THE LAND QUESTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 497, 21 October 1909, Page 3

THE LAND QUESTION.

AN UNCOMPROMISING EEASEHOEDER.

MR T. E. TAYEOR ON EAND.

The land tenure question is still the one above all others which rivets the attention of members, and Mr Taylor had close attention from all parts of the House when he dealt with the eternal question. He followed the Prime Minister and congratulated him on having made a more important statement than any included in the Governor's Speech. If the Prime Minister would help the House to settle the land question this session he would deserve more thanks from New Zealanders than any other Premier.

The member for Christchurch North went on to mention that the previous night Mr Buick had said that there should be no Crown tenants and no leaseholders. Every man should be his own landlord, according to Mr Buick. Well, there was a population of 1,000,000 in New Zealand, and there were 130,000 freeholders. What about the other 870,000? Were we to give them the freehold ?

Mr Buick : If they can pay for it, yes. Mr Taylor ; If they can pay for it! Those freeholders, he continued, held the title to nearly every acre of first-class land in New Zealand. If Mr Buick’s statements were followed to a logical conclusion there would be no retired farmers living in luxury in the city; there would be no tenant farmers as lessees of those retired farmers. But why should we distinguish between the Crown tenant and the man holding land under lease from a private owner ? Following this up logically, we would have to give the leaseholder of every educational reserve aud Harbour Board endowment the right to go to the authority concerned aud say : “Gentlemen, as a leaseholder I am a slave and a serf of yours, I want the freehold, aud I-want it at the value it had when created an endowment. 5 ' That was the philosophy of the Freehold as laid down by the Opposition. Mr Fraser : No, it is not.

Mr Taylor: You say it is not, but another member of the Opposition would say the very opposite. What about the tens of thousands of people who occupy shops and offices in the towns ? They are leaseholders if they are serfs. Then every man occupying a shop in Wellington here has the right to go to his landlord and say : “ I want the freehold of my site, and I want it at the value it was when I entered into a lease with you.”