POLITICAL NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2965, 16 July 1891, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES

[liv TKLKi;it.M , n--si'i-:i'i,\i. UKi'oi'.ri'ii.] WnM.INC I I IS, Last Night. HAMILTON VOLI'NTEEII HAI.Ij. Mr BItYCK and Mr .lacks.ol I',diner have b"cn continually pressing Has Defence Minister ti> bii 11,4 in a Hill to give elfect to the agreement Hindu with tin! guarantor;(Messrs O'Neill find Iv>1"\) "t 11"' 11: i 111 il(■ u> Volunteer Hall. This agreement was made by the |)iiivio»s Defence Mini-ter, who inquired an Act to be passed to carry it intu effect, but who left ofliee before this Could lie done. .Mr Seddoii promised Messrs Bryce and Palmer that he would bring <i"wn a Hill to cirry thn promise made info elfect, The Hill not having been brought down, Mr Palmer put a question to-day 011 the Onler Paper asking if the Bill would be. brought down at an early date. Mr S'ddon replied that the • liveinment had spent £100 011 the hall,and the S'mdav-sehool anil the guarantors £350. The Government were considering whether they would take their £100 and let them have the linll, or pay the t'3so and the Government take the hall. Messrs Bryce and Palmer consider the answer unsatisfactory, and not a fulfilment of the promise made to them. They therefore intend, with Captain Russell (the late Defence Minister), to interview Mr Seddun on the subject, in order to get something more definite from the Minister. MR REEVES' OPINION. The Minister for Education, speaking yesterday in the breach of privilege debate on the qusstion raised by Mr Bryce, said that inspired articles have appeared in newspapeis all over the colony in advocacy of the case of the Railway Commissioners, showing an acquaintance with the working of the Railway Department that could only come from officers of the Department. Mr Rees further said that so long as the Commissioners are understood to be at daggers drawn with the mass of the democracy in the colony, they ,vill never lack for friends. Sill J AS. FERGUSON'S LAND. In leplying this afternoon to a question put by Sir George (Irev, thn Premier said it was true that Sir James Ferguson had acquired a block of land in the Wnikat-i district, formerly intended as a native reserve, but a caveat had been lodged to prevent a Crown grant being issued to him. THE LARGE ESTATES. I understand that the Land for Settlement Bill, introduced into the House of Representatives by the. Minister for Lands, will authorise the Colonial Treasurer to borrow £00,000 per year for the re-purchase 'if entates. An advisory board, consisting of the Surveyor-General, the Tax Commissinner, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for each district, will bo authorised to select land or estates for settlement and to report to Parliament, nn whom the responsibility of completing the bargain will rest. THE LAND BILL. This Bill was circulated to-day. Mr McKenzie proposes under his Bill that any purchaser for cash will, in the first place, get a certificate of occupation, and will not receive his Crown grant unless within a period of seven years he expends in improvements £2 per acre in the case of lirstclass land, and £L in the case of secondclass. No person is to bo allowed to become a holder of more than two thousand acres of first-class land. Broaches of the Land Act, or inciting to .such breaches, are to be punishable by imprisonment up to five years, and it is to bo the duty of land courts to institute prociedings in all cases of the kind that come under their notice. The prices of rural land are to bo not less than CI per acre for first-class and os per acre for second class. Provision is made for letting upon occupation licenses for grazing purposes on yearly tenancy, such lands as are not immediately required for settlement and any lands let oil a lease license are. to be liable to resumption for public purposes. A lease is only to entitle the lessee to tho light of pasturage over and cultivation of his lands. Residence upon leasehold land is to be Compulhory if bush or swamp land within one yeai and the cost of rabbit proof fences is to be reckoned as improvements.