FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1852, 5 September 1906, Page 3

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

i MR MASSEY LEADS OFF. THE LAND PROPOSALS.

PRESS ASSOCIATION Wellington, last night. The House resumed at 7.£0 Mr Massey opened the financial debate

He did so with mixed feelings, for while / there was much in the financial proposals the Government of which he approved and would support, there was much on the other hand which he disapproved, and would oppose at the right time. The first set of proposals, the provision for sinking fund, audit, etc., formed the highest compliment that could be paid to H.M. Opposition. He would like to see more of their advice taken. For instance, he would revoke those sections of the Public Revenues Act which, in defiance of constitutional principle, curtail I the powers of the House and increase those of the Government. Then Parliamentary supervision would complete the financial contract. Moreover, the system of reporting to Parliament was slipshod, and ought to be amended. He denied the existence of a surplus of £886,000, on the grohnd that a sum of £750,000 ordered to be transferred from tho surplus of last year of 2761,000 was not so transferred. Only half a million was transferred; consequently £261,000 was used for two surpluses. He denied also the soundness of the educational superannuation fund, as the report of the actuary, requiring the strengthening of that fund by £17,000, had not been given effect to. These two items, together with an item of trust funds, made an amount of over £300,000, which ought to be subtracted from the surplus. The raising of the last loan in Australia had humiliated this country by the payment of a higher rate of interest than 'that at which the neighbouring countries had got their loans. It was also an admission of the unsoundness of our credit in London. It was certainly not a sign of prosperity. As to that, wo might suppose that the Government which claimed it made the sun to shine. In the face of the larger Australian export per head and the difference in the loan expenditure, it was not right to exaggerate the prosperity which undoubtedly existed The fact was we must reduce the rate of borrowing. The increase of expenditure of consolidated funds exceeded the revenue increase, £184,948. Coming to the land proposals, he denounced the endowment proposals as a trick on the part of the party in power to prevent settlers from getting the freehold The leasehold proposals would place the holders at the mercy of the ballot and the Government valuations, and from such laws he could say heaven defend them The proposals were intended to place the whole of the taxation on the land accord ing to the theories of the Minister of Education, and the hope expressed in an anonymous letter lately sent him by one of the supporters of the other side. The issue however was clear. It was freehold versus leasehold ; independent settlers, or a state of tenantry serfs of the Crown, or every man his own landlord As for the freehold actually offered in the proposals, the provision for going to the ballot would effectually prevent all conversion to the freehold. The only conversion possible would be from the 999 years’ lease to 66, with the privilege of lending money to tho Government by settlers who never have any money. Under the proposal settlement would he at first impossible, and much hampered for many years to come, and the endowments, for which all tins disturbance is made and the well-tried optional system is to be abolished, would bq insufficient fpr the purposes named. The leasehold tenure lie proceeded to condemn as the result of bad farming Any one could see in travelling through the country that the leasehold tenure is disastrous. , 1,0 Mr Ducoan : It’s the other way abou! I Mr Ma9sey proceeded to point out that even the lease in perpetuity is not aeoute, for all transfer by sale or will is d pendent on the consent of tho Comm'Bsioner, Freehold on the o’-ber hand carries with is an independence which no leaseholderknows. A voice : The mortgsg-e for instance. Mr Massey, continuing, ea ; d tho c,n_ t ta st between the Ministerial polioy and his own was dear He quoted Lowell s lines about finding wh .t pays at d going in for it bald beaded. That was the Go vernment. His own wa«, “ every man his own landlord.” As every man is pot in a position to buy at once bo might be allowed to tsks up a leasehold with the right of purchase. This is what the Land Commissioners recommended, and the recommendation was ignored, but 90 per oent. of the sctblers are of that opinioD, and it will take a general dcot oo to settle the point with them. Coming to the native land proposals, ho characterised them as absolutely ro!t?n. Fifteen years that Government had been in office, and ihe natives and their lands are both deteriorating. In oonolusion tat welcomed the Minister of Lands as the worthy opponent who was to follow him. MINISTER FOR LAisDS.

The Hod. B. McNab explained the soeoial circumstances that lead him to follow the Leader of the Opposition. Going back to 1894 he pointed oat that the late Sir John McKenzie had foreseen that the dwindling away cf the public lands wou’d foroe us to repurchase the freehold in order to satisfy the public demand for lands. The history of the land for settlement with its large loams proved the oorreotness of this foreoast. Betweon the sales and alienation, resorva tions and useless country, and the native lands, there remain a valuab'e 3,239,000 aorea out of the 65 millions comprised in all New Zealand, and of this only 6 073.000 aorta is all that can oome uader tha pgUonttl sjstoai. During the nest ten

years at tho rato of settlement during tho last threo yoars (1,115,000 aores in all tho three) that small area should keep us going a few more yoars. Tho amount of land to bo auppliod would have t j bo inado up. Tho Government proposal to roduco holdings to tho £50,000 value was des’goed to do that supplementing, Thoio nronow 63 holdings by individuals nud corpora-

tions (not including endowments) of over .£50,000, ranging up to £217,000 unimproved value. Tho aggregate area is 1.886,000 aoros. During tho next ton yoars £2,250,000 worth of laud will bo put on tho market. Thoro is, moreover, an additional proposal of tho land policy. It is that every man who buys land will

havo to make tho same declaration as is made by tho applicants undor tho Land for Settlement polioy. That will provont laigo holders from selling to oaob othor. This provision will havn tho effect of oausiug tho whole cf that 2} millions going into fceohold on tho same lorms of limitation ns if tho Government had acquired it and were iho sellers. Yet tho hon. gmtlo-

men opposite twitted them for doing nothing for tbo froobold, An iuuusnsa estate wou'd be out up, equal to tho whole of the area of the Land for Settlements policy, and all for froahnld. That would bo Ibo operation of tho £50.000 p oposa 1 , of whioh tho bon. gentlemen had said nothing, and this proposal—if thevo were not time this session to put the land policy on tho Statute Book—ho would ask Par-

liamont to put into law atonco. Thoctloot would bo in tho next ten years thoro wou'd bo offered in Hawke's Bay, 870,00 C seres ; Oamorbury, 036,000; Wellington, 151,QU0; Auckland, 1-11,000 acres from a'l sources of ordinary land for settlement, and above this there would bn over throo million acres in tbo market for settlement, to say nothing of tho cutting up by speculative purchasers of largo estates.

Coming to the leasehold proposals, ho explained them as based on tho Grkvgow system ; (hat is, tbo leases will bo renewnblo with tho valuations by the Court. Explaining tho working of tho remission fjr cash proposals, bo pointed out that tho above gonoral provision for transfer applicable to all transactions would

make tho remission of purchasers’ oonditioDs considerably safer. At tho ssrno time the restrictions sometimes, as in a late casotha l oarno under notice, were tho only things nblo to save ignorant persons from the ruin, how ■

of a yearly increasing debt. Tbis would bo the effect of tbo Bill he bad advocated before his constituents at Gore. Ho bad no hesitation in sayiDg tbat tho hon. gentleman and bis fiionds in their hearts agreed with those proposals. They talked

about a policy of freehold, but he Lad shown them that. He would soy that if these proposals had been in force from tho first there would not have been all of tbis ory for the freehold. The money capital-

ised, he would add, would oreate a fund for cartytDg on the iind for aettlrmmts polioy, which is oarrying a h indie a? there was not enough of ii; but those proposals would give them all they hoped for, and wore their present bopo of getiog on to the Treasury benches rea’istd, they

would put the polioy on the Statute Bonk without hesitation. Tho endowmtnts ho (Mr McNab) deolared to be neoessary, for the great departments they were devoted

to were growing very substantially from year to year, and makiog it more and more difficult to reduce taxatiou on the ufcessaries of life. The growth in the value and produotive power of these endowments would prevent the pressure of the above greit deparlments, and of the railway concessions upon the consolidated revenue. When these things are realised the country will be unanimous iu favor of tho Government proposals. Moreover, if these proposals were to be departed from it would be impossible to have any endow ments at all. Native lands were eight million acres in extent, but the Native Midsier bad told him that not more than about half a million aores could be depended on for endowments from that souro?. A'l Australian journals had asked as to the £50,000 proposal how it affected the right of foreclosure. He quoted frem tho ordnance of 1842 a clause showing that there is no power of foreoiosure, and there never has baen. In conclusion, Mr McnoD, said . wto—is a Lind Bill, and it will bo brought down at the proper time.

MEMBER FOR BAY OF PLENTY. Mr Herries cited the various occasions when Mr McNab had voted for the freehold and spoken in its favor, and had voted against the leasehold and spoken in its disfavor. For his own part ho saw no polioy in tho Government piopcsaL. It was a hybrid and piebald, Mori over, the leader of tho Opposition had advocated it two years ago. The 2250,000 limit war dangerous in its interference with tbs mortgagor and trustees. An extension of the Graduated Tax, which ho was prepared so support, would . achieve the otject much better than the 2230,000 limit. It ought not to be confinc-d to the country, It should be extended to the towns, where it was as much required. The freehold was offered in the case of tho 62, and he did not see why it should not also be offered under the land for settlement, Oa the whole the Ministerial proposals bad unsettled the minds of men tbrr ughout the country. Everything under* Government was to bo leasehold, and 62 unfortunate people wore to b 3 deprived of tbeir property for the sake of the freehold—ell at the bidding of the hon. gentleman’s colleagues. But that did not justify the general unsettling of the mind of the country. Tho land policy generally, however, he would wait to critioise in detail until he saw the Land Bill. For the Budget he had much to say in pralsp, and something the reverse. He eriticisjd the railway management as rti-figured by more accidents in proportion tbaa°ihß management in Britain, and that w ith less shunting.

THE SINGLE TAXER The Hon. G Fowlds pointed out, in reply to Mr Herries’ criticism, that the freehold in the Ministerial proposals was confined to the property of the 02 unfortunates, that the proposals comprised one for a very large offer of freehold to the Government tenants under certain condi tions. He defended his colleague’s vote and his own against the rebate of Crown tenants by reminding the House that many of the settlers had been credited with a goodwill of about £ISOO. Mr McNab and ho had thought it wrong to (five a rebate to men so well off, but this suggestion had, it must not be forgotten, paved the way for the Bush and Swamp Lands Act, which actually remits rent in certain eases altogether for a term of years. For his own part he denied that he had ever advocated the whole control of the lands of the Stato. He ridiculed Mr Herries’ evident intention to support a further graduated tax. He characterised his suggestion to include town properties abovc°i?so,ooo in value as absurd lie saw no reason because most of the national estate has been frittered away in the past that the remainder should not be usefully employed for endowments These, moreover, would increase in value If the arguments used against this policy were correct, then they had equal force against all the endowments in the past, tho tenants ucd r which ought therefore to have tho option oi the freehold. Coming to tho Leader of the Opposition’s criticism of tho surplus, be donied there wis any direction to • ran-fer last year’s £750,000 to the Public Works Fund. The words of tho Appro priation Aot were “ Transfer any sum not exceeding £750,000.” As fer this point about tbe credit of the calooy in London, there are many cireumstanoos which mak' it inadvisable to go to the London market lor large loans applied for by other countries for example. It was uapat 1 riotio for tbe bon. gentlomsn to ignore that point in his criticism. For th 9 rest bo characterised the criticisms oi the bon. gentleman as ancient and exploded, and us for his jibes at Single-taxers, Socialists, and Drmocrats, tho hop, gentleman did not know the diffarenoo botweeu them. Sir G. Grey bad been called by the hoo. gentleman tho greatest O' Law Zsaland Liberals, but he would remind ho hon. gentleman that Sit George was ho first president of the first single lax ociety over established in tho colony. I The 66 years’ lease of ths Government, be pointed out, was in reality a 66 years’ freehold. The hon. gentloman made a dear issue between l;asoho!d and freehold, He did the same last November, and his party oame back to the House jost fifteen stronger. He ooucluded fy reference to the other subjeot of education. He explained thß nbsenoe of reference to tho same in tho Budget. He pointed out that tho bones and fleah of a fine system

have boon already providod, into which ho proposod to broathu tho breath of lifo. The Govornmont intend to bogin by making University education free to all who havo passed the junior scholarship examinations with credit.

The House adjourned at 11 30 until 2 30 noxt day, whou tho debato will bo continued.