Land Administration.

Relative to special settlement [unclear: regtions], Mr Ballance said they were as [unclear: portant] as the provisions of the Act [unclear: it] While they provided for the settlement the land they abolished the [unclear: tender] auction systems, and established the [unclear: ball] In the Waimate Plains they had an [unclear: insta] of the effect of the tender system. Men [unclear: dering] twice over the value, [unclear: were] bankrupt and could not pay their [unclear: re] and were asking for assistance [unclear: from] Government. In all parts of the [unclear: colo] the same results were observable; men [unclear: hing] paid a price utterly out of comparison with the price of produce [unclear: to-d] What was Major Atkinson's [unclear: remedy] this state of things? Not to [unclear: make] rents easy at the start, but to establish Land Court to regulate the rent [unclear: by] price of produce every two or three [unclear: ye] He was sure that the lessees [unclear: would] the best of the Government if they [unclear: adop] this plan, and rents would have a [unclear: g] tendency to go down and little [unclear: tende] to go up. That was the [unclear: statesmanlike] posals made by Major Atkinson [unclear: and] Rolleston who he supposed had [unclear: be] fascinated with the Irish Land [unclear: Co] What had the Irish Land Court [unclear: do] They had gone about reducing the [unclear: re] and everything was supposed to be [unclear: settl] but now no ther Land Court was required And the rents were still further loved to tenants who were as much disincline as ever to pay the rents. So it would [unclear: be] this colony, it would disturb [unclear: everything] settle nothing. It would entirely [unclear: prej] the fixity of tenure which, in his [unclear: opi] ought to be the basis of all prosperity (Cheers.) Unless the people knew they had fixity of tenure, there could be no incentive to improvement, and this [unclear: was] chief recommendation of the [unclear: perpet] leasing system; it fixes the rent for a [unclear: l] term, and instead of being knocked [unclear: down] the highest bidder, the person in [unclear: posse] could take up a new lease, and everything was in favour of the tenant who held for long term of years. His own plan had [unclear: be] to fix the rents low—much lower [unclear: than] market value, and then let the [unclear: ballot] page 13 cide. It was to the interest of the State to make their tenants prosperous, and not to grind the last penny out of them. (Applause.) If they continued in office, he intended next session to bring in a bill abolishing altogether the system of tendering and auction, and to substitute the ballot, as in the Special Settlement Regulations. He thought that was the right course to pursue, and not the Land Court. For his part, he would rather see a man pay too little than pay too much, and have the Land Courts continually disturbing the existing condition of affairs.