THE NEW LAND BILL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1670, 8 December 1887, Page 2

THE NEW LAND BILL.

The new Land Bill completely reverses the wise and just land policy which has been carried out in this colony for the past siz years. The tendency of that policy has been to conserve the interests of the public at large, but now the land is to be once more handed over to tho tender mercies of the land sharks and the speculators. The Government are not going to work without knowing exactly the injuries their policy will inflict on what Sir George Grey would call “the unborn millions.” The subject has been fully ventilated, and it is now fully understood. Rormer Governments may be pardoned for their actions. In their time there was no talk about perpetual leasing, and if they disposed of the laud in those times on the best terms they could get for it there was some excuse for them. It is different now. The subject is well understood, and the action of the Government must be regarded as a determined effort to stamp out of existence the perpetual leasing system. To show how truly we have gauged their intentions we have only to direct attention to the fact that they have made the bill retrospective by offering special inducements to people who hold their land under perpetual lease to convert their holdings into freeholds. They a r e not satisfied 1 with dealing with the future, hut aim I at destroying all the good work that I has been done in the past. All this they are doing in their insane efforts to raise money. During the adminis-

tration of the Stout-Yogel Government land sales were discouraged, and all efforts were directed towards settling people on the land under the leasehold system. The consequence was that the land fund account showed a deficit, for of course Mr Ballance could not get the money when he did not sell the land. The object of the bill introduced by the present Government is to raise money; it is, in fact, a bill to enable the Government to force the sale of the lands of the colony so as to raise the wind. They propose now to open all lands for sale under the free selection system, and thus offer special facilities tor gridironing, 'landsharking, dhmmyisra, and fraud. This free' selection will work in this way : Supposing there is a beautiful Talley between two hills—as is often the case—and a man selects 640 or 2000 acres out of it, as the case may be, leaving nothing but mountains all around him, he not only gets the land he buys but also the mountains, for no one else can make a home on them. The valley he has bought: the hill country around it he has “ gridironed,” for it would be useless to anyone else. Then they will allow a man to take up a block of 640 acres of firstclass land, and 2000 acres of secondclass land, in every survey district in New Zealand, and thus offer facilities for the land falling into the hands of companies and speculators. Then they have increased the areas of small grazing runs from 6000 acres to 20,000 acres, in view no doubt of the falling in of the leases of the Canterbury runs. And finally, they have determined to discontinue the village settlement system, so that the working man shall have no opportunity of making a home for himself on the land on which he toils. 1 If the people only understood what the effects of this monstrous bill will be, they would take immediate steps to compel their representatives to reject it, for it is % villainous measure.

REVISION OP IHR' TARIFF, Major Atkinson has promised Parliament that he will rerise the Customs tariff next session in a way that will satisfy both Freetraders and Protectionists. We have not the slightest hesitation in saying that this is an utter impossibility, but we can very easily see what Major Atkinson’s proposals will be. He will increase the Customs duties all round, and impose taxes on goods which we must import as well as on goods we can produce locally. He will increase the duty on “tea, sugar, tobacco, spirits, and salt,” just as the Political Reform Association suggested, in proportion as the protective duties are put on. He will thus increase the cost of living to the poor, and this may possibly satisfy to some extent Freetraders, whose great object is to get revenue, hilt it will not satisfy Protectionists. Major Atkinson said he was neither a Freetrader nor a Protectionist, and we believe him, for he has not sufficient stability of character to be anything that requires thoughtful considerations. To be neither a Freetrader nor Protectionist is convenient, because when one is half-way between the two he can easily turn to whatever side the wind is blowing.