The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1886. Sir George Grey and Chambers of Commerce

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 115, 9 March 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1886. Sir George Grey and Chambers of Commerce

On Friday evening Sir George Gkey addressed a meeting of Auckland citizens, at the request of the local Chamber of Commerce, on the questions of land and public works. We are told that there was a large attendance, and that the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce presided. For giving him an opportunity of expounding his somewhat singular and eccentric opinions Sir George thanked that body, remarking it was the first time they had taken the people of the colony into their confidence and invited an expression of public opinion on certain great questions. Speaking on the land question he said the principle should be affirmed that in taking land no injustice should be done to the present holders. He would deal first with Crown Lands, in which no difficulties from private ownership could arise. Maori lands should be sold only to the State, for which the Natives should receive a fair price. 1 'rivato estates to be purchased and sub-divided, and leased perpetually at an annual rental, the owner being paid in State Land Bonds, bearing interest, and issuable like bank notes. He was in favor of the extension of the Northern Trunk railway, with branch lines to Gisborne, Napier, and Taranaki. We have no objection to raise regarding leasing Crown Lands and the rents becoming part of the revenue of the State. We also approve the of id< « (which is not a new one) of paying the .Natives a fair price for their land. But the notion of purchasing large private estates by means of State Land Bonds — whatever he may mean by the term — is simply absurd. In the first place this idea is not by any means new, as it was tried in France about the time of the great revolution in that country, when assignats were issued of a nominal value in money, based on an equivalent land value. Their failure to take the place of bullion or cash circulation is a matter of history. These proposed New Zealand assiynats are intended to bear interest, and to be transferable like bank notes. That is to say, the State will collect the rent off the land, and pay the said rents away in interest to the holders of the land notes. This does not appear to leave room for a fair margin of profit to relieve the " suffering millions of babes yet unborn " from excise or direct taxation. As a matter of fact, such notes could, supposing them to exist, only circulate by displacing the present note circulation of the banks now doing business in the colony. As this only amounted to £975,927 at the quarter ending December, 1885, and only exists at all because the notes are payable in gold on demand, we do not see how a note, having only an equivalent value j in land, which in itself is inalienable from the State, could become in any way popular, or even be able to retain its nominal purchasing power, which must be based on a gold value. We are inclined to think that if New Zealand issued its own stock at reasonable interest, to be taken up in the colony by the colonists as a means of investment similar to that in England, such a movement would not be unpopular at the present time, and would ultimately absorb the whole existing debt of the colony. But many years would have to pass before that result was achieved. We have said enough to show that the issue of inconvertible State Land Bonds, to be accepted by business people in place of bank notes, which are immediately convertible, is an absurdity. We must also express a hope that the other Chambers of Commerce will not follow the bad example of that in Auckland — in Dunedin the other day also — of interfering in the politics of the colony. As a rule commercial men are bhrewd

a ntelligent, with remarkably keen a eciation of the best means of p oting their own interests; but they are not statesmen. Their views are too apt to be narrowed down into a mere groove of " money, and how to make it." Nor is it until they emancipate themselves from the trammels of trade, by taking places in Parliament, that their mental range becomes enlarged. Should these bodies attempt to make themselves political powers in the land, by becoming influential election committees, their sphere of usefulness would be at an end. Let them confine their attention to commerce in their collective capacity. As individual electors they can make combinations in plenty of ways if they have hankerings after statecraft. Of course if an astute politician like Sir Geo. Gbet makes the attempt to entrep them it may be difficult to resist the charm of his manner, therefore they may be committed to a line of action which would have been carefully avoided had they not been led astray by so artful " a Will o' the Wisp."