THE TENURE ISSUE AT HOME,

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 926, 20 September 1910, Page 4

THE TENURE ISSUE AT HOME,

'~.— —-~*- " Like the labour question, the question of land tenure is one which no other country can discuss, with a ,view to action, without , being assured of the interest; and attention of Now Zealand, which.has for years been vexed and disturbed by ignorance, prejudice, and folly in respect, of both of these important matters. Every week the English mail brings increasing evidence that agrarian legislation will Soon become one of the most important of the political concerns of Great Britain. Both the great political parties at Homo are persuaded of the importance of increasing the area under close settlement, but so far not a great deal has been done. It is some time since the Unionist party adopted into its programme the policy of "small ownerships," and it has lately been displaying so much activity in its campaign that the • Liberals are beginning to feel alarmed at the popularity which this_ very sound policy will bring to their opponents. Mr. Balfour, who made a spocial point, during the election campaign, of, tho necessity for enlarging the number of small land-owners, has found it necessary/to declare that he has both written and spoken in- favour of small ownership, and that the Unionist party will deal with the subject when it comes back to office. The Liberal party has of course dono something in the way of promoting an increase in the number of small' holdings, but it is not actuated by the desire that the small land-holders shall be their own landlords. How could it be, when its policy is directed, or at-any rate deeply influenced, by tho extreme lladicaln who correspond to the land natiortalisers and penal-taxcrs in this country? LoitD Camunoton, the Minister for Agriculture, recently declared that thc._ Government intends to establish agricultural co-operative credit banks as a further instalment of its policy of assisting agriculture —for ■ which, he Mb. Lloyd-

George had "a soft ■ spot in his heart"—but ■ the limits he and his colleagues must set to their affection for the tillers of the soil were indicated on the same day by the publication of a memorial presented to Cabinet by-134 of their supporters in the House who urge the imposition of a land tax that will supply the place of rates and, Customs. -.. • _ The division between the Radicalridden Government and the Unionist party on land question is' already a division on_the tenure issue; The Liberal .party favours tenancy; the Unionists want small ownership. No very clear reason, has been given for the inclination of'the Government in this particular, but the three strongest, although unavowed, reasons, may readily be guessed at. The Times summarises them as. follows: ' One is. that,the extreme,wing of. the Land Nationalises—perhaps we . should not call it a wing, but a tail; the tail which wags the" dog—think that to keep the ownership in the hands of the County Councils will allow an easy ultimate transition to ownership by the State. Another.is that, in the interim, it will be easier to extract a constantly growing land .revenue from a docile class of teri-ants-at-will than from a class of peasant owners. The third reason is that peasant owners tend to become Conservatives, as is notoriously tie case in F.rance, and as may not loug hence.be the case, in Ireland. These are reasons enough to induce'a Radical Government toVoppose, With all its. energy, the creation of a multitude of small owners. Precisely the same considerations ■ govern the attitude of those leaseholders in New .Zealand who : have got Sir Joseph Ward in leash: they hope to keep open the road to land nationalisation, and they know that a nation of freeholders 'will make impossible their foolish plunges into further Socialistic legislation. The Time's also notes'that for the success of an agricultural credit bank scheme there will be necessary that, real security which can only be found under a system of ownership as opposed to tenancy. "The. comparative ease in obtaining creHit by owners, as compared with the difficulty which small.' tenants- will assuredly find," was advanced by, us several weeks ago, as one of the many practical arguments for the freehold isystem. The British Liberal press is by no means unanimous in supporting the Radical attitude upon land tenure or in seeking. to ■■discredit the, Unionists' land policy. The Aberdeen Free .Press, one of the. best and most -esteemed -of .the Liberal newspapers of Britain, says that "in taking "-jipl this scheme, of a large extension of land ownership,, the Unionist party, have got hold of a good thing,' a ■ thing. that is. good in'.itself, and one.that, if properly and successfully; worked, would be of. great benefit to the party as well. The policy of land purchase and the conversion of a fair proportion of the occupying cultivators into actual owners ■is ;■ one Of which the merits are not- to, Whejn. the comes .upon the floor-, of the,, Commons in, the ; shane of a' legislative proposal,' the -Radicals will of course do' their utmost to prevent the.success,.of the freehold doctrine,', but we 'may be sure, that whatever they do tK •(Liberal leaders will hot allow ihe":tail.,to wag them into, the ignominiims .position' to which the New Zealand Government has been.-,reduced. : ; -..'■.'■"■/;