THE LAND BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 October 1913, Page 4

THE LAND BILL.

The speech delivered by the Prime Minister last night in moving the seo-, on<jl reading of the land Bill will go a lotng way towatrds removing the' opposition to a measure which is evidently designed to promote settlement on oommon-sonso liwos., Mr Massey emphasised what we have contended all along in thoso columns, that the granting of the foe simple of land did not deprive the people olr the State of a single acre. So long as the right of taxation remains, the land is as valuable to the State under freehold as it would be under the leasehold tenure. There is absolutely no intention on the part of the Government to prevent people from making leasehold the steppingstone to the freehold. On the contrary, the residential clauses in leases aire being modified so that town and city men may acquire land without actually residing upon it. We 'have the assurance of Mr Massey that effective .Pleasures are provided in the Bill to prevent aggregation. We accept that assurance in the meantime. The Bill evidently possesses many good features, but we are afraid that it does not effectively deal with the vital point—that of expeditiously subdividing tlie large estates of the Dominion,.