The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1912. THE LAND BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 114, 30 September 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1912. THE LAND BILL.

The long-promised Land Bill, which was going to revolutionise the world, which for the purposes of this Bill is New Zealand, was brought down in the House on Thursday night, and proved to be but a very puny child. As a matter of fact, it is only half a Bill, for following its policy of "keeping things steadily in view." the Government announced that the Bill was not complete, and would be supplemented by further legislation next year. This, of course, is characteristic of the "Tailioa" Government, and in the meantime the country can take its breakfast at ease, secure in the comfortable certainty that there is not to be any drastic interference with existing legislation. The new Bill, as it stands, is mainly an elaborate mass of machinery clauses of more or less value, and, to quote Sir James Carroll, it "might easily have been compiled in less time than it takes to vote two or three millions in Committee of Supply." The Bill in the meantime lias been referred to the Lands Committee for report, and really the only important feature of this adolescent political stripling is the proposal to give the holders of renewable leases the option of acquiring the freehold at a price to be fixed by arbitration at the time the option is exercised. There is nothing very dreadful about this proposal, and the only objection to it is that it hardly goes as far as the Government had led us to believe that it was prepared to go. The lessee will not get the land at the original value, but at a price equal to its value at the time he makes up his mind to purchase it, less the value of his own Improvements and of his interest in the lease. This is really only half a loaf that the Government is offering, and we doubt if there will be any very eager rush among the tenants to exchange their leases for the freehold at the present value. AVe do not agree with a contemporary when it suggests that the Government has "been restrained by an awakening conscience and by the spread of the leasehold sentiment among the electors," because if Taranaki is any criterion, there is a very strong freehold sentiment in the country, except as regards endowment leases, and the farmers of this country had anticipated a much wider measure of reform than Mr. Massev has seen fit to grant. For the rest, this immature measure is mainly a collection of machinery clauses, many of which are admirably devised., What is described as "a new settlement

scheme" is really nothing more nor less than a rearrangement of Mr. Mackenzie's plan for facilitating the acquisition of estates by parties of settlers for subdivision among themselves, a scheme which should very properly have the support of members of all shades of political opinion. As a matter of fact, it appears to be simply an improvement upon • the existing scheme, along lines which Mr. Massey's predecessor was preparing to submit to the House when he went out of office. The Bill, as a whole, i 3 a veritable mouse from a mountain which has been in such agonising labor for months past, and it carries more than a suggestion that it is a kite flown deliberately with a view to ascertaining the views of the country before a more elaborate measure is introduced. If the second instalment is no more ferocious than the first one, the Government might very well leave the whole matter alone, for the country—be it leasehold or freehold in its political predilections—is not going to be satisfied with a measure that is neither "fish, flesh, fowl nor good red herring."