The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1912. THE LAND BILL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 31, 30 September 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1912. THE LAND BILL.

The new Land Bill which lias been looked for with tome curiosity on all hands was placed before the House, last week. It is a measure of some thirty-four clause© and, we presume, must be taken as merely a. beginning, if the present Government's land reform protestations are any more reliable than those of their predecessors in office. The measure touches upon town-planning, exchange of endowment lands for other areas, payment of land board members, the conditions-under which small grazing runs and pastoral runs are held, subdivision of, private lands, sale of settlement lands, and limitation of area, but nothing very drastic or revolutionary is proposed, and some of the amendments suggested are uncommonly like old friends in new clothing. It is admitted by the Government that the present Bill is more a matter of keeping faith and a design to meet what it considers more urgent reforms than, a Bill putting forth the Government's land policy as a whole. Indeed, on looking through the present Bill, it is difficult to discover any very material change, though there are. numerous alterations of a minor nature. For instance, the drawbacks of the ballot system to those desiring to become bona fide settlers are generally admitted and deplored, but it is not any great comfort to know that all . the improve-

ment suggested is that applicants foi land who after two unsuccessful shots at the ballot are still landless are tr have preference over all other applicants at all' subsequent ballots until they shall have been declared successful at the ballet. The new method of voluntarily sub-dividing large estates under Government direction has its good features, as anything which encourages closer settlement and the sub-division of largo holdings would have, and under it the Minister for the time being is given power to confer with the owner of a property, and to enter into a voluntary agreement with him for sub-dividing the land. The subdivision must be of a nature satisfactory to the Minister, who has the right to pass the plans, and who must also be satisfied with the reserve price placed on the sections. The land is then to lie offered by public tender, either for sale outright or on lease with a purchasing clause. The inducement to the extensive land owner to take advantage of this provision appears to be that, if the Bill were law, he could request the Government to pay the whole, costs and charges of the survey of the land and the road-

making, this money to bo refunded within a period to be agreed on. That the right to Crown tenants to obtain their freehold should lie included in the Bill was, of course, expected: without

this the Bill would hare been a mere sham. The measure before Parliament proposes to give Crown tenants holding laud under the Land for Settlements Act the right to the freehold, and provides that in the future v. ;,-■

posal of land under the Act the Minister may sell the ice simple. The terms will doubtless be unacceptable to opponents of this course, and theie are many in the present ouse. , The clause sets out that existing. Crown lessees may convert to the freehold "at a price equal to the value of the land at the time of purchase, less the present value of the lessee's interest in the unexpired term of his lease, and his interest m the value of any improvements effected by him, or to the value of which he is entitled." It is not apparently proposed to give the right of freehold at the original value, or at even the present so-called unimproved value of the land, but at a new valuation winch, requires looking into and- consideration. The measure i<s likely .to couse muhe debate in tlit House when the second reading is reached.