IN DESPERATE STRAITS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 945, 12 October 1910, Page 4

IN DESPERATE STRAITS.

The desperate lengths to which the friends of the Government have been'' driven, in their attempts';to'defend the preposterous provisions '.of the latest Land, Bill may be judged from the' fact that.the descent has now reaohed' the depth of deliberate; misquotation of the provisions of :th'e Bill'itself.. Not content' with distorting the plain meaning and effect of the various sections !'of the measure the official organ of the Government at 'Wellington,< in its issue ;bf Monday last,.based itsicontentions as to the effect of Clause 40 (compulsory leasing) ori a misquotation' of ,a portion of the clause which made it'appear, that the Bill .would produce, exactly the. opposite' result' to that' provided., In pur;.'issue .-'of September 14, iihdcr the heading' "Plain Robbery," we pointed out thatuhder, Sub-Section/ 6 'of '"'Clause' 40,, the Crown, after compulsprily seizingan estate at, a v , valuation' fixed byi'ita' own officials,. could force 'the -owner; to soU'at a lower.-figure-than I'the Crown's own valuation of the pro:perty. It:'was-in its belated endeavour . to ' answer : this; contention that ;'our morning contemporary - was forced to : :resort- to .misquotation of the provisions' of' the Bill—misquotation in such form as .to leave no room for excuse'on the''ground of ignorance. ' Sub-Section 6 of Clause 40,0f the Bill deals with the manner \ -in which the price. to; be .paid. for; an estate compulsorily leased . shall be determined in the event of the owner deciding or:.the :State'forcing^him to sell to the • Grown. , It reads as 'follows:''' ... : ..' ''• '.•.'>■": .

''•'The price /to' be paid by the Governor for the fee simple of the said; land shall, in:the absence of agreement between the owner and the Minister, 1 be a sum-equiva-lent to the capitalised value of the rent (culoulated, at .five per centum) reserved in the lease \ or ''renewal thereof .... ; We pointed outV/pn''- September., 14i that is. the'rent'.paid under the/Bill must not exceed 44 per cent per annum of: the value of the land, the capitalising; of the value; of the.rent on a/i«/e.percent: basis would, in the event of sale or purchase/of the land, mean a heavy loss'to the. owner.-We took, for the purpose of illustration, the case, of an. estate' valued, by, the Government at £50,000 oh which" the : rent /at 4£ per, cent- would be':'£22so- - annum..-.' The capitalised value of this rent calculated oh a five'"-per cent■ basis,, would be £45,000,.,soCtnat' the.;'owner,: after.,being . victimised in; various other •■'' ways pointed .out in previous articles, wo.uld.be forced, in .the event /of sale, to. accept £5000 less than - the' Government .itself valued the'land at. Not being-able to dispute these figures, or to defend the monstrous injustice thus proposed under the Bill, our .contemporary, after waiting nearly six weeks, attempts to deceive, the public by, substituting 4 per, cent for 1 .5 per" cent in the Bill and so ; making.it appear, that' the' Government has •actually proposed to pay more than the valuation fixed:by the Crown .officials.; Chat there shall riot'be the,slightest •pom'for doubt concerning thisdis-, lonest tridfcj'' we..quote' the•;.exact vords used by our contemporary in elation to this particular, question : Let us the 'process of spoliaion under- the terms or the Bill-in. the ase of an estate valued at '.£IOO,OOO aken. for 'settlement. The' State would :ive 'the ■ owner.. equivalent to .a. debenture learing interest- at- the, rate of.; 4J ( „ -per. eat 0n : .2M500 a. year. . .-■•.- Having

received' ,£4500 a year for: ten-years ..the owner could then claim tho full capital .sum (.£10.0,000) .from; the. Crown,, andiiu addition a premium of .£12,500, this being •'necessary to make up the ; "sum .equivalent to the capitalised value of the rent ; calculated at ;4 perT'cent."- ' i'■ ; r vl '; The 'portion■■■of;-this extract which appears .•■in, inverted commas so appeared in our contemporary, and the only meaning: to be taken therefrom is that it purportedto be a verbatim extract fronv-: -theVßill..'-.. As will be.seen above it is exactly correct in all respects save . one—and that is ,thev vitally important, one of the rate per cent, oh which the capitalised value of the rent is to be calculated. The Bill makes it 5 per cent; our '■■.. contemporary's : "faked'' quotation make it .4. per: cent, The 5 per cent provided by the Bill means a robbery 'of the - landowner of ten per cent of the Crown's own valuation of his property. The misquotation of our"-.- contemporary .would make it appear that the Bill provided for an addition of 12£jper cent to thef'Crown valuation. When a.measure ; is so' inherently vicious and unjusii as to force its champions to defendjjlt by resort to such dishonest practices as disclosed above, Parliament arid the, country are not likely to give it or its authors a very long shriro. :-