THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1893. THE FREEHOLD TENURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2489, 13 April 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1893. THE FREEHOLD TENURE.

In discussing the speech delivered by the lion. Major Steward to his constituents at Fairlie recently, the Timaru Herald went to a great deal of trouble to prove that the present Government had destroyed the freehold tenure of land. It argued that it was almost impossible f >r any one to get the freehold of laud from the Government now because it was hampered with restrictions and conditions with which people could not comply. Jl Now the fact is that land can be obtained for cash now as well as at any previous time. There are three conditions under which land cau be obtained from the Grown, viz, lease in perpetuity, occupation with the right to purchase, and the cash purchase system. Thus one can buy for cash, or occupy with the right to purchase, and eventually obtain the freehold under either condition How then can people say —and there is nothing said more frequently—that the present Government have destroyed the freehold tenure ? It is absolutely untrue, yet the Opposition are endeavouring to make capital out of it. The meaning of all this is that speculation iu land is practically at an end, owing to the restrictions under which the land is sold A cash purchaser must put onefifth of the purchase money down with his application, and pay the balance within a month, but he cannot get the Crown grant then. He must improve the land to the extent of £L per acre for first -class land, and ten shillings per acre for second class land, and after he has done this he is entitled to make the farm his own, and obtain the freehold title to it. Now these are the conditions which the Conservative party say have destroyed the freehold tenure; it is, they say,next to impossible for any one to obtain a freehold now. It is certainly next to impossible for speculators to do so, because it would not pay them to make the improvements required by the Act. Hitherto the plan had been that a cash purchaser had nothing to do only pay his money, and let his land lie idle until his neighbours had improved theirs, and it became more valuable. When the surrounding country became settled, and roads and bridges were constructed, the speculator stepped iu, and sold Iris land at a profit of perhaps over JOO per cent, on his purchase money. That is how the laud speculator went to work j a the p&sty that is ho w he made money out of the mrnt of Irif neighbour’s,brow, and now, when this has beep stopped, and he is called upon to improve his land' jilge other people, he is protesting that the freehold tenure lias been destroyed. He dove Relievo iu being hampered with -'Uiiionhe !/o,’?ght the land and he °° , ' r.o do tt’haFh 1 ? wiih his Has a rig "•nmcntibihjf a|fa>gaf.}ier own, hut the Gov\. “ When we payg differently. They say : . v, HV e leased land under a perpetual lease we

insisted on settlement conditions ; when we have sold land on deferred payments, wo have stipulated that certain improvements should be made, and wo cannot see why we should not compel cash purchasers i o make improvements as well as other people.” And is there any reason why cash purchasers should not be made to improve their land the same as other people i Most undoubtedly there is not. When a poor unfortunate village settler obtains an acre or two of land, he is compelled to reside on it. "Why then should another man be allowed to take up 2000 acres and make no improvements at all ! Why should fish bo made of one and flesh of the other ? Why should a perpetual leaseholder and a deferred payment purchaser be compelled to improve, and the cash purchaser allowed to do what he likes I There is certainly no reasonable grounds for making the poor man improve while the rich man can do what he likes, yet this was what previous Governments did, and it is because this has been changed now, and rich and poor are treated alike, that this cry about the freehold having been destroyed has been raised. The land shark is disarmed, the speculator cannot make money out of the sweat of the brow of his neighbors, and hence the cry of the Conservatives. Anyone who likes to buy laud for his own use, and improve it, can get it now as well as ever, but it will not pay speculators to comply with the conditions, and that is the secret of tho whole thing,