MR. ROBERTSON AND THE FREEHOLD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1013, 22 October 1912, Page 3

MR. ROBERTSON AND THE FREEHOLD.

Mr John Robertson, M.P. for this constituency, is opposed to the freehold tenure. During the debate on the second reading of the Land Laws Amendment Bill, he said it seemed to him that the Bill was the starting point of a policy which represented almost entirely a reversal of the land policy ol the last twenty years. He disagreed with the polic' set forth in this Bill, which was not going to be ol any lasting value to the country. It was time they took a less material view of pro sperity. At the bottom of this agitation for the freehold was a wish to get something for nothing The people on the land in New Zealand were working for landlords just as though they paid rents. In regard to the freehold, he submitted that if anything in mat shape were granted a condition of occupation in use should be imposed. They had no right to give away land at the present time that vs as not theirs or any Government’s to give. Tins Bill was the final instalment to bring about a condition of things seen in older countries. If this Bill became law it would be found that it was a will-u’-the-wisp, and instead ol satisfying the landless it would simply increase the problem. The Bill was making the State a laud agent to ai a.ige sales for large laud owners. He would oppose the measure at every stage.