THE LAND BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 17 June 1907, Page 3

THE LAND BILL.

HON McNAB AT STRATFORD. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE CARRIED. Weather of the most I turc prevailed on Friday night at S ratford, when the Hon. B- McNab, Minister for Lands, dolivr-r.nl an address on the Land Hill. Considering the uncongenial conditions, the attendance must he considered gratifying, as the hall was nearly half fall- Tlio Mayor of Stratford (Mr P- F- Ralfc) occupied the chairand in a tew words introduced the Minister.

Mr JUNab, in opening, ventured to ay that on no matter was there bo

much misunderstanding, even in Strat ford, aB on the Land Bill, ami he wonii U'v to clear some of thai away.

PURCHASE OF PRIVATE ESTATLs. The Bill resolved itself into several heads affecting Crown lands, native lauds and private l.iuds. The [lower to take over the private land was sought by Sir John McKcuzie,

suc.'ssive Premiers and Ministers for Lands borrowed money, till to-date £5,00(1,(100 had been borrowed in the London market to purchase private estates- The matter resolved itself into this: That the Government was faced with the necessity of borrowing money to purchase estates at continually increasing prices. Tlio price had now reached £lO per acre. An cll'ect of this policy was that the Government was running up the price of land, and to-day, when the market was a live one, the result was serious. The last sitting of Cabinet had authorised him to spend about £220,000 in purclnsing estates, anj this was a mere drop in the bucket; the half million which the Minister for Lands had the power to spend every year without consulting Parliament would

soon go- It was a power so great that in the Australian colonies the Premiers would not even propose it. Moreover, tiie amount would have to be increased if nothing were done. The Government, however, proposed LIMITATION OF ESTATES.

The way to prevent the equilibrium of the market being disturbed, was to arrange that when large buyers went to

the market large sellers would oiler. This was tiie reason that the Government had proposed to limit estates to

£50,000. }t had been said that he (the speaker) had to sell land to bring himself within tile limit. He was sorry to say he had no necessity to do so- The proposal was met with a storm of opposition by the Farmers' Union, but lie believed that in this matter the farmers were in a false position. They did not understand the proposals.

GRADUATED LAND TAX. The Government intended to put a graduated laud tax on estates of the value of above .150,000, though it was •prepared to accept a smaller revenue uy taxation of the laud than it had at present. further, it was proposed to deal with those who evaded or tned to evade the tax. One method by which it was done had come under his notice. A large land owner would sell his property to an employee at a price enormously in excess of its real vaiuc, The employee would pay down-to and mortgage the property uack to llle real owner and give nun a lease over it. These two men were then able to laugh at the Ux. Then l evasions had never before been grappled, but this sessiun the Government proposed to deal with iliein, and introduce a system of graduated taxation. Under the Lands for Settlement Act they purchased esialcs and deprived people of the freehold,, but they wanted to do this without the expenditure o! a large sum by the State. They all knew that when a man had aggregated large estates he found it advisable to cut it up, and sii by and pocket the prices which were run up by those who were willing to make themselves slaves to get land. The position w.;s that one large freeholder lorded over Uiesc leaseholders. The Government proposed to make the large land-owner sell to the farmer instead of leasing.

A CORRECTION. He had seen it recently stilcd in .1 paper that Mr Stuckey had complained, in an interview, that lie was being driven out by the insecurity of the land tenure of th" present Government. He was alleged to have jnstinced the acquisition of his estate by the Government. Tiiis was quite 'untrue. The Government had not bought Mr Stuckey's estate, although it had had the oiler of it, Mr Stuckey had sold out in the open market for £.30.000 an estate he bought for ;U)000, after worrying the Government to buy. That was the sort of criticism'they' were subjected to. Many honorable men allowed their judgments to run riot when they came to matters in which politic.il bias entered- The Leader of the Opposition had recently stated at Stratford that the. Government had taken the Ot-igo University endowments at their nominal value. Well, he had sent a wire to the registrar of the University and he found that the University endowments were still held, as they would see by the list he would read. LEASE-IN-I'ERPETUITY.

Coming then to the !)!)S) years' lease, those present would know than any concession made iu that lease would be additional. Well, Mr Seddon had declared he would not give the freehold at the original value. He (the speaker) was returned to support the freehold at the present value and there were others in the House who held that view, though in a division they would be outvoted by those wiio wished to give the freehold at the original value. The Government offered to allow tenants to pay oil' 90 per cent and afterwards to sell out to whom they liked, independent of the Land Board. That did not prejudice the freehold. They were offered nine-tenths, but there was no reason why they should acquire the remaining one-tenth later. He had been nsked by many farmers to introduce the option to allow leaseholders to change the fifi years' lease. As moved last year, and il would b,. introduced this year, the Bill did not contain amlimitation on the option. The onlv thing touched was endowments. A voice: Uu have not lead the Bill Mr MeNab: Great Scott Have not read the Hill I drafted?

, The same voice: Why did the free uoldors vote against it'/

MrMeNab: This is really fnnnv. We u.i\e not had n vote on ii at ali. ENDOWMENTS. Coming to endowments, Mr McNab traversed a ',<ood (leal of ground that he had covered'in speeches lie said that the Government intended dining the coming session to give the option of a 00 veins' base with perpetual renewal. In Otago there had been a <ncat demand for sections olVered at 21 years' Hise. but the proposed lease would be better still. There was a lar"e cNpenditurc in connection wiU education, 01.l age pensions, and charitable aid, and these items were increasing rapidly, in proportion, more rapidly than the population- At present they worked out at 17s or ISs per year. Technical eiluc.it ion would increase the amount. lie would -ay that not many vears would pass before they would have to pay .C 1,000,000 annually to the .Minister for Kditealion. Whore was that to c o from': In default of the Custom- the revenue might be obtained from the hind. l-'artners opposed ibis and vet they refused the Bill that was wing to avoid, it. Mr das. Allen a-k-

cd iiow Hi!' aiimi.il income of Cl2:i.o''O from endowments \va-. --..in-j: 1., meet lie

.'vpenditlll'e "1" Ili-aily tl .IK.l't'l'M. I'll" count rv. however, had no; siu|.in-,| development, jim! thev had in tli.- pad

-•■i-ii lam! inerca-c enormously in value. 'l'll- c> pericnee of thi' past lili years, indicated Uial another c-'uliu'v might see a single hli.el; hringing in 'as mllrli .is tile whole of the endowments at ju eseiit. That was the reason dm f;nvcniiuejit proposed to s"t aside the enormous eii.lowinent areaMr <;. A. Marchanl. county chairman, congratulated Mr Mc\'al> upon his splendid speech, and upon his having rcveah'd that the proposals of the (,'oveinnient were in the (rue interests of (lie farming eoiuiinuiity. Personally, his own regret was that the' Call,Oll'l had not l.eeu plaeeil ,l.y the <;o----vi'i'iinienl at a very inueli lower figure. Mr Manhunt I lien'moved the following resolution:—''Tliat Ihis meeting thaiiks the Minister for his address, and expresses its gratification that it is the intention Of the (lovcrnmcnt to prevent !>y means of a graduated tax on large estates, their aggregation in the hands of the wealthy, and also to retain ou the Statute Book the option of the frce--1 hold. That it also expresses, its appro-

!' val of the proposal to set aside substantial endowments for education, old age pensions and charitable aid." Mr Touhy, of Whangamoniona, seconded the motion, f The Mayor put the resolution, which was carried amidst applause.