THE LAND BILL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8759, 9 March 1907, Page 2

THE LAND BILL.

Mr. Mathieson at Cheltenham.

La6t night Mr Matheson, a member of the Executive of the Farmers’ Union, gave an address in the Cheltenham Hall on the Land Bill. Mr W. Mills, took the chair. , Mr Matheson, after giving an account of his experiences as a member of the Land Commission, referred to tno experience of other countries as to the ad vantagea of the freehold. Denmark, he said, since her-land for settlement policy had been developed, had become the most productive country of its size in the world. In freehold France the peasant proprietors had been chiefly instrumental m paying off a debt tbat it v*'as thought would cripple the country. In Canada, too, hy means of tho freehold, there was an increase of population at the rate of 100,000 a year. In Ireland, where the land was generally held under leasehold, they would find the most miserable homes of any English-speaking- country. But there a change was being wrought, for not only was tho option of a freehold given but under the altered conditions if a man paid his rent for 50 years he obtained tho title to his farm. Possibly the people in the towns who advocated land nationalisation were in earnest, but the success of their policy would be tho division of tho people of tho colony, now so friendly throughout, into two classes, the taxed and’ the , untaxed, and tho amity now existing would disappear. Such a system of land tenure might be workable in a heavenly country, and though this was sometimes called God’s Own Country it was not inhabited by angels. Tho speaker pointed out tbe difficulty, if not the impossibility, of comparing values at GG years interval. The proposal to reserve all unsold land ns a reserve for charitable aid, hospitals and old ago pensions, was very attractive, but as a matter of fact it was the same for tbe State as an individual. It did not matter what part of the income was used to meet certain expenditure. -The effect of withholding the freehold would bo to retard settlement and production. In regard to the limitation of estates the speaker said that no restrictions were necessary at the present time, as subdivision was reducing tho size of estates every -year. There was no need for such a drastic law while so much Maori and Crown land was available for settlement. Nothing would shako his conviction that a man with a freehold would farm better than the man without the right to purchase, and the man who fanned well not only prospered himself but assisted to make tho towns and tho country generally prosperous. _ Mr Bruce moved. That in the opinion of this meeting no Land' Bill that denies tho right of tho freehold would he acceptable to the people of New Zealand. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously. . After soma questions had been asked and answered tho meeting closed with a vote of thanks to tho lecturer.