The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1886. EXPROPRIATION OF LAND.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2425, 14 October 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1886. EXPROPRIATION OF LAND.

Mil Balunoe, at the late banquet, spoke in the following terms on the expropriation of land question " Tha quantity of Crown lauds available for agricultural purposes was comparatively limited, a but thero were large private estates suitablo for the purposo, and if they found theße estates standing in the way cf settlement it m the h duty of the Government to apply the principle ' ofiexpropriation which had been applied at Home. So long as a fair pried was paid for the land, he thought most people had come to this oonclusion—that it was absolutely necessary that some of thceo lauds lying in the vicinity of towns should be taken in order to Bottle them. Of course thero wou d be difficulties in the way; but it appeared to him that if they were 7 taken at tho property-tax valuation, with ten ■ per cent added, the owners would have no j reason to complain, This expropriation proposal is one of advanced ideas of tho Liberal party and just at tho present time it is, if a J fallacy, a very popular one, The owners of large estates would at tho present juncture be delighted to sell out and the " hungry men from Frisco," who ure on the look out for small farms at the expense of a paternal Government, would bo glad to step into their shoes, Wo are afraid that this advanced idea .which possesses J many theoretical beauties would be in practical work a little crooked./ Wo presume that if Mr Bnllaiico went in ' i'or buying tip largo estates ho would give a preference to "good liberals," J and go in first for confiscating their land. The "good liberals" would, no doubt, havo timely warning of the drawn sword hanging over their heads, " They Vould make their final >" arrangements for parting with _ their estates by adjusting the Property [ Tax assesments, Of courso the basis ,' of valuation oan be adjusted by pri-

vnto individuals forhas nob Mr Stark taught the Colony the inoilvs operandi, utid then when the vuliiatiou «as safe they would tell Mr Ballanea to.come on ard rob them of their land on the Government terms. ]f we followed the land thus taken we should find that, after it was subdivided and fenced it would be at the disposal oi the small agriculturalist at about twenty-five per cent more money than he could buy similar land for in the open market, and where would be the gainer 1 Does Mr Ballance think that lie can interfere with the natural law of supply and demand nnd supersede it by artificial contrivances, In the old times thero wore Dick Turpins and Robin Hoods who were wont to rob tho rich for the benefit of tho poor, In their cases there was a distinct loss on one side and a corresponding gain on the other, but Mr Ballance does not propose to rob the rich and how can he make a profit for the poor unless lie does do so, His expropriation of land ideas are absurdly crude, and simply indicated that his cleverness is greater than his common 'dense, If land in New Zealand could not be bought in tho open market at a fair price his scheme might be useful as a last expedient to burst up'a monopoly, but at a time when half the land in the Colony is on sale at a slight advance on mortgago ■values such a project would be simply ruinous, It, would mean robbing tho poor men of the colony to benefit (lie rich ones, for the poor men would -have to pay the interest oh the loans laised to buy out the large holders. If Mr Ballanco's right hand wants more land ho holds it in his left in the shape of a few millions of native acres. Why does not he operate on the Maori acres which lie idle and which block settlement, The natives ( toil not, neither do they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like some of our native pets, He might try an expropriation of land in this quarter and do good by turning waste and unproductive soil into a fertile and productive estate, but to do it the other way would simply mean converting land now worked at a small profit into land worked at a big loss,