The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 14, 1902. INDIGNATION IN AUCKLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 389, 14 April 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 14, 1902. INDIGNATION IN AUCKLAND.

The Auckland people have got the belief firmly implanted in their minds that the Government is working against the r interests, and the morning journal ably gives vent to that belief. The Auckland side of the case 'is rather spoilt by such pettyism as that of their being no Aucklanders in the Bisley team, but the people seem deadly in earnest about the Kawhia lands.

“As a matter of fact,” the critic | slates, “ there is every reason to suit- ( pose that the objectionable lease in perpetuity was made the sole condition of tenure in the Kawhia ballot with the deliberate intention of checking applications ; this in the hope of stemming the stream of Northern settlement which is leaving the South high and dry.” Surely such a charge as this cairn t !« taken literally, for if such were the fact it would indeed be a scandal. “ The demand for Northern land is so great, the areas opened by the Government are so wretchedly small, that had the conditions been even less popuiar, such sections as those allotted would have been applied for over and c>'er again.” This, of course, mainly has reference to the leasehold tenures. How will it suit the Auckland people when it dawns on them that all the lands to be handled by the Maori Councils are to he let on lease only, with the Maoris as landlords ? “Land hunger,” the Auckland journal continues, “ will over-ride all minor considerations if it once becomes a famine, and something very much approaching a land famine has been created by the Government in the North Island. As Mr Seddon knows well, it .is impossible to say how many actual applicants litre were for this rdiculously insufficient number of sections. But however much the number may he reduced, there were altogether loomany for the opportunities offered. Hundreds of would-be land settlers were disappointed, and this, although tiie King Country lies fallow under the sun, and although ten million Northern acres are to be locked up from settlement by our democratic Administration. And while men who seek to turn the forest into f arms, who ask nothing of the Government excepting that it stand out of their way and let them get to work to build homes in the wilderness, are turned hack, saddened and disappointed by our intolerable land settlement system, Mr Seddon has the assurance to claim that their applications prove the wisdom of limiting the Kawhia land tenure to lease-in-perpetuity.” The morning paper gives a very warm advocac of tire freehold tenure, and those who do not agree with Lire following remarks will yet admit that they are refreshing by reason of their vigor “To maintain an irredeemable State-mort-gage upon every 1: rrner’s homestead, which he is not allowed to pay off and the interest of which he must pay lor a thousand years less one, on the plea that it is' possible that coal, gold, diamonds or plumbago may be found there, is utterly absurd and indefensible. Nobody defends it, excepting those socialistic smatterers of economic fantasies who live in cities and those deft politicians who seek to impede the development of the North and to retain political control to the southward of Cook Stra.t. No reason has ever been g veil wby the holder of land under lease in perpetuity should not be allowed to pay off the State rent claim when he can and thus live free. And we may be confident that there is not a lease holder in the colony who will not te filled with that desire, as prosperity comes to him from his hard toiling, and who will liot take part in f.ne inevitable reaction which will sweep lease in perpetuity out of existence.” There ,s no doubt that the question of freehold or leasehold tenure will become urgent as the years pass by. The Northern journal has two ‘indictments against the Government, and strikes at them in this free fashion . “ The incessant antagonism of the Administration to the North and its unpatriotic) pandering to the economic ignorance of trade unionists, who foolishly support every proposition that sums to aim at destruction of pnvi'.e property other than their own , lias estai iishcd by arbitrary decree a lend tenure which Pari ament never intended to he anything but optional. ’ As lar as the Kawhia lnnds are concerned they hardly seem worth the noise that has been made, but the point at issue as between freehold ana leasehold is wortiiy of a good fight, iLere being strong supporters of either tenure.