LAND LEGISLATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1410, 22 March 1905, Page 3

LAND LEGISLATION.

It was statod in our cable messages that Dr Boseby has returned from New Zealand to Sydney and has been giving to the Press his views upon this oolony. He speaks very favorably of us and our institutions. Whether he spoils wisely is another question. In regard to our land legislation, which he describes as “ leading the world,” it would be interesting to know what Mr Massey, in his capacity of loader of the Opposition, thinks of that statement. Not altogether without interest on this point would be the yiews of the members of the costly comedy styled the Land Commission, before whom evidence has been given tending to show that many people believe, or profess to believe, our land legislation to be remarkably unwise. To speak quite plainly we are afraid that Dr Boseby will not make a . reputation for sagacity if on general subjects he is as wide of the mark as ho is in the matter of our land legislation. He either has not hoard of, or having heard of, does not properly appreciate, the wrong-headed-ness of our system of disposing of State lands by lottery, of our spoliation of the general public by means of the thousand years’ lease without revolutions for rental purposes, and of the absolute failure' of every Government the colony has had to make reasonable provision for enabling town workers to acquire possession of a garden allotment. Perhaps Dr Boseby is thinking of our Lands for Settlement legislation, under which profitably farmed estates are compulsorily taken for outting up while hundreds of thousands of aores of native land purchased from' the pro coeds of taxation lie idle and unproductive E

van then, apart altogether from the wisdom or otherwise of the methods employed, this colony cannot boast of such enlightened legislation es that of the British parliament in regard to Ireland. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, at this moment it is easier for a poor man to obtain land in Ireland than it is in New Zealand. Our land legislation is a wretched thing of shreds and patches which even the appointment periodically of “ Land Commissions ” has not been able to justify.—Telegraph.