HON. J. BALLANCE ON THE NEW LAND AMENDMENT ACT.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 241, 11 February 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

HON. J. BALLANCE ON THE NEW LAND AMENDMENT ACT.

Referring to a leading article on the new Land Amendment Act passed last session, the Hon. John Ballance, lato Minister of Lands, writes in reply to " The New Zealand Farmer " for February as follows :—: — " Your article on the Land Amendment Act of last session I have read with attention and much interest, and I think you take the right vievr, both as to the policy and probable effect of the measure. There is room for dummyism to an unlimited extent, though land speculation in this colony has received a severe blow from which it will not soon recover.. The Act will operate differently in different parts of the colony. In Auckland, for instance, the effect will hardly be appreciable. You have all along had the privilege of buying land for cash at an upset pried of 5s an acre, while your Board has shown less predilection for deferred payment and perpetual lease than any other in the colony. The option of selecting the Bystem, in Auckland, strange to say, may not improbably have the effect of favouring perpetual lease, as the " sentimental farmer," who wants his freehold, may have his lease changed into that tenure as soon as he has made the statutory improvements, which are not onerous. My opinion is that no more cash will be derived from Auckland than in the past. " Coming to Canterbury, the Act may bo administered in a way to prevent small-farm settlement on tho available lande of tho Crown altogether. If these lands, which are mostly runs under the Canterbury run system, are declared second class, the reduction of the price from 40s to 10s will stimulate a desire to acquire 2,000 acres in that position which will serve as the key of the run, while the 2,000 area, if thought might be multiplied by application on tho part of friends and relations to any extent without a very palpable evasion of .the declaration. There may therefore be an attempt to work the proclamation so as to secure a renewal of the leases for practically an unlimited term. This would bring cash into the Treasury, but at a great sacrifice. In Wellington pressure will immediately be brought to have some of the splendid bush lands of tho Wairarapa proclaimed second-class, and if tho Minister should yield, land which would have been settled by small farmers in areas not exceeding 320 acres, will be monopolised by a feAV families. The extension of the free selection before survey will retard settlement instead of promoting it, and the eyes of the country will be picked out by the knowing ones instead of by association of intending settlers. In OtaSTO the Act might be jobbed to promote the Interests of the run holders as in Canterbury. Outside this possibly it will have little effect, but will create confusion. " The ostensible policy of the Act is to place on the land men of capital, drawn from other countries, who will employ labour. I do not think the Act will produce this result, and if it did I could not agree with the policy, for the employment o? hired labour in clearing bush land especially is only a temporary benefit, the labourers after a time being forced back into the towns. As to men of capital coming to the country to take up such Crown land as is now available, experience is rather againstit. During the last three years a number of capitalist farmers have been introduced under the Immigration regulations, and I belie vo nearly every one of them, likewise man, bought improved farms at from £4 to £8 an acre. I have always thought the best colonising material was to be found in the sons of settlers, for whom I drew up the Special Settlement Regulations. But I do not at present wish to defend anything with which I have been connected. "I think the system of perpetual lease will come to be preferred to all other systems by the settlers themselves, who can see that they are paying a small interest for their money, that they are exempt from fines if they should not be able to pay at the appointed time, as they would not be if they were in the hands of the mortgagee, and that they have many claims on their landlord, the State, who can never do an injustice. Ido not object, therefore, to every man having his choice of tenure. (Should we not go a step father, and say that the man who had paid cash would have the right to transmit his tenure into a perpetual lease? Thi* is nationalisation and perfect freedom of choice.) I make, however, an exception in respect of village settlers, and Ido so for their own sake. I know the weakness and necessities, and I could not' favour a proposal that would , place them at the morcy of the storekeeper, 'the small moneylender, or the " consoliddtpr of farms/ .' ,' ' I am, dear sir, ' . . Yours faithfully, "J. Ballance."

■ An exchange tells of a girl \yho is too poor to own more than on© chair, so that when her. lover oomes he has to s. bring a chair with him. This item must come from somo other plariet. •It smack of human nature. '•'„.' ... . , t iA,summor hotel-keeper has been robbed. Now he knows how it is himself. The feast of imagination. — Having no dinner, but reading a cookery-book.