THE LAND BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8384, 19 March 1907, Page 6

THE LAND BILL.

By Telegraph—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, March 18. Mr Rutherford, M.H.R. speaking at Mackenzie (Cheviot), on Saturday, said that the endowment clause in the Land Bill was intended to put the remaining Crown lands beyond the reach of the freeholders altogether. The renewable lease was but a feature of the Bill. The modification of the residence conditions practically enabled the rich city dweller to have a country residence, and was a rotten clause. The only clause doing anything directly to put the people on the land was the £50,000 limit, and the only chance it gave the land hungry was the opportunity to bid at public auction after waiting ten years for the previous owner to reduce his holding. He suggested doubling the graduated land tax on any excess over £50,000, and giving only three years for reduction. Such taxation would practically be final, and would be;effective. The £15,000 limit should be increased to £20,000, and the limitation clause made to apply to the city as well as country {property. Mr McNab , was the author of a crude immature Bill, which would not be the same when it came before the House again. A motion opposing the Land Bill was carried.