Land Settlement. AUCTION V. BALLOT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 411, 16 October 1889, Page 2

Land Settlement. AUCTION Y. BALLOT.

With respect to the advisability of substituting sales by auction for the ballot system of disposing of land, the Rangittkei Advocate »»y§ :—": — " Whilst writing on the land question, vre may remark that we have heard it mentioned freqnently of late that it would bo a Rood thin? to substitute the auction system for the ballot system. From this opinion we most emphatically dissent. The auction system has been tried in every colony of Australasia, and found' to produce most unsatisfactory result?. Either men of larg;e means outbid the smaller capitalists until they frighten them from competing, and the field is thus left opon for the establishment of those mammoth estates which are thp curse of nny col >ny when 1 tUfy fxist, or olse the fmuillt-r capitalist*, in fh»» *\\- I'itciO'iut of tW nnpt'ou jooin, in) iai in >.'; f/>v ilu 1 hi'? i ?(!»,!' it "■ ic.: 1 )-, "xir"i. ."?!!? ,>.ivt- w inorii>aQO iV r >^\,> % i % --^o- c< Oio v >crv !r>'L i\\ the i-id \hi\'ti n- ) J

I toria, before the adoption of the ballot, there wi»re numerous instances of the former res nits, ami Nr\v Zealand, in the days of the and ion system, supplied many instances of the latter. Another, an-) porhnps the most co ent, argument against the anctiori system is that in this colony it is tbe parent of F»ir Benfc Bills, devaluation Bills, and other measures of the kind. Only one-fift^i of the land sold in New Zealand is for cash, one-fifth is on deferred pay men*, and th& other three-fifths are on the socalled perpetual lease system The deferred -payment settlers and occupiers under perpetual lease are really Crown tenants,, and when they find that they have paid too much for their holdings, they come to the Government and ask,. nay demand, a ro-aujustment. As the Premier says,the State cannot doless than, the private proprietor is often compelled hy circumstances to do nil over the world, or than he is forced to do by law in Ireland, Then we have a Fair Rent Bill introduced as a Government measure. The Ministry introduced such a measure the session before last, but it did not become law. But they re- introduced it it in another shape last session and passed it. In fact, the Crown tenants are so numerous that if their claim be- at all a good one, they can bring such overwhelming pressure lo boar on any Government that the latter mu*t~g-ive way or go out of office."