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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1992, 30 January 1907, Page 4

PLAIN WORDS. Thoro would ultimately bo an attack on tho existing freeholds. Was confirmation of that statomont wanted P Ho would rofor thorn to Mr Ramsay Macdonald, whoso words wore plain, and who know wlmt ho was saying. It was intended, ho said, to knock tho freehold on the head. Tho fight on this question of tho freehold had to como, and had hotter bo taken now. Tho Ministry had ranged thomsolvos on ono sido, and though they profossod, some of thorn, once the stop was takon as proposed in tho Bill, tlioy must go further. Ho asked thorn to note how this question was avoided by tho Ministers in their speeches. (Applause.) They shrank from tho mention of tho word freehold. Why should they? Did any man doubt that tho chanco of getting tho freehold was an inducement in tho early days for tho early settlers to come to tho colony when the good land was available P Could any man doubt now that tho inducement of a lease with a right of obtaining tho freehold was much more necessary when all tho good lands wore gono, when only the poorer lands remained to he settled? 110 favored the small freeholds He did not believe in the largo estates. Ho wanted to see suitable limitations, but ho was persuaded that the safety of tho country and tho prosperity of tho country depended upon the inducement being offered to any mail to make tho host of tho land by tho chanco of making it his own in suitable small areas if ho elected to do so. Tho attitude of tho hulk of tlio working men on this question was not certain. Hero in New Zealand, to those who had any ambitions at all, it surely was worth keeping this inducement of making one’s own homo. It was given to tho workmen in tho Workers’ Home Act. Was it fair to refuse to give it to the hard-working settlor who went out into tho back blocks? (Applause.) What was the judgment on tho question of those who had Uved in tho older lands? Only two or three days ago ho road a letter from a Mr. J. L. Green, secretary of the Rural Laborers’ League in England, in tho course of which it was stated that the experience of the past and of the present was in favor of a large increase 111 the class of freehold cultivators of the land. (Applause.)

VARIOUS LEASEHOLDS. He never was in love with the lease-in-perpetuity. Ho voted against it persistently. He had.no objection to a renewable lease of”GG years or any other suitable period, but ho did object to a loaso of that nature being brought in with the direct object of killing the option of freehold or occupation with right of purchase. This renewable base that was proposed was for 66 years at 5 per cent, on the capital value for settlement land, 4 per cent, on the capital value for other lands, and with one right of renewal. 11 the renewal was not accepted, then the original tenant was entitled to the value of substantial improvements of a permanent character fixed by an appraiser appointed by the Board or by arbitration. He asked how an appraiser, or anybody else, was going to fix the value of their substantial improvements of a permanent character? He was not sure that the tenant would bo satisfied with any valuation of that nature. Let them mark what the first charge was on the improvement money. It was an appreciable damage to the land as originally leased, and this was fixed by the Commissioner without, so far as he knew, any right of appeal. He had tried to think out how the Commissioner could fix the appreciable damage to land that was leased 66 years ago. He had a problem to solve, and lie (Mr. Allen) ventured to think it would not bo solved to the satisfaction of the tenant. (Applause.) THE 50 PER CENT. AND 90 PER CENT. PROVISIONS.

By the Bill the lessee of a renewable lease might pay off up to 90 per cent, of the value of his holding, and in committee this was made to apply to the lease-in-perpetuity holders, the rent to be proportionately rebated, namely, 5 per cent, for settlement lands, and 4 per cent, for othor lands. This was the great money clause of the Bill—the clause to find the means of purchase for land for settlement. In other words, if this clause was operative, the Government borrowed from the lessees at 4 per cent, and 5 per cent., and used the money to .purchase land for settlement. Now, ho would remind them that this land for settlement scheme was based on money being secured at 3 per cent .or thereabouts. They were departing again from Sir John MTCenzie’s proposals, and were proposing to borrow money at 4 per cent, and 5 per cent, to purchase land for settlement lands? The answer was patent to anybody. (Applause.) The advantages offered to the tenant by the 50 per cent, and the 90 per cent, proposals were said to be freedom from all covenants except rent and residence. Though the Minister said this, the Bill did not appear to make that provision. It did provide for freedom from the lease covenants, but not from the covenants which were imposed by the Statute law, these being that it was not lawful to transfer within five years of the lease. In case of death or extraordinary events, the Land Board and the Minister of Lands must consent to the transfer. Possibly the Minister intended that the statutory provisions should be done away with, but it would need a further amendment of the Bill to make that clear. (Applause.) If a man paid that 90 per cent., before he could get it back again it was liable to reduction at the end of the 66 or 999 years for any appreciable damage that had been done to the land.

A PERSONAL STATEMENT. Replying to tlie criticism by the Minister of some remarks made by him in Christchurch on this question of the mortgagee, he remarked that the Minister had stated that under that system the mortgagee might buy in the property for a song. Ho was astonished that any honorable man knowing as Mr McNab, a lawyer, must know, the law of the country, should have made such an unworthy appeal to the lowest prejudices of the people upon such wrong premises. The law had givon ample protection to the mortgagor. The mortgagee must apply to the registrar, he must st'ate the value at which he estimates the land to be sold. The mortgagor before the sale may pay this value to the mortgagee and be clear, the only power of the mortgagee was that he may be a bidder at a sale and so may anybody else, and for the Minister to lead the people to believe that the mortgagee had power to buy for a song was misleading. Mr McNab, speaking at Christchurch on the mortgagee clause, said the law would say: “We will let you kick out the farmers of the colony to the extent of £15,000, but you are not to have unlimited power to act 1 in that direction.” It was needless to comment upon such a statement as that. It was unworthy of a man in Mr McNab’s position.—(Applause.) If Mr McNab was going to allow by his law a mortgagee to kick out the farmers of the colony to the extent of £15,000, ho was allowing what he termed an iniquity to he perpetrated on the small man, and ho was only going to protect' the large man. He could not get away from the dilemma in which he was placed in this matter. Only a day or two ago Dr. Eindlay, one of Mr McNab’s colleagues, said he wqs sure Mr McNab woulej lie content that the bona fide mortgagee should, as far as possible, be exempt' from the limit provisions of the Bill. If this was not preparing for a back down on the mortgaging proposals, then he could not understand the English language.—(Applause.) However much one might value endowment proposals and limitation proposals, and he valued them, and was in favor of them, there was one main thing in the hill, the attack upon the future freeholds, and the prospect of attack upon existing freeholds with all that that meant, with the disturbing of security, with the injury to settlement, with the blow that it struck at ambition and the desire to get on, the encouragement to succeed, to do one’s best. Ho had always felt, and he believed they felt, that whilst they all desired to see the area held as a freehold by one man limited, they yet appreciated the value that the option of getting the freehold had for the good settlement of the country and to the produce that was returned from their lands. This, after all, was the main question, both with respect to land and endowment and everything else, for all ultimately depended upon the successful settlement of tho country itself.—(Applause.)

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