THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2240, 12 July 1870, Page 2

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

OTAGO HUNDREDS BILL, In the House of Representatives, on the 6th inst., Mr Maoaxtirew, in proposing the second reading of this Bill, had to claim the indulgence of the House for a few minutes, in order that he might as shortly and intelligibly as possible point out the actual state of the case. He knew that the subject was rather a dry one, and comparatively uninteresting to honorable members generally ; but he was anxious that the House should fully understand the act ual position of the ma'ter, inasmuch as a large amount of misapprehension with regard to it existed out of doors. Perhaps there was no subject throughout the Colony which was more fertile of political claptrap than was the land question. Even in the days of ancient Rome when the agrarian law was the bone of contention, this was the case, and he believed that it would continue to be so to the end of the chapter. In order that the House might fully under stand the bearings of the question it would be necessary to go back to “The Otago Waste Lands Act, 1366.” and he might say, that prior to the passing of that Act, the whole of the waste lands of the Crown in the Province of Otago which were outside the hundreds were in the possession of pastoral licensees, who occupied the laud by paying merely a nominal rental for it. After the

causing of that Act, however, provision was made by which the licenses were changed into leases, and ten years were added to the unexpired portion of the old licenses, whilst an increased rate of rental was charged, namely, three shillings and sixpence a head on large cattle, and seven pence on small cattle. Under those provisions almost all the license holders came in, and the rental derived from the leases was about LGU,()(l0 a year ; next year he expected it would bo fully that. By the Act of 1860 provision was made whereby these leases could bo cancelled at any time and the land declared into hundreds, compensation being granted to the leaseholders to an extent not. exceeding three year’s rental; but it must be observed that this only applied to territory outside of gold fields, and ho would ask the House to remark particularly that it so happened that about two-thirds of the Province was within the boundaries of proclaimed gold fields ; so that the Waste Lands Act only applied to onc-third of the Province. The country within the gold fields came under a different Act altogether, namely, the Gold Fields Act, 1866, under which no hundreds could be proclaimed. Therefore, if land was required in a gold field for settlement, it could only be taken by arrangement with the leaseholders, and that only in blocks not exceeding 5,00(1 a'wes at a time, tbc leaseholder retaining the right of depasturage over that portion not occupied for agricultural settlement. I nder the Gold Fields Act there was no limit to fo the amount of compensation which might be paid to the leaseholder. The amount was arrived at by arbitration, and the arbitrators had to be guided as the Act said, solely by equity and good conscience—in fact there was no limit to the amount which might be paid. As it was, he might say that the amounts which had been paid in different districts, although varying considerably, might be set down as averaging from 5s to 5s (id per acre for such land as has been acquired for settlement within the boundary of the goldfields. He thought he had stated sufficient to show the exact position of the land question as settle! by the Waste Lands *Act of 1866. As to the merits or demerits of the Act, it was not for him to pronounce any opinion at that moment ; he might say, however, in justice to himself, that he was m no way responsible either for the astc Lunds Act or for the Goldfields Act. Many h,on. members would, perhaps, recollect that the Act of 186 ! was brought up to the House on the previous session, 1865. On that on his motion the Bill was thrown out with a view to its being sent back to the Province for re-consideration. He anticipated at that time the objections that had subsequently arisen with regard to the pastoral clauses. The Bill was thrown out on his motion chiefly on the ground that the clauses relating to the pastoral lands were likely to put difficulties in the way of settlement. However. the Bill came up again in the following year withont any alteration on tho part of the Provincial Council, and although he had hoped that it would have been presented in the shape of free selection, it was not, and Lis opposition to it in 1866 being futile, it became law. He was the more desirous of making this matter clear because an attempt had bgen made to fix upon hirqtho odium of existing land regulations, whereas he did all he could to oppose them. However, be thought it was but right to say that, unwise as the-Act of 1866 might have been, it cnnld not be said that the work of settlement had not progressed considerably since then. It was a very remarkable circumstance that in tho years 1867 and 1868 —the two years following the passing of the Bill- fully onethird of the actnal agricultural holdings or homesteads throughout tho whole Province had been created and occupied. That was a very remarkable circumstance, to say the least of it. Well, in 1860 the Provincial Council of Otago passed resolutions in favor of the declaration of six new Hundreds. Those resolutions were submitted by him to theGovernmentwhen the House was in session last year, and simultaneously with those resolutions, several petitions, protesting against tho proc'amat : on of those Hundreds, were presented. The Government declined to take anv acdon in the matter, and submitted the whole question to the Joint Committee of both Houses on Waste Lands. The result was that a Bill laying down definite rules to guide the Government in tho way of proclaiming Hundreds was passed—the now c-lebrated Otago Hundreds Regulation \ct. Ho thought he might safely sav that there probably was no public matter in New Zealand about which more nonsense had been both written and spoken during the past twelve months. It was a very remarkable circumstance that tho Otago members last yc ir should have been unanimous in passing the Bill. He believed it was the first and only occasion upon which there had been unanimity amongst them for many years. Although he had no great love for it he supported the Bill because it was the only condition on which tho Government would agree to proclaim the additional Hundreds for which he had been .applying Ho supported it. therefore, on the groand’of expediency, bnt chiefly, however, because it contained a provision, which was really the only valuable part of the Bill, that namely of doing away with the distinction between inside and outside tho goldfields, and enabling the Governor to proclaim Hundreds throughout the Province. It, moreover, contained a provision enabling land for settlement within goldfield* to be acquired at a much

lower 1 rate of compensation than could now be under the Goldfields Act. It was a singular thing that they had been giving 5s and 6s an acre for land which, under the Hundreds Regulation Act, could be had for ‘2s 6d. Unfortunately, however, there was a great outcry got up against, the Hill amongst the people of the Province, strong agitation was got up against it, and it was stigmatised as an attempt to play into the hands of runholdcrs. The result had been that the Provincial Executive declined to accept of Hundreds proclaimed under the Act. A special session of the Provincial Council was held in the mouth of December last year, for the purpose of discussing the whole question, when certain resolutions were arrived at which were embodied in the Bill which he held in his hand. In fact it was in compliance with a request of the Provinci d Council that he introduced the Bill; he wished the House to observe that he was merely the mouthpiece of the Provincial Council in the matter. There was one very singular thing in connection with this Bill, and that was that the hou. member for Bruce, Mr Brown, on whose motion as a member of the Provincial Council the amendment Bill now before the House was framed, had on the Order Paper a motion to repeal the Act which in the Provincial Council he sought to amend. He would now state the amend mints as briefly as he could. They were very trilling. In the first place the Act of last session limited the amount of agricultural land to one-half— no Hundreds could be declared under that Act unless one-half was laud lit for agricultural purposes. T1 e amended Bill proposed to alter that to om - third. Practically it was really a distinction without a difference. Another provision in the Act of last year was, that no district could exceed 15,000 acres. The Amendment Bill proposed to alter that to 20,000 acres. The Act of last year also provided that the lessee was to be compensated for certain improvements, such as draining and ploughing the land, and laying it out in English grasses. The amended Bill proposed to strike that provision out, and substitute a clause previding for the extension of the pre-emptive right from 80 to 640 acres. Ho was only sorry that the proposal for the extension had come so iate, and at a time when most of the lessees were not in the same position as they were some years ago, and could take advantage of it. He believed it would have been very conducive to the public interest had this provision been embodied in tbc Land Act of 1866. 1 here was no doubt that a great deal of settlement would have taken place under it, and a large area of land would have been alienated from the Crown, He had explained as shortly and as clearly as he could the objects of the Bill, and he hoped the House pomprelien led the real bearings and position of the case. He had been asked to give his opinion on the merits of the Bill. His opinion was that if the Act had been put in force it would have worked very well, even without the amendments which he proposed, and he believed it would work quite as well, if not better, with the amendments. There was no doubt whatever, that unless new Hundreds were proclaimed, and land put into the market, it would be a very serious thing so far as the revenue of the Province was concerned, and he sincerely hoped that the House would agree to pass the Act as amended by the Provincial Council. Substantially the Bill was the same as the Bill of last session, and seeing that the Provincial Council hail admitted the principle of the Bill, he thought there could be no objection to it on that score at all events. He moved that the Bill be read a second time.

The debate was adjourned on the motion of Mr Ho worth.