THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1909. HARDLY RATIONAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9667, 4 December 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1909. HARDLY RATIONAL.

It is reported that invitations have 1 reached some Radical members of the House to address meetings in various centres on the Premier's proposals with reference to allowing Crown tenants under the Land £r Act to acquire the fee simple of their holdings. "No opportunit \" says one of them, "will be lost to arouse public opinion on tre supreme issue that is now before Parliament and the country. The party will etr< nuctHly resist the attempt that is rein? made to sacrifice the public interests by the sale on the time payment system of the 'and purchased under the Land for Settlements Act. It believes that in refusing to acquiesce in an unworthy recantation and surrender of rol'tical principles and refusing to allow the people and their children to be robbed of their natural rights at the instance of land speculators and vote-hunters, it has the bulk of the Democratic community to rely upor." It is surprising that supposedly sensible men can talk such nonsense as we have quoted. However Socialistic the. views of any man on tre land question may be, it is surely obvious that the lease-in-perpe-(ul'y is a ba3 barga n on the part of the Crrwn. "The natural rights of the people and their children" would be much improved by the Government agreeing to the prop-sid powers of pure! We do n-t say that the proposals are fair as far rs the tpnants a r e concerned—that J is an aspect of the question to which wa are not alluding on the present occasion. A former Minister ft r Lands wry truthfully and forcibly described the lease-in-perpetuity as "a rotten compact" from the point of view of the State, and a brief examination of the terms of the leas? must bad any unbiassed person of ordinary intelligence to a similar conclusion. The "heritage" of which I future generations will be "robbed," if Crown tenants acquire their freehold?, amounts to tbis, that practienTlv i thousand years bfTce, if N>w, Z-.a'anders still inhabit- tlisDaJ

minion, the lands, of w.iich the

freehold has been acqui eel*,will not revert to the Crown. We can "iderstand people, having an affection for, and owing a very decided duty to their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and perhaps, for a few generations sti!l further on, but one cannDt suppress a smile at being asked to be solicitous for the welfare of children to be born a thousand years hence! It is stMl about 160 years less than 1,000 years ago since William the Conqueror successfully invaded England, and we would ask what similarity is there between the modern Britishers, and the Normans and Saxons of those days! If there are New Zealanders in existence 1,000 years hence they will probably be much amused at the land theories of the Socialists of today. What then is the practical aspect of the question as it concerns us and our children of to-day? By allowing Crown tenants under the Land for Settlements Act to purchase their freehold the State (for which Socialise have such an intense regard) will receive some millions of money, which could be devotad to developing still further the great natural resources of the Dominion. Then again, the Crown would receive an increase in revenue through the operations of the Land and Income Assessment Act a3 very many properties which are now exempt would become taxable. Ic would unquestionably be an enormous advantage to the State to be able to realise the interests that it has in the holdings of Crown tenants, and that ia the view that should be taken by all who are intelligently interested in the welfare of the country.