THE LAND BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1949, 4 December 1906, Page 3

THE LAND BILL.

MR MASSEY REPLIES TO MR MuNAB. PRESS ASSOCIATION Auckland, last night. Mr Maasey replied to the Hon. R. MoNab to-night at OoohuDgn. Ho had an enthuaiaatio reception. The meeting waa divided in eeatimen*, but a resolution in favor of the Government preposa's wis lost on a show of hand?. Mr Mi said that Mr MoNab had nos given the whole faots of the Land Bill propoaed, Ho declared that if Mr McNab had been to the North before the Bill waa presented io Parliament it would never have been presented in that form. Leasehold would be fatal to Northern lands, which were mostly Becond or third-olaes. It hit the North the worst of all, and would ducourago set tlement by removing the only stimulus to improve the land. Ttio proposals wero the moat absurd plaood before the people, and were based on antiquated views which even the population of Russia were rejecting, namely, a system of State tenancy. The Bill absolutely ignored the vast area of native land held locked up and unused, A weak point of the Bill was that it permitted the speculator to got the bonclit of undeveloped land, while it discouraged and harassed the legitimate farmer. Any system would be better than this, provided it loft the freehold alone. Ile believed better results would bo ob-

tained by adopting the continental system of distributions on death, by a graduated tax, and by a Land for Settlement Act. The Bill was neither iisli, ilesh, fowl, nor good red herring. What Government should do was to submit the issue of freehold or leasehold to the country and fight it out at the election.

A motion thanking Mr Massey, hut ftp: proving of the 1892 Land Act, in regard to the optional tenure, was proposed. An amendment that the meeting approved of the present proposals was submitted and lost. On a show of hands tho motion was "declared carried, with cheers and groans.