SIR ROBERT STOUT ON THE LAND QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2023, 22 March 1890, Page 3

SIR ROBERT STOUT ON THE LAND QUESTION.

cr n . L 0 OABfARu, March 19. Sir Robert Stoat, who is bore attending the sittings of the Supreme Court, deivered, by special request, a speech on the land question in the Public Hall here to-night, In the course of his address he instituted comparisons between the land legislation of his own Government and that of the present Ministry, and mainlined that while under his Government the tendency of the legislation was t 0 obstruct the formation of large estates and to promote such settlement as necessitated personal residence on the land on conditions favorable to the settler and to the principle of State ownership, the land legislation of the present Ministry had quite the opposite tendency. In proof of this he instanced the alterations which had been made in the small grazing runs sjstern, and the facilities pjaped in the way of cash purchasers ; also the various cases with the necessity of personal residence, and selling for gash second-class land, which under the Stout-Togel-Ballance mjfime would have been reserved for settlemenfc in hill farming under a system of State proprietorship. Ee also spoke strongly against the Natiye land legislation of the present Government. Legalising freetrade in Native land was, be argued, like legalising freetrade in anything batween children and adults, who would inevitably makeittheir business to take every possible advantage of the children. Besides being opposed to the well-being of the Maoris,

the legislation in question wou'd certainly be bad for the co'ony, for it placed no limit upon the areas which might bo acquired by individuals, companies, or syndicates, and thus it encouraged the growth of that big estates system which had been the curso of fo many other p irts of the colony.. As to the land grants to the Midland Railway Company, Sir Robert said that whereas his Government had told the Company it must take its grants in alternate blocks along the line, Sir H. Atkinson now had in effect given the Company the right to select land throughout the greater part of Canterbury. He advised the people to insist on the reversal of the policy to the utmost of their ability, and told them not to let themselves be led away at the next elections by such catch cries as the Bible in schools, etc., which he predicted would be raised for the very purpose of hoodwinking the country with regard to the vital points and Issues of the land question. There was a large attendance, tho Mayor being iu the chair, and at the close of his address Sir R. Stout was enthusiastically thanked by the audience, on the motien of the Rev. Dr McGregor, seconded by Mr J. Church.