POLITICAL NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 127, 16 October 1912, Page 6

POLITICAL NOTES.

TI-IE LAND BILL. Conversation in the lobbies with some prominent Oppositionists indicates that the Land Bill, in which the Government proposes to give ell'ect to a portion of its policy, may encounter less bitter and determined opposition than some people have foretold for it (says the Dominion). Although it covers a good deal of ground, the present Land Bill does not. offend the susceptibilites of the moderate and extreme leaseholders sitting in Opposition in anything like so great a degree as do some features of the Government land policy which have yet to be put into legislative form. The proposal to give lease in perpetuity tenants of ordinary Crown lands the right to purchase their holdings on more liberal terms than have hitherto obtained does not raise the question of leasehold versus freehold, since these tenants have for some years enjoyed the right to purchase their holdings at present value. If the Government proposes next session to give lease-in-perpetuity tenants of settlement lands the right to acquire the freehold the leasehold party will, no doubt, exert all its powers against the proposal. One Opposition member, who was spoken to on Saturday, declared that if such a proposal had been contained in the present Laild Bill, the House would have been kept sitting until Christmas. No doubt the Bill as it stands will be keenly debated, but the general opinion in the lobbies seems to be that a battle-royal of the respective parties on the land question will be deferred until the Government brings down a Bill giving full effect to its announced policy.