DELEGATE MEETING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1527, 5 November 1883, Page 2

DELEGATE MEETING.

The first meeting of the Delegates of the' North Wairarapa County Settlers' Association was held In the upper room of tliG Institute on Saturday evening last. Present—Messrs Hawkins (President), Meredith and Lowes (VicePresidents), McGregor, Dagg, Chamberlain, Herbert, J, S, Holmes and Brick.

On tho motion of Mr Lowes it was decided that seven members of the delegate body should form a quorum. _ The President asked for an expression of opinion as to whether their proceedings should be public. He had no hesitation himself as to the desirability of their being so. Mr Meredith thought there could bo question whatever as to the expediency of publicity.

The President laid on the table the returns of the voting recently taken, Some ballot papers he had rejected as they wore unsigned or arrived too late. He did not know whether the delegates desired to verify them, Mr Dagg suggested the appointment of a committee to verify the returns in cose any wrong impression existed amongst the public as to their accuracy, Mr McGregor thought they all had full confidence in the returns. Mr Lowes moved that a committee be appointed to check the returns. Mr Moredith called attention to the fact that the ballot was an open not a secret one, as tho names of voters had been disclosed. This was not the intention of Mt Hales, who moved that a ballot be taken. Tho President said that if the ballot papers had not been signed it would have been impossible) to verify them. After some slight further discussion Mr Lowes withdrew, with the consent of the meeting, his motion for the appointment of a committee. The President laid on the table the accounts of the Association to date, and suggested the appointment of a subcommittee to examine them. Mr McGregor moved that the President, Vice-Presidents, and Messrs Beetham and Holmes be a finance committee.—Carried. Mr Lowes moved that Mr Sellar be appointed secretary and treasurer to tho association for the current year. Before fixing his remuneration they could wait for the report of the finance committee.—Carried. The President said it might be convenient to suggest a course for their proceedings. The association had two functions—first, its material and local side, and, secondly, its political aspect. Of the two it would be the more necessary to insist upon the latter. If they founded a mere social association and afterwards sought to graft on to it political questions objections might be raised. It would be better to clearly set out their ■ views from tho first. They wouldhave a double duty —first to foster the .industries, talents, and powers of settlers, and secondly, to protect settlers against maladministration on the part of tho Government and undesirable legislation. As an instance of the good they might do on on the material and social side, he pointed out the suitability of tho Wairarapa soil for fruit growing. Hitherto very little had been done here in the way of real cultivation, and a considerable field was open for such industries. He looked forward to the time when a local ;am factory might be established which would supersede tho inferior Tasmanian importations. An enterprise of this kind would be the work of years, but it was time that a beginning were made. It should be the duty of tho delegates to collect and distribute full information respecting the management of fruit trees and the soil suitable for growing them, and induce settlers to plant with a serious view to profit. In England frequently the rent of a cottage and garden was entirely paid by the sale of fruit. It was immaterial the extent to which any one man (,rew fruit provided that a sufficient number of persons were employed in growing it. Small settlors were bettor qualified than any others for growing fruit. There were lesser matters which they might consider, such as wood carving. Admirable woods suited for ornamental and other purposes were wasted in this district, Many of their Norwegian and German settlers came from localities where the art of wood carving - was thoroughly understood, and some of them must possess a knowledge of it, Indeed he had heard of violins being made in the Forty-Mile Bush, Such work as carving could be done in tho homestead and in winter evenings, if sufficient inducements could he offered to develope such an industry, This however, would be a work of time, and other things were of more.; immediate importance, such as enabling small, producers to take advantage of MEAT REFRIGERATING works, The delegates might negotiate with the meat freezing companies to put small producers on a better footing than they stood at present. It was a drawback now that the 2Jd per lb had to be paid on sheep exported before they left tho colony, In Dunedin shippers had only to advance a halfpenny per lb, and a small producer there was in a position to draw the full value of his sheep at once, Another point was the question of AGRICULTURE, He would draw attention to the position of breeders and graziers of Btock. Hill runs could not secure theproduction of fat sheep at certain seasons of the year, but the level land of the Lower Valley, which could be ploughed and sown with turnips could do what the hill runs could not. He suggested that an arrangement should be made between breeders and fatteneis as it would be mutually beneficial. The substitution of turnip crops for wheat crops would benefit the soil, In Canterbury large areas of land had been exhausted by continuous wheat cropping. Possibly the question of cropping might be discussed at the monthly meetings of the association, which might take the form of a farmers' olub, and the delegates might give effect to wishes expressed by such meetings. He would next turn to less pleaaantqueationa onthepolitical

side. One duty of the association would be to consider the question of WASTE LANDS, This matter must be regarded with reference to those people already in the colony, and also with reference to those who have yet to come into it, Upon what terms should the latter come in 1 Should they settle amongst them as freeholders or as leaseholders 5 This was really tho vita:] question now before the colony, and it was only right that the delegates should make up their minds upon it. For his own part ho entirely disapproved of the leasehold system. He believed that people desired an absolute freehold and ' a certain tenure. They who were settled on land in this district would not like a Government valuator to come in periodically to value and revalue their land. If they did not liko this themselves they ought not to make such an offer to others (hear! hear 11) In 1882 and in the present year the Government had introduced clauses into Bills to mako Crown Lands subject to lease no longer purchasable. He thanked tho Legislative Council for stopping this, because such a vital question ought to bo considered by the people in the first instance, and not introduced by a side wind, The member for Wairarapa South had said that these clauses embodied one of the principles of land nationalisation. If this principle were to be adopted, let it not be done by small amendment Acts, but as a vital question on which a general election might turn. He was not prepared to see tho land laws of the country tampered with by a mere shuffle. He desired also to express his sense of the extreme injustice of the. RAILWAY IMPROVED LANDS ACT. of the past session. Tho Government were empowered to buy all lands within five miles of a railway commenced after a certain date, to value the land or charge a rent to the owners of it, or take part or all of the land at the Property Tax valuation, plus 25 per cent. He thought this was one of the most arbitary and unjust measures ever submitted to a Legislature, On what principle were settlers to bo so taxed 1 Did not large towns receive more benefit than the country from new railways without contributing a farthing? Without the delegates could discover soni6 covert idea of right or justice in the measure he would set his face against it. It was founded on the UNEARNED INCREMENT. That lay at tho bottom of the whole. The Ministry were attacking it by indirect approaches, but would not face it. If they intended to deal with unearned increments tliey should do so openly. He himself considered the doctrine of unearned increment a very questionable one. Say for example thirty settlers take np unimproved land at current rates and twenty-seven out of the number improve and build church and school, making the settlement into a township, the three others doing nothing. Supposing thirty other tellers, finding the original twentyseven have made the placo comfortable come up to it and give a slight advance on tho original prices for land, Were they to say that because the second lot gave a higher price than the first that the first ought to have their properties revalued? He admitted that in the case of A B and 0, tho three purchasers who had done nothing, there was an unearned increment, but he was not prepared to alter the laws of the colony for the sake of A B 0. and so destroy the industry of the twenty-seven settlers. Another point advanced was that the Refrigerating Companies increased I he value of the land. He granted that they did do so, but did not the owners of land themselves form these companies, and were thoy not entitled to the results of their enterprise. The more he looked at the question of unearned increment the more difficult he found it to discover where the industry of tho settlers made it and whore some other contributing causes produced it, To upset the land laws of the colony for its sake would bo bad statesmanship, and ho was disposed to regard it more in tho light of an unwholesome nightmare, Looking at tho struggle which was taking place in Ireland and England to obtain freeholds were they to turn everything upside-down in this colony in.order to abolish them 1 Was the State fit to be trusted as landlords 1 The State had the railways, but did the management of them indicate capacity 1 ! Did not the present of £60,000 of revenue to the Middle Island show what a Government would do under pressure when a period for re-valuation came about? He hoped the delegates would set their face against such fantastic proposals. It was sober, common! sense and not proposals of such a character that would make the colony. The Government had been warned by the Agent-General that continual tampering with the land question was injuring the outflow of immigrants, who went to enrich other places instead of New Zealand, He was the last person to desire to seo the land of the colony in the hands of a few large holders. He believed in seeing it held by small farmers, He did not believe in asking people to come out here to be humbugged by having the laud they might take up valued and re-valued, He did not believe that tho,colony) if properly appealed to, would sanction any proposal which was unjust and improper, and he would willingly face any audience whether town or country on such a point. He put these questions before them in the first instance, but the vital question was the land, If New Zealand went in for land nationalisation its troubles would not be over for many a long year, He suggested, in conclusion, that in the first to which he referred, viz.: that of growing fruit, a committee be appointed. Mr McGregor questioned whether they could take action without first | receiving authority from the association It had been worth their while to attend that evening to hear the sensible remarks of their President on tho comprehensive programmo hehad submitted to them, but it would be premature for them to take action without authority from the Association. Mr Lowes thought it would be necessary for them to have sundry

orders for thoir guidance prior to the discussion of vital questions, The President replied that it would be necessary for the delegates to make some recommendation to the Association. They might bring the question of the fruit Industry before the monthly meeting of the Farmers' Club. Mr Lowes proposed that monthly meetings of the Association be held on subjects common to farmers clubs, Mr McGregor suggested that they should submit the programme to a meeting of the Association, Mr Herbert thought it would lake some considerable time to draw ono up, Mr McGregor advocated taking the points in the President's address that night ns their programme. They were quite as much as thoy could get through at the first meeting of the Association. Then when the Association had given them power to deal with them they could take action, Mr Dagg supported the proposal for a meeting, as many members were still in a cloud as to the objects of the Association. Mr Herbert suggested starting plain subjects first, Mr Lowes proposed that a meeting be called of members on the 14th inst, at 6.80 p.m., at which the delegates • might submit the objects of the Association as sketched by the President, Mr McGregor desired to see the objects defined in the resolution, . Mr Lowes questioned whether they could settle oven the subject of Wute Lands at one meeting. The President concurred, but thought they could settle the principle on which tliey were to act. , After some discussion it was resold that the following programme bemk mitted to a meeting of the Associatm , on the 14th inst:—l. The establishment of fruit and other industries, 2, The refrigerating of produce supplied by small farmers. 3, The establishment of a monthly mooting in the shape of a Farmers' Club. 4. The Waste Lands administration, present and prospective, and the Railway Improved Lands Bill.