The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, DECEMBER 3O. 1889 WHAT IT MEANS!

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3397, 30 December 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, DECEMBER 30. 1889 WHAT IT MEANS!

The Wanganui Herald, the able orga'u of tho leador of the Opposition, has published the details of a new project for providing Itr.d in settled districts. A Bill is already drafted to give effect to tho proposal, which is -said to be based on that very insidious and plausible principle termed voluntary agreement. There are three parlies concerned in the undertaking: Ist, the man who wants to sell; 2nd, the men who want to buy, and, 3rd, the Government, which is to make such advance us will onuble the man who wants money to sell anil tho man who wauls land to buy, The Government, a J.em ex macliina, comes to the rescue of the impecunious landholder and impecunious land buyer. Both are made happy, and if anyone loses by the transaction it is clearly the Government, which is well able to afford the loss. Our contemporary illustrates the operation in the following terms:

An association of say 50 members has negotiated to purchase from a private owner 2000 acres of loud at £ 0 an ncre—£l2.ouo; subject to the approval of Government, upon recommendation of two Commissioners, The association is required to pay dwn £3OOO, as an earnest of good faith and a contribution towards the price, If the money were divided equally, it would mean that each meroler paid £OO. If the reports wore favourable, tho Government would thereupon pay three-fointliß or £9OOO, charging interest at 5 per cent—apportioning ihe liens among the different members of the association on their respective holding, The association would have the surveys made so that each member would have his own farm, The bill will show how the details are arranged, Now there are many landholders in the colony at present so circumstanced they can do very little with their land, and would be glad to dispone of it at a fair price, But the buyers are limited in number, as very often the mortgagee refuses (p allow the freehold to bo subdivided By the measure in question, this difficulty is at once removed, for under the system the whole is taken, while a new class uf buyers in great numbers is brought into the field. The key to success is of course in the Government advanco, 11 is well known tint there ai.e largcfunds continually accumulating in certain departments which have to be placed at Merest pu good security. Now the security of land so tenured would be absolute and unquestioned, and no better disposition could possibly boiiinde of a portion of these funds.

Let us fanoy that the Bill which is drafted becomes law and a truly liberal Government rides into power on its back, and jye can easily picture to ourselves bpw the thing lyould work, how beautifully it would operate. Let us say that au unsuccessful stationholder, we will call him "Benson," finds that ho cannot [My interest on his property, which'he values at £12,000, and is unable to dispose of. if at the amount of.his mortgage, w.bjeb, we wilj put down at £9,000. Such a •position is by no means an uncommon one in our uiiwijtfei) pastpral annal?! Would not Bensou bless tbjs pasure as a «necjal providence. coining to hjs rescue'? Would lie not get his association.of fifty' llttuiuers in as many hows, for are there not always half'a hundred good men and true knocking about who have nothing to lose, anil who, being profoundly impressed with ths ponviction that a man with nothing to lose has always something to win, will cast their" little all" without a moment's hesitation into any new scheme which has. possibilities in it and ff \ Government" guarantee! at the back j of it, The association would, it is true, have; under the project, to .pay dowiv twenty-five per cent of the purchase money, but this local contribution would be readily financed and become»Jjejjon the property. Then our frioud Benson woujd, go to the liberal Land Minister and. satisfy him that ;he was politically his most devoted humble servant, and the great

man would explain that though the implications for .advances were an I excess'of, the money available, jet j to'*" oblige Benson" his offer should receive favorable consideration, Theu ! the Government would pay over the , £12,000 and Ben6on would probably invest tho i, 0,000 which fell to his lot in another block of Government land with a sweet anticipation of repeating the experiment at no distant date. A Government which,will sell hnd with one hand at a pound an aero and buy it back, with the other, at two pounds an nore is sure to got plenty of oustomers and to do a big business, The idea thrown out by our contemporary of investing the trust funds of the colony in a project of this kind will no doubt be received with favor by the Bensons of the colony, but it will hardly enhance our credit in the London market, What it means is that the Government should take over all the bad securities throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand I What this kind of business has meant in the case of the Bank of New Zoaland we all know, and the result in tho case of the Government would be precisely similar, the only difference being thai wherois the Bank was dn.wn into a tangle, the Government at the request of liboralstatesmon would deliberately put itselfiutoatrap. We scarcely behove that either the Houso or the country is mad enough to accept a scheme fraught with such peril to the community. That the Hon Mr Balknce may try to float such a project is very possible, but then Mr Ballimce.to use an expressive colonial phrase," is a nut."