THE LAND BILL.
Press Association. DUNEDIN, yesterday. Mr. Geo. Laurenson, M.H.It., addressed a meeting on the Land Bill as Mosgiel last night. Tlio speaker stated tliat under the present system country districts, both in Canterbury and Otago, were being depopulated. Taieri County having fewer population in it to-day than there were in 1896, while Canterbury, although showing an increase of 30,000 in 115 years, accounted for 31,000 by the increase in her towns, showing an actual decrease in her country population of 1000. Tlio census returns showed that all over tlio colony the town population was rapidly outstripping the country, and that by 1911, at the present rate,there would be more people in our towns than in the country. In spite oL the Government having bought 84 of the largest estates during the past few years, the number of large estates in the colony, both in value and area, was rapidly increasing. The price of land was going up so fast that it was almost impossible now for settlers’ sons to get it at a price which would enable them to live oh it. As showing how the early settlers had viewed the endowment question, lie pointed- out that Canterbury, which only had an area of 9,60(1,000 peres of land, had had reserves ,set apart for education and public purposes of 961,000 acres, while Otago could almost show similar figures. Now,when it was proposed to set apart a proportionately much smaller amount for educational purposes, they were told they were attacking the freehold. The speaker got a good reception, and at the conclusion of Ins address Mr. J. Wright, a farmei, moved, and Mr. W. D. Mason alsoi a farmer, seconded, a motion thanking Mr. Laurenson for his address, and expressing lieaHy approval of Mr. McNab’s Land Bill. An amendment stating that no Land Bill would be satisfactory to the country which did not give settlers the option of the freehold was moved, but this only found five supporters. The original motion was carried with applause. i
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GIST19070518.2.39
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2083, 18 May 1907, Page 4
Word Count
337THE LAND BILL. Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2083, 18 May 1907, Page 4
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in