The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12. ADVANCES TO CITIZENS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81863, 12 October 1906, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12. ADVANCES TO CITIZENS.

ONE of the most practical and Helpful measures placed on the Statute Book in this colony is the Advances to SeLtlers Act. It has been a great boon and the foundation of a competency to many a struggler in this colony.

Although the worker in the town lias been looked after a good deal as fas as coercion of masters' legislation is concerned, he has never yet been abb to dip a finger in the plum pie that is open under given conditions to tho country settler. It is proposed at last, several years after its advocacy, to give the owner of a town section who does not earn more than £2OO a year the power to borrow from the Government a sum sufficient to build a house. No one can gainsay the excellence of this proposition, and it is obvious to (he least observant that such an ability to borrow under ca-v and equitable term swill prove a paiticuarly good thing.

It may in course of time also affect the private mortgagee. For instance, in the Wellington province the mortgagee has a hold of over fifteen millions sterling on the property of the people. It is high time that the Government used means, howevei small, to reduce this private indebtedness, although, of course, it-elf holt's a very large amount of mortgage in the province. There is no question in our mind that the man, either in the country or in the town, who is able to acquire the freehold of his holding, is the most self-respecting and useful member of the community. He has in most cases had to work hard in the acquisition of his holding, and anything the Government can do to make the nation a nation of small freeholders will have a good effect.

Land legislation, both in regard to town lots and land in the countrv, sluuld of course aim to create small privileges to many and great privileges to none. The town worker a 1 the present rate of wages and high living is not usual y his own landlord, and if lie is plucky enough to borrow money to build he is exceedingly lucky to become a freeholder at a! 1 . The Government, in its propo-it'on o advance eitl/i-ns nicncv at 5 per cent, is likely to benefit the town worker a s much as it did by introducing the Public Trust Office, which has simplified 10 an extraordinary degree the administration of deceased persons estates, and niado tho avenue for dishonest ixecutors and lawvers narrower than heretofore.