THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8252, 5 October 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1906.

Tfao "new" Land Bill, as it is described iu the Government inomo, is published in unother column. Vurioua alterations have been made by tne Committeo but these alterations are not iu tbe direction of making tbe proposed measure mere palatable to freeholders than it was iu its original form. The Land Bill is, in our opinion, drastic, unnecessary, and mest complicated. The power that the Government has under tho Lands for Settlement Aot is amply sufficient to enable them to carry out a vigorous policy of land settlement. The aggregation of large estates can be prevented and the size of present large holdings reduced by the proper application of the progressive land tax. The Government, instead of converting the remaining waste Grown lauds of the oountry into endowments, and thereby possibly hampering settlement in regard to rnuoh of the poor lands in the North, wouli be doing bettor work for the people of the country if they found out how much of the present barren and sterile land, that is now their possession, could be profitably utilised. The Government uould, we believe, carry out a land policy more faithfully in accordance with the wishes of tba people by legitimate means thau by placing on

the Statute Book the very oomplioated and drastic Bill that is now before the House. Apparently the absurdity of attempting to classify lands by Act of Parliament has been discarded, and, in its place, it is proposed that no one shall be allowed to acquire land of a greater value than £15,000. May it not be assumed that many a man could to-day acquire an area of land valued at £15,000, and in a period of fen years, let us say, by diligence and intelligence and through "outside" circumstances, that same land might ba worth £25,000. If it is possible for such a thine to happen—-and it is quite possiblewhy have a value hmit at all, except snob a limit as can be more or loss permanently assured by a system of taxation? A curious feature of the Bill is the proposul to allow Crown tenants holding lsnd under the lease-in perpetuity system to acquire 90 per cent, of the value of their holdings at the original value. It is a peculiar proposition, and the explanation given to it in the Government memo., already referred to, does not make the attitude of the Government any more consistent in this matter. "This practically creates a nine hundred and ninety nine years freehold," says the Premier. When Mr Massey proposed that Grown tenants under the lease mperpetuity should ba allowed to acquire the freehold of the properties they occupied at the original value, the Government said it was a most iniquitous proposal, and one that woald rob the people of the colony of their birthright. I'«t the Government now announce that they intend to create, practically, a nine hundred and ninety-nine years freehold at the original value. Well, if the people of the. colony are going to be- deprived of their heritago for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, they might, eo far iis we can see, be deprived of it altogether. Surely it is "splitting straws," with the probable result that usually attends such a profitable worn, to grant a nine-tenths freehold in place of ten-tenths. With reference to the proposed endowments for hospitals, oid-age pensions, education, and charitable aid, the proposals are, no doubt, plausible enough, but we are not at all sure that such State endowments will prove uoniiugled blessings. If these propnspls are given effect to they will probably be followed iu the future by many Royal Commissions, various investigations, and much useless controversy. The State is the people, and what the people have belongs to the State. The spectacle of the Stale endowing itself iu this lavish manner seems to bo somewhat uniioceasary. Certain it is that if trie revenues of the endowruonta aro not sufficient lor the obieots assisted by './ hem, the people will havo lo find the balance of the money necessary for tno work of education and so forth, unless, of course, some really banoflcont Government, apart from the people, could be found lo provide the extra funds, but we fear that in this world, a!; any rate, no such Government will ever be discovered.