State Leases.

If there was power now to legislate so as to make everyone a Government tenant, there would be the same power to legislate back to the freehold system five or ten years hence. It might look plausible in parts of the Middle Island where the runs had been natural grass, page 26 and required little outlay. In this island particularly, the country had to be entirely made, excepting the soil and water. I would put it to any man who cleared his land chip by chip, or reclaimed it from the scrub and fern, if a mere lease was an adequate return for his labour. Why, even in Conservative England, the Irish tenants are being helped to buy their holdings. The best cure for a lease-only advocate would be to let him clear one or two hundred acres for himself. How many blows of the axe and chips would he have made? Depend upon it there is nothing would anchor the people to the land and country like the possession of the freehold. This is recognised now in old countries where small freeholders, "yeomen," are encouraged. The taking up of the land should be made as easy, simple, and attractive to the people as possible, all complication and multiplication of title done away with, and some effort made by the Government to shew the people how to make it productive, how to make a living. I think in this respect all past Governments have been wanting; they have not done enough for the people on the land. The cry has been that men drifted to the town. Is it surprising? There were so many difficulties in getting land, and intending settlers did not see the way clear before them. Men became discouraged, and squandered the money that should have started them as country settlers and producers. The life of a small settler particularly has been terribly dreary at starting, especially in the bush. Had these men had it more clearly kept before them that the way was open for them to become land-owners when once in the Colony, there would probably have been less discontent and meetings of unemployed—there is discontent among all classes—a sign of bad government surely. Emigrants have been grossly misled by agents before coming to the Colony. There has been too much of the spirit of "am I my brother's keeper" about the governing class in the past. Somehow the Government has always failed to offer sufficient land for settlement. When I came to the Colony thirty-five years ago, I was told the land was all gone. This was disappointing, but was true of the land in the hands of the Government, which was all occupied, and it was some thirteen years before the Government had acquired any more from the Natives or that was available. In the meantime I dealt with the Natives direct. These are my experiences and views on our money matters and land tenure, arrived at after having watched the subject in foreign countries for ten, and as a bush settler in this country for thirty-five years, during which time I have seen these settlements grow up around me.