Something Wrong.

Passing on, Mr. Withy said he would now hurriedly run through a number of indications which proved to him that all saw there wa page 7 something wrong. There was a law which provided that no man should buy more than [unclear: 640] acres of first-class land, nor more than [unclear: 9000] acres of second-class land. That was [unclear: manifestly] a provision to check the tendency to hold land in very large blocks. There was a system also of buying land on deferred payment. That meant that a man could go to the Government and pay down a small deposit, and in a series of years thereafter he could pay the remainder. That [unclear: ovision] was evidently intended to prevent [unclear: people] falling into the hands of mortgagees. There was also a perpetual lease. The perpetual lease had this advantage, that it [unclear: reqaired] no initial payment, no premium as he [unclear: had] called it just previously, and there was a [unclear: vision] for re-valuatioin of the laud at [unclear: certain] periods. The first provision was introduced to benefit the cultivator, as it [unclear: id] not take anything out of his pocket. [unclear: The] other provision was for the pro-[unclear: jection] of the public. If the land [unclear: beame] exceedingly valuable in the future it [unclear: should] be revalued so that the people could [unclear: etain] the increased value which their [unclear: proress] had given to it. Now these clauses did [unclear: ot] work very well, and readjustments had [unclear: been] attempted. While he (the speaker) [unclear: had] been in the House fair-rent Bills were [unclear: ought] in, It was attempted to reduce [unclear: the] rent in some cases where it proved to be [unclear: o] high, and to reduce the deferred pay-[unclear: ents] of those who had them. In Auckland [unclear: they] had City Council leases and Harbour [unclear: Board] leases; people could buy these [unclear: leases]; they were put up at auction, [unclear: d] they could be bought for the [unclear: remainder] of the term. There was one [unclear: point] to which he wanted to call [unclear: attention] in regard to these. From time to time [unclear: any] men had surrendered their leases; [unclear: hers] had got them commuted or exchanged. That indicated that at the time the holders had secured their leases the competition [unclear: had] been keen. There had been a kind [unclear: of] boom on, and the people who took them [unclear: had] agreed to give a higher sum than the [unclear: nad] was worth, and the public authorities [unclear: let] them off their bargain. Public [unclear: authorities] were generally very lenient in these [unclear: cases]. But look at the other side, when people got their leases on particularly reasonable terms, did they ever surrender them? Oh no! He would not do it himself if he had [unclear: me]. And so the public stood to be shot at.