way interferes tvith the period for which the lessee has covenanted to lease that land. There can be no doubt whatever that, at the time contracts were entered into for the leasing of large areas of land m different parts of the country, there was a state of inflation which resulted m persons giving more rent for the land than it was really worth — rent which it is impossible to pay under existing circum-

stances. It has become absolutely necessary that Bomo means of relief should be provided for these persons, whose petitions have been laid on the table m paßt sessions | and daring the present session of Parlia me iit. The honorable member for Punedin Central says that, if the principle of this Bill be adopted, eventually it must logically aud necessarily extend to private contracts— that is, to lands hel4 from private owners. Well, that may be the cane ; but m the meantime I think all we have to do is to confine ourselves to the proposal made In the Bill now ooder consideration. There is notfclog m the Bill that proposes to deal with private lands, though It must be admitted tbat it doei propose to deal with certain

lands which may be looked upon as quasi publlo lands, such as the endowment lands of Chrlst'a College, m Canterbury, For my part I am rery glad the Bill does propose to deal with these lands ; and, if tbat portion of the olause which brings these lands within the operation of the Bill is agreed to, then I think we might give to the Commissioners, besides the power to deal with rents, a further power to anbdivlde saoh of the reserves as are required for soetlement 5 for not only is the question of the rentals to be paid under present circumstances' to be considered, bat there is also the fact that some of the trust bcdlea which administer bheae large reserves are adm'nisterlng them m such a way as not only not to facilitate settlement, bat absolutely to block settlement, the land being let m large areas, while there are at the Bame time numbers of petaona willing to take It op m smaller areas. If the olause which brings such lands as these I am referring to within the operation of the Act is unaltered, m passlqg through Committee, thsn I shall ask tho Houße to consider the propriety of adding some clauses whißb 1 gave notice of to-day, giving to the Commissioners pewer to decide the question as to what areas the land should bo djrlded fg'o, and to fix a fair font for \he various subdivisions. These are the only' remarks I desire to offer. I hope honoqrable members will do me the favoqr to Iqok oarefully over the proposals of which j have given notice, and whioh will be iv print tomorrow ; and if an opportunity shall occur of dealing with these lancK I hope the House will take Iptg consideration the question whether tho powtva of Commissioners should not be widened >0 far as to enable them to have some vofoe aa to the areas Into whioh the lands ahould be subdivided