THE COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 863, 8 July 1910, Page 6

THE COUNCIL.

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY SPEECHES. When tho Legislative! Council met yesterday afternoon select committees were appointed without discussion. The Hon. W. 0. P. CARNCROSS (Taranaki) continued the debate 011 the Address-in-.Reply. He urged that great, attention should be given to the agricultural' and .pastoral industries, in which the Dominion had most prospect of excelling. Until he had sime details of the scheme he would not like to commit himself to any favourable opinion on the projjosed sinking fund to wipe oil" the national debt. Borrowing and a sinking fund at the same time might bo reconciled, but there were difficulties. He did not expect much result from the local government reform proposals, because the smaller bodies would not allow themselves to bo. extinguished. He did not even know that it would bo well to abolish these smaller bodies, which .served as training colleges for public office. lie did net think it was necessary to appoint Government officers to place people 011 the electoral roll.. If the Government was chaste as ico and pure as snow it would not c&cnpo suspicion if this were done. Moreover, the man who had not sufficient interest in affairs to get his name upon the roll ought not ito vote. (Hear, hear.) The automatic purging of the rolls should bo restored. Hon. H. Scotland Against Dreadnoughts. The Hon. H. SCOTLAND (Taranaki) condemned tho increasing tendency towards militarism —"shaking our puny fist in the face of Germany." England was in 110 danger cither by sea or land. The rivalry of Germany was purely commercial. Ho regarded tho building of Dreadnoughts as tho height of folly, and New Zealand's contributing to these "Dreadnoughts" as tho supreme folly. Wo wero never asked to do so, and he thought that as the result of our doing so Ave should be regarded as people who had more money than wit. With regard to the openirig up of Native lands care should be taken by tho Government to see that these were not allowed to be swallowed up by tho land sharks. His speech might be called the opinions of an "old fogey"—(No, 110)— hut 110 could not help being old, and old age had its advantages as well as disadvantages. Hon. H. F. Wigram on Land Question. The Hon. H. 1\ WIGRAM (Canterbury) dealt at some length with the land question. Ho expressed the opinion that tho leas'e in perpetuity tenure was now practically the same as the freehold. Tho question of granting the fr-'<*-jiokl to lease in perpetuity tenants might be dismissed from our "polities. Tho Government could grant the freehold quite safely, and it would not be granting morn than the tenants had to-day. Referring to tho applications for sections at Government 1 ballots, Mr. Wigram expressed the opinion that most of these were attracted not so much by the prospect of settling with their families on the land as by the goodwill, which was not n good thing for tho Dominion. .It was not right that the money which had been derived from the taxpayers should bo diverted to encourage a system by which one man in a few years might walk off with a few thousand pounds. Some clauso might be inserted in tho Land Bill to the effect that if a tenant wished to transfer eonseivt should only be given after allowing the State, if it desired, to hike back that section, allowing him the value of his improvements plus one per cent., so as to protect tho tenant thoroughly. He did not suggest that such a clause should be made retrospective, and it would bo most unfair to prohibit transfers altogether. The Council rose at -1.30 p.m. The Hon. C. M. "Luke (Wellington) will continue tho debate to-day.