MR ROLLESTON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1666, 22 April 1884, Page 2

MR ROLLESTON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

He had, therefore, devoted - himself, to managing the lands as as to prevent, them passing into the hands of capitalists and speculators, There was now next to no waste land , in Canterbury which was available for disposal for agricultural purposes'. One million, three .hundred and fifty thousand acres of land were held by 91. persons in blocks of over 5000- acres. He liaft raised his voice against tbii), and hail' opposed the gridirdning and the selling , of lands before making roads to them, It was folly to part with the whole of our land,"so as* to-leave no estate "on ; which, the colony .could gain an advan-. .tageby its increased value, 'ln conse-' qufince of the expenditure on &c,, the- education' reserves -in Canter-' bury no<iy .prpdvusAA and would produce ,£20;000/\iiii8 showed the wisdom of making such reserves. '■ The'state :'of ( tlie" prior' of | and'laid lprdism' in; Ireland showed it was not too soon tobeginiii' a new which had. arßenv, m an '' 6I(l' ( Nothing so much opera ted against the

working classes of this colony as ha v " ing to pay large rentals in the suburb 8 of the towns for their dwellings. In opposing these evils, lie had made a small beginning upon which a considerable superstructure would be built, He condemned the bursting up theory as visionary and mischievous to • 'the colony as a whole. He would leave this theory to Mr Montgomery,' who said that land was the property of ■the nation, and added that'tlie English people would never give up the Isle of ■ Wight—an argument he (Mr Holiestou) was unable to follow. The past mifijht ; be left alone for the present.. He believed' that the removal of entail, facilities of transfer, and the exisienco o£ holdings oh an easier tenure would ; cure the evils complained of, and if. this would , not remedy things, 1 the State was perfectly entitled, as Mr Gladstone had said, to buy out . large proprietors for the purpose of making small properties. - If was competent for the State to resume lands if for an adequate publio object, but at present there was no'need for that. The love of freehold; it was argued, was deeply implanted in every man' who came so 'New Zealand. ..At present, however, tli'ere were yery many men in the colony, though nominally freeholders, who wore really tenants of large money lenders, They had not, be hoped, come to New Zealand to create • the extremes of-wealth and poverty-found-in England. The leaseholder, : pn the. tenure he proposed, would hot constitute a new class of politicians any more than the runholders and landholders had formed a political class in times past. It was only the growth of freeholders that had. put the runholders of Canterbury in a less advantageous position than they ' ocoupied iu the old days. To say that the creation of a class of leaseholders would eftect prejudicially the representation of the country in Parliament was all nonsense. It would not do so more than the morchants who used our railways or the freeholders who" repealed the land tax. The policy of the Goverment in respect to the land was . embodied in Bills brought down during the last ■ three years. First, it was opposed to any further alienation of pastoral lands. It had been said at Home that the people of the colony •were parting with thfir lands in & way that seriously diminished the security of the public creditor. The pastoral estate of tho. colony brought in an annual rental of £200,000. He would divide the land into two classes—pastoral and agricultural. These should carefully bo classified, It was unwise not to determine what was. purely pastoral country, and it was .unwise alsp not to so set it aside as to economically . work high and low land together. He did not think it was desirable to encourage pastoral tenants to become speculators in land; they should receive a grazing tenuro only. Their land should not be liable to purphase under pre-emptive right; but it should be put up to free competition from time to time. The semi-pastoral, semi-agricultural land had to be dealt with in the past by the creation of pastoral deferred payment" bloolcs. There should be no moro permanent alienation of such lands, but they should be leased with conditions of residence and improvement, and with tho provision that only one block should be held by one man, This would create a class of small tenants, who would pursue a profitable business in great comfort; With regard to the agricultural land;- it was urged . that there;were too many land laws; that lihei lands should be put up, and hp held that they should be so disposed of as to suit'the . different classes— ' P'VlPy by alienation for cash, and partly by deferred payments, and, also, partly by perpetual leasing. The roads should be opened before felling the land, which, should be so cut up as to prevent its.absorption by capitalists;.; On a block of 71,000 acres on the Waimate Plains the Government had put 360 homesteads. It this had not beon done, tho land would have fallen, into the hjinds of one or two capitalists. On this land the sections wero so altered that if ninety sections were put upj ; thirty sections would represent thirty settlers. . The ; deferred payment sections had a tendency' to becouta freeholds rather too soon. He believed that the term if "residence should be longer, but the Legislative Council rejected the clause which was to have effected this. It was impossible to set bounds to the accumulation of land after it had passed into freehold estates. During the four years he had been in office, 4000 people had been settled on homesteads on the Orown lands, and in addition some 1100 had been placed on sections sold.for cash. This had been done in. Otago and Southland,'as well as in the North Island. There had been a very strong' feeling against the leaseholjl system when it first'came up, but now, however; they had 28,000 acres held by 137' selectors, Much of this land was in Otago, pn the.,goldfields... It had been said ' 1 that the threatened resignation' of liis position of Minister of Lands "must be assumed if the Upper House threw out his Bill. But he had done no-such thing. Public life, to him would almost cease, however,-and would be of, no interest 'if he could: not promote the object he had in viow. He wished the working • classes-to realise the fact that upon the keeping open of the land depended, the settlement of themselves, and their children in the country. The ; TJpper House, "however, werp, not, ,to .blame.. in the course they, .had taken, as the representatives of:tlie'.people, ;andfar-< ticulirly'the so-called Liberals, were t6 blatiiQ."' Tht'so had voted against the Biltj: hopff of gettijjg' rid, of. thft,, Lands, and. so the hieas'ure': was orily qarried in'thp liower. -House,; j 'by : 'ii|'mSjority qf.-OM. .The ,U|jper'.'Hqu'senatnr^ly}thouggbt,tpe -times Hpusp, sras narrowly:, fHyjsed; : .on; the question^and,. gaye. it, an v; opjpirWßity f v'consideration. < joiT theory was now'abroad coiißidepiag - thß importeriC quea-' tfens Tfeip seeding aftetf was hot; what'l-was . ''wwtedf colony, want'edrrMd, .■(Wd, were ' Ibonqky.'' preaching it, % '