PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 47, 25 October 1913, Page 3

PARLIAMENT.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24. ‘ LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

THE LAND BILL

[Pku Press Association."] ( ; Wellington, October 21. rThe .Legislative Council met at 2.130. V

, The debate on the Land Bill was resumed hy Col. W. 1). Baillie, who said ho. would support. tho -Bill. ■ , The, Hon. Baul said that tlie Bill bjrojce the? contract between the tenant ( apd tbe, State, giving the tenant benelits not contemplated in the original .lease. This disregard of bargains sot an, exceedingly bad precedent, which' might, have dangerous influence in other directions. At present the national endowments were safe, but it was only a question of time before these too would be assailed. The time would come when all leasehold tenures would have to provide for the right of the freehold, and in the face of precedent, the concession could not be refused. The fight of the future would not be between freeholders and leaseholders, but for a more general application of the land tax, in which the landless and leaseholders would join against, the, jfreeholdet b. " tW, Hon. C. ; H. Mills gave a general support of the Bill. ' Air tt. V, Bell, . in reply, said that he did not, hold with those who claimed that wo should restrict every land occupier to one particular glebe and shut him up within the gaol of his own fences. It was freedom wo wanted, yiiere'f ore,he considered that non-resi-dence' was not a bar to settlement. As long as he had charge of legislation lie hoped it would always be in the direction of granting tiie greatest possible liberty to settlers. The Bill was not strictly a Party measure. It had been carried through tho House by a large majority comprised of both sides in politics, which went to show that there was a large body of public opinion behind it. He denied that the Bill favored aggregation, because of the freehold being more susceptible to sub-division than the leasehold. This was the first attempt made to strictly 1 limit the rights of private freehold, ! ' The Bill was read a second time add referred to the Land Committee, aiict the Council adjourned till 8 p.m.

'kbtJSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. sir ;i> <( r ( The Tlouso mot. at 2.30.

' ' Tn i'oply to Sir .1:' Ward, 'Mr Maslov <JeWed that' a' Bill] had been'prettied oil : pldctoral, 1 reform Vrithout '•Bonding A 1 substitute for the scc'oUd M ;; 1 1 1 '’The 1 Local Bodies Authorisation and Validation Bill was read a first time; The Bill provides for validating the oil’tlte' otcasioii" of "th(i visit of the battleship Now Zealand and the^Auckland Exhibition. It was, agreed to take the discussion 'oil 'the' second reading lof tin ‘lmprest BiBj 1 providing jhi' £1,200,000’," '‘introduced ’by ' OoVeniof’s 1 'Sir ’J J Ward boniplaitiedf that the Audit '&y had lieeri 1 ‘ altered 3 frolna ' pfead’dit' to post-audit!—Mr Allen, admit* 'tpd'Tliat the alteration.had' bboh'inadej 1 ’biit it did 1 not.affect the position. ’ THE NAVAL POLICY’ : '"Sir' J. Ward sought further inform-* atioil regarding the, naval policy.

Massey replied that the policy •Would' be introduced on Tuesday. ’There' 'Avoid'd be’ a Bill in connection with it.

Sir J. Ward said that ho hoped the matter would not be made a party one and cause'a split in the country as had been , the case in Canada. Mr Massey endorsed this view, explaining that one portion of the proposals requiring legislation was owing to the distance between the Dominion and Britain. LAND ADMINISTRATION. "Mr Geo. Forbes complained of inefficient land administration. The I House j resumed at 7.30.

Mv"L. I M.' Isitt chided tlie Government with being a party kept in office by the large landowners, who bought 'up Liberal newspapers for the purpose of stifling Liberal opinion. It was 'frequently charged against the Opposi'tion 'tliat' they had the brewers on their side. Ho had carefully inquired unto the position and found that ’blower's'Und wine and spirit merchants bvete us 'hi uch' one-sided as .the other. Not'so the’large land-owners. They were all on 'one side—the side of the Government. If the legislation was passed it was not a measure worth passing. It was not borrowed from their Liberal opponents. But for the efforts of the Opposition they would have perpetrated some great errors, such as a proposal in the Land Bill, which, if passed, would have given one big landowner the right of renewal for twenty-one years over 319,000 acres of' leasehold. Did that mean settlement, and still more settlement ? .The Public Trustee’s report had been suppressed because, it imperilled the interests of the legal profession.

' The' Prime' Minister, continued Mr Isitt, said'that only men of his own color were to bo put on the land 'boards. Mr Gibson, of Canterbury, one of the finest men in the Dominion, had been 'sacrificed to that narrowminded principle. The Government ’iWs professedly "a Government of economy, yet it cost £7OO to furnish the odices of the Civil Service Commissioners, a greater sum than the houses of most people cost, and this while the back-blockers, for whom the Prime Minister’s heart bled, had to trudge homo in the mud. Ho wae quite prepared to let the people judge the Government by their performances. When they contrasted the promises with the performances they would find that they had done nothing. ' The debate was continued by Messrs J. Payne, H. G. Ell, 0. W.- Russell,

G. Witty, and T. Buxton, who spoke in general condemnation of the Government policy and administration. Mr J. 11. Bradney appealed to the Opposition tp -.gOt on with the business. The debate was continued by Messrs Wilkinson, Atrnore, Laurenson, Kerries, Webb, McDonald and Massey. Mr Massey denied the accuracy of Mr Russell’s deductions from the Post Office Savings Bank figures, and quoted figures to show that the late Government was never able to get a million of money in a year for purposes of State. The House was left sitting when the Telegraph Office closed at 2 a.m. After the Telegraph Office closed at 2 o’clock Sir Joseph Ward read a telegram'stating that there was a movement on foot to make the whole of Steward Island a sanctuary for birds. The proposal was the most monstrous he had ever heard of, and he would like the Minister to make a statement on the subject on Tuesday.

Mr Ell asked what the .Minister oi' Public Works proposed to do to relieve the acute labor difficulty in Christchurch.—Mr Fraser denied that there was any acute lack of employment in Christchurch. _ There was plenty of work in the Dominion if men would only go to it. Ro would,, however, look into Mr Ell’s representations.

Mr Witty made an urgent appeal that 1 the Goveranient should insist for the future that all properties on which Government money has been? lent should be insured in the State Fire Insurance, Office.—Mr Allen, in reply, said he had given instructions that the State Fire Department must be assisted in every way short 'of compelling j>eople to insure in that office. |le also wished to correct a statement that the office was losing. There was no foundation for such a statement. On the question of the Post Office deposits, he denied that the Government was repponible for the withdrawals. That position might happen to any Government, hut the immediate cause was that local bodies were offering a higher rate of interest to depositors. He did not object to this, but he did object to the unfair way ‘ in which the circumstance had been used to. injure the Government and the State. The .Bill passed its third reading and the House rose at 2.30 a.ra. j ■