CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 8 May 1907, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

TUH LAND QUESTION*. j (To tlic Editor.) Sir,- iSii much vituperative language: hi.--, been !mih'<l at the Ijmd Bill that I li.ive l)ui.n almost tempted to reail it, bin legal phras-eulogy is a snag; and happily a short cut to knowledge of one side of tli? (|«e.-sti,ni presented itself, us last week two liitfer opponents of the i Iloit. Mr. MeXab's Hill thundered at it | all they knew. Vet, iu spite of all their | eloquence, ihe only expression made was that the shibboleth "freehold tenure in danger*' was nothing but a party cry. The leader of his Majesty's Opposition commenced by stating that seventeen millions acres of laud were still unsold, and he was going to fight to the last gasp to prevent the (iovernment shutting it up, so that the hardworking farmer, who wanted to transmit his own land and the fruits of his toil to his posterity should not be debarred from getting his freehold: but, a little later, when speaking of endowments, he admitted that of 17 millions at least 14 millions were unfit for settlement, being mountain tops, and of the remainder there was scarcely anything but second-class land. 1 was so dull that I failed to see the villianous wrong to be worked on-the ardent freeholder, and I thought probably there will be found plenty of good men and true, who, far from uttering language, painful and i'ree, when offered a fair and just lease for a long term of years with right of renewal, will just jump at the chance, and perhaps quite • as ready to fight for their homesteads as any of his Majesty's Opposition. , Next: -\o owner is to monopolise more | thau £SO,(XK) worth of land; our L..U.0. ' was careful not to point out that, as the value was based on unimproved value, it still meant a vey handsome estate in such a small country, also that teu years was allowed for disposing of the balance. The remark that this clause did not apply to town was only a misfire, if people only consider what £50,000 of town land at unimproved value would cover. Mr. Massey favors the land system prevailing in France. I hope he does not favor a revolution such as their's was to burst up the big estates first; but unless we had something similar I fail to see how the present generation is to benefit by subdividing the land among the owners' children. The process must un- = .lanint.lv li.ive nlentv of time to work

that out. There appears in some quarters an objection to State landlordism. It is not expected to be perfect, but what an excellent opportunity there is [for members of H.J1.0. to distinguish themselves by attacking the blunders that have appeared, also in making impossible in the future such an injustice as that perpetrated by the Wellington Corporation, as quoted by Mr Massey. Surely it is not meant to suggest that there is no possibility of drawing out a just and reliable lease, otherwise thousands of those petty-minded leaseholders in the country must be in a parlous way. Has an Opposition no use in the House but to criticise and condemn all Government measures'! The display made

of the few items brought forward to prove that the present Government has no initiative, and that all its good measures come from the Opposition, ivere not of sufficient importance to make the stale old gag pass muster. Sir. Malone's illustration of the tenant fanner in Ireland with his one year b lease would appear to cut against his own argument. There appeared to be too much freehold there. Perhaps it was in the wrong hands for the welfare of the tenant. All classes are agreed that there must be a limit to those large estates, and so far we have found no justification for the cry, "the Freehold in danger." Arguments must be scarce when parties are driven to be so impertinently uonsencienl as to assert that the freeholder is a letter and harder working man than tile leaseholder, as well as more independent. The fate of hte socalled freeholder before the advent of the Advances to Settlers' Act was not a happy one, if a bad season or a run of sickness or bad luck forced him into the hands of the money-lender. Many lessons of that sort were not wanted iu any man's life. All the people are not dead who lived in the good old freehold days. Take the Liter years in the eighties, for instance, when Mr. Mussey's friends were in power. Then it was the "freehold for me: hang the other fellow," and, as we know, the other fellows went to Connaught or elsewhere in their thousands. An excellent way to test the sincerity of those gentlemen making such a cry about security of tenure would be, to enquire the selling price of some of their estates. One would soon fiud out all about the security. That song would be reserved for the Assessment Court. Perhaps the most important question affecting North Taranaki is the native land question, and it was rather disappointing that the L.M.O. devoted but a shprt time to its consideration; in fact, so little was said, it raised the thought that, after all, that may be the key of the situation. The policy which commended itself to the Speaker was to the eileet that of the seven millions of land still in the native hands, much of it equal to the best lands of the colony, a part should be set aside for native use, individualised, while-the remainder should be sold by the Government under optional or freehold tenure. Did I hear someone say on Monday, '-The man with money could always buy freehold'"! If I did not, there is no need to go very far afield to find out insecure tenure or not—the adding of acre to acre is always going on. "The freehold in danger" is a good resounding war cry, but is it enough to win upon'! It is tine it was not iu the bond, and a bargain is a bargain; but, having done so well on State lands, they would like to go one better, and theie is their'cliance. It is also true that those lauds are not exactly the property of the Opposition to deal with but you cannot expect to get Government reform and purity of administration for nothing.—l am, etc., A CASU AL.