"NEW FREEHOLD MINISTRY."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 663, 13 November 1909, Page 10

"NEW FREEHOLD MINISTRY."

: -' AtrCKLAND yifeWS OI'.THB WAED '■ .; ; ;-' ; .V ■::;.:. "HRACY."../,-;;■,:';-:,;;.:.-. -; v (By Teleerapfl.i-Spccial' Oorresßondent!) ' ■ '. : -~T ■■:■ -J Auckland, November 121 ■ . I am agreeably surprised at the land tenure proposals,, eaid Mr. ,0. J. Parr, a prominent barrister and chairman of the Education Board, wnen_ interviewed on the land ■ question.' - "Sir Joseph has conceded nearly everything that the Opposition has, been asking for for years, and by doing so has once more.stolen the coat from off-,Mr. Massey's back with6ut oven begging his pardon. The proposed new Land Bill is, HTinv opinion, the biggest act ofi'political piracy that hae ever taken place unpolitical. fiißtory even in New Zealand., I ,doubt if even Mr. Ma6sey could frame another-land policy now, Howexer,. while this is so, it is gratifying to know that tho iGoyemmeut has at last become converted, and it, can how; certainly be classed as the new freehold GovDrnment." In the opinion of Mr. Robert Hall, who acted as chairman of the Land Commission of some three years,ago, the' Government.will yot have to make a further concession to. public opinion by offering whole or the gfeater' part of the national endowment'lands on the occupatlon with right of purchase tenure! It was all right enough, he said, to create: endowments out of city and suburban laud,'but: when it came to applying the prinoiple to second and. thirdclass land put in the Dack-blocks it.bocama a totally different 'matter. . Many inducements would have to be offered to tempt men to. go out-pioneering, and if the inducements were not offered the land .would remain idle. "I oppose tho-endowment scheme in toto as it applies to rough "waste 1 • lands," .'Continued 1 : Mr. Hall. "Those' : who , Bdvpcate. it- really do >hot' jinaor6tand 'the question; They ■ fail to realise the difference 'between.'improved' and", unimproved land and £he hardships which; the settler who takes up: the.;latter has to undergo.- ■ I consider that fhero is'only-one form of land-tenure for New.-Zealandi'and- that is the 0.R.P." : .. ■. r "The Governtnont.hae gone in for the,Oppoeition policy,"'declared Mr.'. I. G. Gi-ay, prepident of the Auckland.Agricultural and Pastoral AsBociation. "As to'the conditions to be posed in order to allow the settlor to'got the freehdld, all I can. say is that ,thoy will not j infliot' aliy hardship, and if they dia-I , should ' then say,' 'Let us havo anything at all eo long as we can get the freehold.' "■ '. ■■ , .•>•; , Mr. G. I, Garland, provincial eecretary Farmors' Union, said he was more than astohisheid to find that a Government-which had consistently championed 'the leasehold tenure should ,, : havo turned .swivel and. gone bung for the' freehold. ' "Nevertheless," he added, "I can , giye'thom credit for haying-done the , right thing , .at--last." - . .•■■■■.• -..-, ■..