PUBLIC TRUSTEE LEASES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 2, 27 January 1909, Page 4

PUBLIC TRUSTEE LEASES.

a i>i:esent-da, 'Hioi;le.m. The fast approaching expiry of native leases eommunly called "IVP, leases" will before very long be the subject of the day to those hundreds of holders interested (writes "D.J. 11." in the New Zealand Times). What will the next twenty-one years' rent be? How much will be allowed for improvements)! What are the improvements, etc.? are questions that are. already heard. The rent question i would be inclined to answer by saying it depends on how it is assessed. At present any leases falling iu by Education Boards, etc., are not assessed on the unimproved value. or, to qualify myself, sb-cnllcd unimproved value. In iieliim as an arbitrator recently to decide the amount of nut for another twenty-one years' lease 1 had occasion to point out that the rent per acre was getting fixed in a fat year, but when the lean ones come (histon repeats itself) the rent is just the same. On this particular section of land I had worked fifteen years ago and knew that as much as 0s tier chain was 51a id for clearing the timber off the fence line alone, which bears out how necessary it is to know what the original bush was like. Vide later remarks.

Now, if you take the Maori landlord's position here, you will at once notice that we farmers have by self-denial, hard work, special rates, building factories, etc., increased his unimproved land value. The history of increased valuations as assessed by the valuers from time to time will tell you' at once tl at the unimproved value has risen incomparably with the improvements. So-and-so sold out for £4O per acre, therefore he must he rated 011 a £4O basis. The value for improvements is keenly looked into, but the rest, of course, doesn't matter—it is all unimproved value. For a comparison take two bush sections owned by Jones and Smith, P.T. leases, side by side, in virgin timber, and of equal value. Jones felled and grassed his fifteen years ago; the logs and stumps to-day are just about gone. Smith only felled and grassed his three years ago this year. Put both these sections in the market to-day. no buildings on either, and .(ones' will bring three to four pounds per acre more than Smith's. Lease them if you like, anil Junes' will bring at least 7s (Id more than Smith's. This difference is the market value of improvements gained by Jones for his ■money and interest which is gone in the shape of decayed timber. AVill the •valuer take, this into consideration? If not, he ought to. • Another point is, when the claims for felling, clearing, etc.. come up, how are the arbitrators lo tell what sort of timber was growing on the land originally? Was it heavy or light? What did it cost to fell at. the time? To cite a ease, take the felling of everything two chains wide around a section. 1 know sections where I have given and also taken as much as 20s per tree for felling. Fences should never be erected with standing trees in reach. Can full improvements be claimed in this ease? And then there are those who hold what is commonly termed old leases—that is to say, least's with a £5 limit for improvements, and it query about a re-lease. These holders have amused me since the elections. They are flitting about, naturally, trying to pull the strings. Sonic people who don't study politics think because Tarnnaki has returned four Opposition members the Government, are going lo be turned out and the Onpositiou followers (i.e.. the rich men mostly) are miing lo be made richer. Whv should those holding these old leases, who have been paying 25 per cent, rental for (lie hist 27 years approximately, participate equally in future with holders of up-to-date leases?

i I am inclined to tliiuk tin; time will wine whim till! (lovornnient of the day will ]>iit on its thinking-cap over these Maori hinds. Tin' hygiene of tin- Maori is not benefited by an increased salary. ■A lenient (Jovernment gave liack Hie. reliel Maoris here 21)0.0110 acres of vicli land, and liurd-workiiijr white people are increasing llieir landlords' spendingpower, which spells ruin and extinction of the race. The fact of a Maori having iiii assured income is his curse. It is nearly always mortgaged in advance, and the more he. can negotiate on it the 'worse for himself. We piikchns, ivho are. I suppose, his Christian protectors, are doing next to nothing to help hiin. 'His children have no facilities for imnrnving themselves. A few come to school, lint the. larger proportion do not, and the truant inspector, if he has the miwer, lets things drift on. We are slowly exterminating the finest aboriginal race in the world. _ ■ .lust a word ahout the individualised land of Hie Maori and the. collection of rates thereon. These lands vary in area ■from, say, 10 acres to 200 acres. The smaller areas predominate,because most of the land is rich. Local bodies strike a rate. Tlie native, owner, generally, lias a complicated long name, is hard to locate, harder still to collect from, and is eventuallv summoned. Judgment is "iven for amount due. and there the matter ends. He has land in his name, it is true, but the law protects him from beiii" harassed further. To cut a Ion" storv"short. local bodies' machinery oiHit to'be brought in to simplify the collection of rates on these lands. There is no doubt in time, to come, either when the Maori is likened to the moil or the, Government of tile day gets hard up. lliese 'Maori lands will be sold to the people.