SHORT LEASES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10424, 15 September 1911, Page 4

SHORT LEASES.

lax conversation with a representative of the Age yestexday, Mr D. Jones, the organiser of the Farmers' Political Federation', gave an apifc illustration of the loss which waM be sustained' by the Government throughi short leases. He stated that he had) been tJhrough 1 the Cheviot district, where smia-Ili grazing nuns have bje'en taken up under twenty-one, year leases, and he found that farmers, with four years of their leases- to rain, were allowing tlneir properties to go back into 'the stage of the tiusisock. Uhis is only what one would naturally expect. The farmer is not going to mlaiMire his land and keep lit in cultivation unless he can see that there is a possibility of getting his money back. Moreover, it is hardly to be expected that he -is* going to keep th© land in a high .state of cultivation to the end of his lease, wfhetn he wafll be called upon to pay in increased i-enit for his own impWovemerits should he desire an extended lea.se'. The experience in regard to Cheviot will be a poser to thei Government when it comes to again disP.U.&S' the short-lease system of land teuuro.