AR REID AND THE LAND ACT.

Evening Star, Issue 3176, 25 April 1873, Page 2

AR REID AND THE LAND ACT.

The following is the substance of Mr Reid’s remarks on the Waste Lauds Act at his Mosgiel meeting:

There had been sonic criticisms by the Press on the Bill, but they were hair-splitting, quibbling criticisms -mares’ nests—and there was nothing whatever in them. He had no doubt that the Press, as it existed in the Umpire City, wished to find fault with something, and lie had no objection, if the papers chose to take the Land Act, that they should be employed in that way as well as in any other. He was not present at that meeting to say that there were not many imperfections in the Land Act ; on the contrary, it would be surprising if there were not, seeing that it was composed of so many clauses, dealt with so many diversified interests, and that concessions had to be made. It might not be the best measure that could be passed, but he. thought it hard that the endeavor should be made _to fasten the imperfections of the Bill upon him, simply because he had charge of it. But in so far as it c uld bo shown that he had made, or authorised to be made, any innovations on the old Act, which had a tendency in the least prejudicial to the Province, he was quite prepared to take the blame. But that he should be blamed because the new Act retained some of the imperfections of the old one was really too much. If he had had to pass the Act himself, ho might have had it very different; but in the Assembly, as at present constituted, it was a difficult matter to move in the direction of making Land Acts more liberal. The quesnow was : Was this Act more liberal ? was it likely to be of greater benefit to the Province than the one of which it was an amendment? If properly administered, he had not the slightest hesitation in saying that it could be made more beneficial. In the first place it simplified the law by embodying four Acts in one; in the second, it enabled the Government or Waste Laud Board to deal with every part of the Province, which under the old Act could not be done, as part of the lands was dealt with under the Goldfields Act; and in the third, it gave the Government far greater facilities for obtaining land from the nmholder, and for securing population on it. These were "reat considerations. Ho wished to say that, had it not been for the valuable and persevering assistance of the Hon. Hr Menzies, in the Upper House, it would have been impossible to have got the Act carried through the Assembly at all. And he knew that that gentleman held a strong opinion in regard to the advancement of the country; that it must be secured largely in connection with the proper administration of the waste lands. In that, he (Mr Reid) was entirely at one with Dr Menzies. He (Mr Reid) had seen some strange views as to the occupation of our lands brought forward lately in the Press. He had seen articles which attempted to show that the ownership of land by the working man was his greatest enemy: that the mmmvm bommot the working man’s happiness consisted of his being engaged by Mr Brogden, or some other contractor or person who endeavored to get the greatest amount of labor from him, and sent him adrift at a moment’s notice. He did not say that every working man ought to have land: on the contrary, many made a mistake in going on land ; but the working men themselves are best able to judge whether or not it was to their advantage to have a freehold, upon which they might produce the necessities and, in many cases, the luxuries of life. It was not for us to say, “ The land is there ; you are not to have it; you cannot got it. ” If we were to have a yeomanry which would make the country a great one, it must be by giving them a prospect of a home in it. It was an object dear to all to have a home : a place in which to bring up a family in comparative independence. Ho next referred to the administration of the Act by a non-political board. He did not know what was meant by a non-political board ; hut guessed it meant the securing of persons who not only had given no study to politics, the government of the masses of the people, or the economical working of Government, but had never formed, and, consequently, never expressed, any opinion on the subject. If it were so, he could only say that he had very little faith in the administration of the Laud Act by such a board. He would just as soon entrust to a person who had never studied mechanics in the slightest degree, the repairing and keeping in order of an intricate machine which ho had never seen nor heard of, as to give to men who had never formed an opinion on the subject the administration of the Land Act. He presumed we had now got a model non-political board. He had seen it stated in a letter written by the present Provincial Treasurer, Mr Turnbull,_ that his object was to secure competent and impartial men to administer the n«w Act and to give it a fair trial. If the present board were the impartial men, he had very little faith in it. He would sooner see the land laws administered by a political board, which would bo amenable to the Provincial Council, and would have to give an account of their acts. They might depend upon it nothing would better secure a faithful, honest, and fair administration of the land laws than the tyoard being accountable for its every act. Once remove that accountable-ness-that safeguard which acted on all our public institutions-—and the result would be laxness. He did not say—for he guarded himself against so saying—that any member of the present board, nor did he think any member of any board that had been in the Province, would wilfully do wrong, but the tendency of recent action was to make the board become dull, and give way to pressure, so as to grant concessions that might appear trivial to the persons granting them, but be a great injustice to others against whom they were granted. They should not imagination they would secure the better administration of the land laws, simply by appointing men who had never given the subject much consideration, by appointing a “non-political” board as it was termed. He contended that was not the proper way of securing efficient administration; on the contrary, the board should not be composed of men choseti haphazard, because they had never expressed any opinions on, nor taken any interest in the subject ; because if the people wished to see the administration of the Land Act made a successful means of colonising the country, that would never be obtained from those whose sole aim and the end of whose existence had been money grubbing and the hoarding of wealth.