The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. THE FREEHOLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2092, 29 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. THE FREEHOLD.

A favorite device of those who support Mr. McNab’s Land Bill appears to be that of turning the argument almost entirely away from the discussion of the Bill and on to the question as to whether Lease in Perpetuity tenants should be given the right to acquire- the freehold or not. It is significant that fully tluee-fourths of those who object to L.1.P." tenants acquiring the freehold, and who join with Mr. McNab in opposing the freehold tenure, arc denizens of the town, and have no practical interest, in either freehold or leasehold, while the country people who earn their living fromthe soil are almost unanimously for the freehold. From this it would appear that the residents of the towns are either ill-informed upon the question or led away by the claptrap of professional politicians, whose main ilbject is to place a plausible argument before their constituents so as to catch the vote of those—necessarily a majority—who do not own land. What argument of weight can really be adduced against tho proposal to allow L.I.P. tenants of the Crown to acquire the freehold ? From the utterances of Mr. McNab and other Ministers it is shown that the colony has nearly reached the limit at which it can borrow money to acquire more lands for settlement, and yet the hunger- for land is unappeased. Wo'have to pay 3 to 4 per cent, on the money wo borrow, yet we only receive 4 per cent, as rent on the original capital value of the land from the tenants, and out of that have to pay all the multifarious charges of administration, and support an army of Crown Lands Rangers and the like. WouDd it not pay us better to let these tenants purchase their freehold and reinvest the money thus accruing in more lands for settlement or in tile waste Native lands of the colony ? The proposal that these tenants should acquire their freehold at original values with a percentage added is certainly one for argument and possible compromise, but cannot be dismissed as absolutely iniquitous or unfair, for the State has really nothing to gain (except 1000 yea Us hence) in withholding it, and in fact in many instances may lose in taxation. It has absolutely surrendered already any profits that might accrue in the way of unearned increment for 1000 years, and the cash would in all probability be of infinitely more value.

For the same reason it is perhaps remarkable that the instincts of our race should prompt settlers to desire their freehold frpm whab must obviously be mainly sentimental reasons or a desire to invest their surplus earnings directly under their eyes. In this respect the L.I.P. tenure lias placed tile poorer settler under a disadvantage as against the O.R.P. tenant, for the former probably took up his land under L.I.P. to the extra 1 per cent, rent, so that he might devote it to improvements, blit now that he is now on his feet he desires the freehold so as to be on an equality with his richer neighbor who at the same time took up his lease under the Occupation with Right of Purchase tenure, and who has since been able to oxercise his right to acquire the freehold. Are we quite right in denying him this privilege for the sake of the possibility of a shadowy profit to remote posterity a thousand years lienee, so long as he is prepared to see that the State suffers no loss, or is no worse off than if he had taken the land under O.R.P. tenure? The advocates of the leasehold ,attempt to draw a rod herring across the scent by assuming that the freeholders desire the freehold for small grazing runs and other short form leases upon the same terms as those they advocate for L.I.P. tenants, but it is impossible for them to show any utterances in support of this view. In this case it would be so obviously unjust to the .State— as it lias the prospect of: profiting from enhan.ecd values in. the near future —that no reasonable man could support it.

MAROONED

If the people of Gisborne bad yesterday been transported to the* Chatham Islands, they would not have been in much worse case than they wore through remaining in their usual location. Tho wind blew fiercely and worked up a high, disagreeable sea in the Bay, making fit absolutely impossible for any boat to venture in. or out, the telegraph line was interrupted, and the flooded state of the rivers made communication by land difficult'if not) altogether impossible. Recently a picture was drawn in these columns of an isolated town, and tho picture was drawn with exaggeration to point a moral; but every detail of ■(•{{«' passage wa.s realised yesterday. This state-of *afi>irs only emphasises th© necessity for the Outer‘harbor ; and at this stage it should not be necessary to remind readers that if Gisborne is to keep her place in the trade of the colony she must be thoroughly up-to-date; and a place liable to be isolated completely by land and sea can hardly claim to be so. Harbor Board electors will on Thursday have an opportunity of do-

ing a lot for the outer tyirbor. To bo suro, only one momber is to be elected; but who can toll how much iiilluonco for good that mombor may hold. So far ns their published addresses to the olootors go, both gentlomen are in favor of the harbor, aiul the only question to he decided is which will the most vigorously battlo for tho harbor. Quito beside tho question of intermittent isolation, another matter is worthy of consideration. If the harbor scheme is approvod (of which there scorns now no doubt), it would bo well if all possible stops woro taken to soe that the work is vigorously prosocuted and finished at tho earliest possible moment. Of tho folly of doing tho work slowly, tho breakwater at Now Plymouth is a striking example. The work was commenced many yoars ago, and has boon carried on in small sections over since. iconsoquence has been that tho country settlors, failing to get tho full bonofit of a complote breakwater, became very discontented with their taxation, and latterly opposed any further expenditure on tho work. The New Plymouth breakwater will only allow coastal vessels in when tho weather is tho best. Consequently tho trade from tho back country is far from what it might ho. Thoro is a freezing works at Waitara which is connected with New Plymouth bv rail, but at present it is found more profitable to load tlio export direct to deep-sea vessels by moans of lighters than to rail it to Now Plymouth be transferred to coastal steamer for transhipment to ocean liner. In the same manner it is found advisable to rail export to .'Wellington direct, or to tho smaller coastal port of l’atea. Although in detail of circumstance Taranaki and Poverty Bay cannot honestly be compared, tlioy may still lie instanced together to prove general principles; and tho care of electors at present and in tho futm should be to see that none but gentlemen who guarantee to act promptly in the matter of tho harbor should he elected to the Harbor Board, for if gentlemen are elected who profess to favor tho harbor, but who act against it as far as they possibly consistently can (and the type is not scarce by any means), the harbor works will more than likely start dilatorily and proceed dilatorily, and the hope of town and country alike, being thus deferred, may make the heart of the people regarding tlic harbor sick unto death.

COUNTY COUNCIL SUBSIDIES. At the conference of delegates from County Councils to be held : n Wellington in July a number of remits relating to Government' subsidies to councils will be considered. The most complete remit on the question is that from the Hawera County. Council, which is as follows.' “That it is desirable and necessary that the Government subsidy on local bodies rates under the .Local Bodies Finance and Powers Act, rSbo, as amended from time to time by the Appropriation Act be increased, and that, in equity, such subsidy should be sp graduated as to afford most assistance to those bodies whose needs are the greatest and who rate themselves to meet them; that such graduated subsidy be payable uniformly upon the general rates collected by the local bodies; that such graduated subsidy be 5s in the £1 upon a half-penny general rate and 2s 6d in the £1 upon every additional farthing of general rate; that failing such graduated subsidy being payable to all local bodies, at least County Councils bo paid upon the scalp indicated, in order that the main arterial roads may be kept in reasonable order.”

Some of the County Councils in the colony have just cause for complaint under the present circumstances. Many of them have important arterial roads running through large areas of land from which no rates can bo collected, and in keeping the main roads open the interests of the settlers on the side roads are neglected. The Clifton County, a new Taranaki county, is particularly unfortunate in this respect. There os a great deal of work to be done in opening up the back country by providing decent roads; but the \pounty Council lias a very long stretch of main road and a great area of native and Crown lands which produce no rates. Continually there is agitation about the heavy cost of the main road; (bi(t nothing can be done, and the back-blocks settler has to struggle along with halfmade side roads and has to put up further with a toll-gate on the main road. There are doubtless many other counties in the colony in a similar position. The matter will no doubt be thoroughly threshed out at the conference; and the conference should concentrate its energies not so much on endeavoring to convince the Government that a change is necessary, for, excepting to the dullest of . persons I—those 1 —those who will not understand —the necessity must be apparent, as to devising an adequate and equitable new system.