PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 32, 8 October 1913, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Welinglton, October 7 Hie House met at 2.30. THE JUDICATURE BILL.

The Judicature Act Amendment i3ill was introduced by Governor'* Message. Mr Herdrnan said that the Bill had jecn . brought down because it was oecessarj to strengthen the Supreme Jourt bench. It was'the intention 4 the , Government' to,. put. ,the Bill .hiwjgh, but not. be'fore'the'Statutes Committee ;had had an op-portunitj-of it from, every .ielvppiiit. [' At the present; time, 'the fudges had top, much, to'"do! The exwouldsonlyi be'the. salaries jjf;two.extra judges. 1 ' : ';.' ; '

■ ; The Bill ; tfs£ 'read !a 'first "time' and ■eferfed 'to'the-'Statutes' Revision Comnitreei nUHi ''' : \ '"'" ' ' " '•" " (i ~ .„THE..LAN©. BILL: ' : !' '':

The debate on the second reading of the Land Bill was resumed by Mr Okey, who defined freehold as a powerful magnet to attach people to the ;and. He commented on the liberal provisions of the Bill, which would ,„;My , J.j, €,, Thomson.. said" 'th'at 1 the' Prime Minister was riot always in ravor of closer: : settlfemfent. He quoted Han'sa?4,.'.tq s'hpw that if he had lis way the Lands for Settlement •Act would never have become law. His Bill was riow carrying out everything which he had so strongly condemned in 1894.

Mr Anderson agreed that drastic cgislatiort was necessary to break up >ig estates. That legislation could >nly take the shape of "a graduated tax, lecause the buying up of estates •ould not go on with profit. It was lot sufficient in the Bill to bring about

! i sub-division of first-class land. He strongly deprecated the proposal to dispense with residential conditions. Mr McCallum attacked sub-clause 2 >f section 48, which he declared gave :he freehold at the original value, vliich lie would vote against. He aas an ardent freeholder, but it was tot honest to the great bulk of the veople- of the Dominion to put a purchasing clause in existing leases. He ;are notice of an amendment that no State money be loaned to assist any settlement tenant to acquire the freehold.

Mr G. Witty traced the concessions aiado to settlers by past Liberal Governments. While the names of Rolteston, McKenzie, Seddon and Ward .vould be handed down as men who :ried to give settlers a chance in life, chat of Maesey would go down as one .vho sold the birthright of the people. The Government has just as much right to give lessees of private lands' right to acquire the freehold. To be consistent the freehold of national endowment should be parted with just .is the freehold of settlement lands ivas being sold. The House resumed at 7.30. Mr G. V. Pearce contended that the policy of the Government was to settle the country in. small freehold. National endowments were in some cases blocking settlement, and to get over that difficulty exchanges would have to be made, but lie admitted that negotiations would have to be handled with a good deal of caution. The .Bill was one of the best ever in(traduced into tho House, and would be approved by all the country.

Mr G. Laurenson denied that tli • country would endOiSn the 1'..:1., and challenge. I he '.Jo. r i' ,, uun , iit to meat 1 ini in any of the < ltios in the question. 'Die blackest page in the history of New Zealand- was l'iat part of it frhen the lana of all :hr> pe t,m* was sold to a few Crown tf-uaniK. He defied the Government to take a referendum on the question as to whether any more of the Crown Lands shall he sold or not. He approved of clause 18, but denounced the proposal to give the freehold at'the original value. It was the very irony of fate that those who had opposeed the Land for Settlement Aet should now propose not only to continue borrowing for land

purchase purposes, but that they were actually increasing it.

Sir W. Buchanan said the Bill was ,n extension and an improvement on he existing law so far as taking land or settlement was concerned, but he ,oped that the Government would deare that the lands first acquired under he compulsory cluases should be unniproved land. The man who did not mprove his lands should be the first t o suffer. Mr G. W. Russell said that the jands Report showed only 100,000 .cres of first-class land now remained o be dealt with under the ordinary aw. "When he heard the contemptu)us terms in which the leasehold pi'in■iple was spoken of by some members )f the House, he wondered whether Jios.e members really knew;-what the ■ondition of the country was twenty ;ears ago. He had no objection to lolders of 999 years' leases getting ;he freehold. They practically had the rcehold now, and the moment they vcquired a Crown grant they came inder the Land Tax. The Governnent was not logical and was not. givng the freehold to holders of endowncnts. The future land policy of the •ountry would go iif the direction of ■eplacing the sheep-grower by the lairyman. All our policy should be lirected to that end. He looked forward to the time when we would count nir dairy factories not by hundreds, rat by thousands. When they did :hat they would be following .what was clearly our destiny. ;-, . The debate was continued by Mr \V. H. Han'is and F. H. Smith. Mr Scott said that there was plenty of land for the young man who was vnxious and willing to get it, and >ven at present prices he held that ,ie could make a good living. He :onsidered that the Bill was an admirable one in many respects. He vould not say that it was perfect, >ecuuse there were several things in .t which he disagreed with. Mr Harris said that it appeared to ing that criticism had been lev/lied ,t the policy of the Bill, rather than it the Bill itself. The policy em bod i■d in the Bill was to give every leaselolder of Crown land an opportunity >f obtaining the freehold. The man ,n the land would look on the opponents of the Bill as people retarding she progress of the country. It was ■ecogniseti that New Zealand must be ntt up into small freeholds. It wa '■•no'iritention of the Government to VsW some attention on the land o twite's Bay. : He was convinced th'At tlie principles of thej Bill would ( •b:Hmend themselves to the country renbraily.' ■' "' ; '' f ' Mr'G. Forbes sa'id what theiGoverrjVnfeit should piit its mind ito was the 3U'bJdivlsion ; of l'ai'ge' estates! Wot smajlj hr\6bl '•■) '','' , " ' ' ;u i .. . 'The debate was'adjourned, and the House rose at 12.55 a.m.