The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1888. SIR GEORGE GREY’S LAND BILL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1754, 23 June 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1888. SIR GEORGE GREY’S LAND BILL.

Sir George Grey has now before Parliament a measure entitled the Land for Settlement Bill, which bears a very close resemblance to the Land Acquisition Bill of Mr John Ballance. The Land Acquisition Bill provided for the formation of an association of 25 or more persons for the purpose of purchasing land. The first step was the formation of the association ; the second , the selection of suitable land on which to settle; the third to communicate to the Governor the desire of the association to purchase the land, and to give satisfactory proof of ability to do so by lodging a certain sum with their proposal. On this being done the Government would' negotiate the purchase of the land, sub-divide it into suitable blocks, and settle on it the members of the association. According to the measure introduced by Sir George Grey, two parties are authorised to take the initiative steps, viz., the Governor and the local authority. The Governor, of course, means the Government of the day, and the local authority the County Council, or where the Counties Act is suspended the Eoad Boards. The Borough Council of any town may also take steps. The Governor, of his own motion, may set apart Crown lands, or purchase private lands for settlement under this Act, or he may do so at the request of the local authority. Thus nothing is to be done until either the local authority or the Governor moves in the matter. The remainder of the Bill provides for settling the people on the land, and for paying for it, but such details need not be referred to here. What we desire to deal with is the principle involved, and the rival modes of carrying out the same idea. The principle is the same in both Bills—the pioposi tion being to purchase private lands for the purposes of settlement—but the modes of carrying out this principle are widely different. As we have shown above Mr Ballance proposed that an association of the intending

settlers should be the first to move iu the matter, and that they should give evidence of their capability to carry out the purchase by lodging a certain sura in the hands of the Colonial Treasurer. Mr Ballance in his Bill inserted a very wise provision by insisting on having tenants for the land before the Government purchased. Under Mr Ballance’s Bill, therefore, the Government could not under any circumstance make a loss, because they would have sold the land before it was purchased. Corruption, too, was impossible under it, and as the taking of the initiatory steps lay with the settlers themselves they were more likely to reduce the Act to practice than persons who had no interest; in it. The Bill of Sir George Grey is totally different. The Government of the day or the local authorities are not likely to take any active steps in putting the measure into practice, except they find it suitable to their own interests. Under Sir George Grey’s Bill the door is opened widely to the basest and worst kinds of corruption, If a bank or a land company has on hand a peice of land which they find to be unprofitable to them, they have only to bring pressure to bear on the local authority, which they generally control, or upon the Government, who are often their creatures, to purchase the land under the provisions of this Bill, and of course it must be purchased. The bank or company would be all right, but would the Government? The Government would have the land on their hands looking for customers; the price without doubt would be too high, and no persons would settle upon it except fools, who would soon fail and throw it on the hands of the Government again. Such a thing could not happen under the Land Acquisition Bill, because the settlers would take care that they would select only suitable land, and that the price would be reasonable, but Sir George Grey stumped the country against the late Government to destroy their chances of introducing the most practical measure ever brought before Parliament, and now He wants to remedy the mischief he has wrought by introducing the same bill in a different form. While approving thoroughly of the principle of Sir George Grey’s bill, we certainly do not think that its details are workable, and we do not think its passage through Parliament will do any more good than to affirm the right of the State to take land when it is found necessary for the purposes of settlement.