The Scheme.

It now remains to show how the objects of the Society may be attained.

The first, the stoppage of the farther alienation of all Crown lands, must be forced upon Parliament. Not that a great proportion of the members are not in favour of this policy, as far as honest conviction goes; but they are cautious—selfishly cautious—until the direction of the wind becomes more page 19 apparent. Politicians are always strong upon the stronger side. When the issue is doubtful, few have the courage to speak out. The people can make it certain. Petitions asking for the withdrawal of all Crown lands from sale should be signed by the electors of every district in the colony. Then the matter will be very soon settled. The second object of the Society—the re-purchase of the sold lands, may be accomplished in this way. For the purpose of fixing the value at which the State should reserve to itself a right of re-purchase of the sold lands, s date must be fixed, upon which a return of the value of all sold lands, exclusive of improvements, should be furnished to the Government. Should, as is exceedingly likely, a land tax be imposed during the present session of Parliament, such a valuation will have to be made for the purpose of fixing the amount of the tax. As it is far from the intention of this Society to unjustly injure the present owners of land by confiscating their property, which would be inequitable in a young country whose agrarian history is not a record of land robberies rendered legal by laws made by the robbers, the State should, whenever it exercises the power of compulsory purchase so reserved to itself as before mentioned, pay the price fixed at the valuation so previously made for that purpose, notwithstanding the fact that through the imposition of a land tax, or other causes, the selling value of land should in the interval have actually decreased. This would only be an act of justice to present owners, or those who, in the meantime, may purchase from them; and, inasmuch as the State need not purchase unless it seem profitable to do so, no injustice would be done to the rest of the community whom the State represents. In the interest of mortgagees the Act of Parliament giving effect to these proposals should contain a proviso that no resumption against the will of the mortgagee should take place before the expiration of five years from the introduction into Parliament of the first Bill for the purpose of repurchase. The rights of existing lessees under private landlords might be protected in a somewhat similar manner, or the State could elect to purchase subject to existing leases. Should, however, the State wish to resume land adjacent to a proposed railway (for example, the proposed Adelaide and Willunga, Blyth and Gladstone, or Clare and Riverton line), or for the construction of water or irrigation works, roads, streets, wharves, &c., or lands that might be increased in value by any such works, or for the purpose of preventing overcrowding of population in any locality, or for the formation of townships; in any of such cases it should only be deemed necessary to give six months' notice of any such intended resumption, and any mortgagees or lessees should receive compensation according to the unexpired terms up to five years of their mortgages or leases, provided such mortgages or leases were bona fide in force before the introduction of the proposed Act. The compensation to mortgagees should in no case exceed the difference—capitalized—between the rate of interest upon the mortgages so destroyed by resumption and the highest obtainable by the investment, for the residue of the term, of the mortgage money on good security; provided always that the new interest does not exceed the old, in which case no compensation will be allowed. In the cases of both mortgages and leases the compensation should be assessed by the Board having control over the district in which the bulk of the resumed land may be situated. In the matters mentioned it would pay the State to make such reasonable compensation, and in justice to the mortgagees it should be made.

Whenever, from whatever reason, the State should have decided upon the page 20 re-purchase of any alienated lands, the purchase money could be raised by what might fitly be termed "Land Redemption Loans." As many of the bought-out owners as chose might accept in payment the bonds of the Land Redemption Loans, bearing interest at the same rate as, with the usual charges, it would cost the State to borrow in London, say 4 per cent. The agrarian reforms begun under Stein and Hardenberg in Prussia, which have since been adopted throughout the greater part of Germany, were carried out on a similar principle. Rents were capitalized at twenty years purchase, and Rent Banks paid the landlords the entire purchase money in debentures. The debentures were guaranteed by the State, bore 4 per cent, interest, were redeemable at par, and varied in amount from 30s. to £150 each. A rent charge of 5 per cent, was charged to the occupying owners, four-fifths of which, or 4 per cent., met the interest of the debentures, the remaining 1 per cent, being invested to form a redemption fund which, at compound interest, extinguished the debentures and all incidental expenses in 41 years.

To pay off those sellers who may require cash a loan must be raised either in the colony or abroad. The capital set free by the repurchase of land, and consequent discharge of mortgages, would probably induce many investors in the colony to subscribe for a large portion of the loan. The Act authorizing the loan should provide that the whole of the revenue (rental) from the repurchased land must be applied as follows :—The interest on the loan must first be paid and the yearly surplus, after paying the interest, must be invested annually at compound interest at the best rates obtainable on undoubted security; until the accumulations of principal and interest will be sufficient to extinguish the Lands' Redemption Loan. Of course, the same process will be repeated at every fresh repurchase of alienated lands. Supposing the rate of interest paid on the Lands' Redemption Loan to be 4 per cent., and that the repurchased lands would yield a rental of 5 per cent. on the purchase money—surely not an unreasonable expectation—the difference, 1 per cent., if invested annually as suggested, would in less than 41 years pay off the amount borrowed. An easy and legitimate manner in which this annual investment might be made would be the buying through our Agent-General in London, the bonds or inscribed stock of our present public debt. This operation would, doubtless, be required to be carried out with judgment and caution. The interest on the bonds or inscribed stock, which is payable half-yearly, would be paid over to the Commissioners of the Lands' Redemption Loans, as would also the principal sums on the maturing of the bonds or stocks. When the amount for investment shall exceed, as in time it must, the amount of our public indebtedness (other than for repurchasing the land), the bonds of the various Lands' Redemption Loans can be purchased and cancelled. The management of these loans should be in the hands of Commissioners appointed for the purpose, and in no way mixed up with the general finance of the Government.

As the various Lands' Redemption Loans become repaid, and thereupon the whole of the rental from the lands made available for general revenue purposes, it would be wise to devote annually a certain portion of the land revenue to establish a fund to gradually extinguish the present and any future public debt of the colony. The rents received by the State from the unsold lands, agricultural, pastoral, and mineral, as well as new town and townships, and the proceeds of an income tax continuing until the increase of the land revenue shall render it unnecessary, will, most probably, before many years be sufficiently large to altogether do away with indirect taxation page 21 through the Customs, which department would exist no longer except as an office for statistical purposes. Its abolition, by saving the State the cost of supporting a numerous staff of officers, would be a considerable gain. Finally, the Lands' Redemption Loans having been extinguished, with settlement increasing the rental value of our vast interior, the revenue from rents will discharge all our public indebtedness, and more than suffice to defray, not only the general cost of government, but any additional annual expenditure that may be necessitated by the development of railways, water or irrigation works on a large scale, public buildings, &c. The amount of money set free by the payments to landowners and mortgagees under the scheme of repurchase here set forth would result in a relative reduction in the rate of interest prevailing in South Australia—a thing greatly to be desired; and probably the freed capital would be invested in the establishment of manufactories throughout the colony, as a consequence of which more employment at higher wages would be open to labour, and the consumption of every description of colonial produce would be increased. Usury would be at an end, and a return to cash payments be facilitated; at least, a great blow would be struck at our present utterly rotten system of credit.

The consideration of the third object of the Society, which, as has been stated, is "to provide for such a system of leasing as will secure to the State a fair rental, and to the tenant full security for his improvements and the results of his industry," resolves itself into two heads. The first relates to the unsold lands; the second to lands that are now or may be alienated before the objects of the Society shall have been attained. The division, however, being one of departmental detail, and not necessitated by a difference of principle in the method of leasing applicable to each, needs not to be strictly regarded in a general outline such as is here given. General observations comprehensive of the two, except where specially mentioned as bearing upon one alone, will, for the sake of brevity, only be offered.

The term of each lease should be for the life of the lessee, or, should he be married, for the life of the survivor of the lessee and his wife, and a period of twenty-one years afterwards. The addition of twenty-one years to the life duration is suggested in the interests of the lessee's direct descendants, and, even should the lessee leave no direct descendants, it would be advisable, for the sake of uniformity, to preserve this addition. This would secure, if he desired it, life occupancy to the tenant and his widow, and a home for his children until the youngest reached the age of twenty-one years, and would postpone competition for the new lease until the surviving children of the deceased lessee would be old enough in experience to become competitors by having attained twenty-one years of age. All improvements must belong to the tenant and his representatives, and must consequently be left out of consideration when the rental value of the land is being assessed. On the termination of the lease by effluxion of time, or surrender, or of the lessee's interest in it by transfer, the lessee or his representatives would be free to make the best bargain he or they could with the incoming tenant, as to the price to be paid for the improvements; but, in the event of a disagreement, a valuation must be made compulsory and binding on both parties. The foregoing provisions seem to give ample security to the tenant, and, at the same time, meet, to a degree reasonable and equitable, the sentiment for a home for life so strong in some natures. If the advocates of what they call "perpetual leases" object to the terms described, and argue that a man's desire is to secure landed property to leave page 22 to his children, and which the latter may leave to their children, and so downwards along the line of descent; let them bear in mind that, with the size of holdings from time to time regulated to suit the varying requirements of the colonists at large, it would be only one out of probably six or eight of his children that could profitably succeed him in his occupancy, and, in the second generation, only one out of a probable fifty—the others must, and in justice all should, take their chance with the rest of their own day and generation. The future of the children is too dim to be worth considering, apart from the general well-being of the whole community, in the practical legislation of to-day. The lessee's heirs will always be favorably handicapped against other competitors for the new lease by the fact that the new tenant must pay the value of the improvements of whatever nature. To leases should be attached only one condition, namely, payment of the rent annually in advance. Surrenders should be accepted at any time of the whole or portion of the holding, provided the lessee had given six months notice of his intention to surrender. Transfers, subject to the approval of the Board, of the whole or any portion or portions of a holding, may be allowed at any time, but only to those who did not already occupy land of the same class up to the maximum area allowed. To dispense with the necessity and difficulty of following until death the movements of the original holder of a transferred lease, the unexpired term of a transferred lease should be stated to be the original lessee's "expectation of life," as calculated from the mortality experience of "Life Assurance Societies," and 21 years added on to it There being absolutely no necessity for residence clauses under a State leasing system they must be omitted from leases, as should also improvement and cultivation clauses, which under any system are ineffectual and often burdensome, and would be simply nonsensical where rent spurs and directs exertion for the best, and leaves untouched the special creations of industry. No lessee of any particular class of land, agricultural, pastoral, or suburban, must hold of that class more than the maximum area, but may hold at the same time the maximum in each and every class. Dummyism should be punished by eviction, fine, and imprisonment, both of principal and agent The first rent of the unsold lands might be safely left to competition, and afterwards periodically revised, say every five years, in the same years as the census is taken. On the termination of a lease the rental should be again submitted to competition, which would be a guide to the valuators in making their periodic assessments, and to the Tribunals that may hear appeals against such assessments. There should be a maximum limit to the size of holdings, to be fixed by the Local Boards, who would have special knowledge as to the requirements of their respective districts. It is evident that for market gardens, orchards, or vineyards a less area would be required than for dairy or agricultural farming, while lands suitable for pastoral purposes must be let in still larger blocks.

In regard to the sold lands, it would be necessary to provide that the owner of each repurchased estate should be entitled to take the first lease of the whole or part, as he might elect, of that estate, at a rental of five per cent. upon the purchase money until the date of the next valuation occurring after the expiration of four years from the date of repurchase, and afterwards at the valued rent; provided that no one should by this clause be permitted to hold more than 15,000 acres. On estates over that acreage the present owners should be allowed to select 15,000 acres in one block, the length of such block not to exceed twice its breadth. As a valuation might take place page 23 within a few months or years of repurchase, it is provided that the five percent. rental cannot be revised within four years of the date of repurchase, and the proviso as to dimensions is, of course, aimed against the selection of river frontages or other preferential portions of the resumed land. The privilege mentioned should only be allowed to owners when the lands repurchased shall not be required for special public purposes. The owners having made, or declined to make, the selections allowed, the unselected land should be leased in the same way as the land that had never been sold. The terms of leases would in all cases be the same.

The management of the public estate should be entrusted to thoroughly competent non-political boards, having jurisdiction of districts to be defined by Parliament. It would, probably, be advantageous to constitute them Boards of Lands and Works in their respective districts, abolishing the present Road Boards. Each board might, subject to the approval of the appointment by the Governor, appoint the land valuer for its district, and, to save expense, this officer could also discharge the duties of collector of agricultural and live stock statistics, and the census returns. Each of the Boards should be constituted of five members, two being elected by the lessees of the district, and three nominated by the Governor in Council, the salaries of whom should be respectable, so as to induce men of capacity and honour to accept the appointments. A Court of Appeal against valuations of rent might be made up of the Board of the district in which the appeal lay, and two additional members, who should be land valuers from other districts. The latter would of necessity be experts. Scarcely any objection on the ground of its giving an opening to corrupt influences can be urged against the constitution of the Boards here suggested, nor does the plan, as against taxation, increase the functions of Government. The first rents of all lands (except, as aforesaid, blocks selected by bought-out owners under the preferential rights allowed them) being fixed by competition, no Courts of Appeal would be required to sit until after the first State assessment of rents. Then the lessees should have a right of appeal, not only to obtain a reduction of their own rents, but to raise the rents of any other tenants in the district whom they might consider under assessed. Lists of the valuers' assessments should be exhibited before the sitting of the Court of Appeal, at every Post-office, Police-station, and Local Court in the district, and published in the Government Gazette, so that each tenant may know his neighbours' rents, and a safeguard against favoritism or general corruption be to some extent thereby provided. It should be part of the duties of the land valuers to visit periodically each holding in their respective districts, and to ascertain and duly note the system of agriculture pursued on each farm and the comparative results, the character of the soil, and everything affecting the value of the land. No member of a Board or valuer should be removed from office except for misconduct in the discharge of the duties of such office or incapacity, and the removal should rest with the Governor of the Colony.

Pastoral Leases might be for terms of 14, 21, or 35 years according to the character and situation of the land, and subject in all other respects to the same conditions as agricultural leases. No right of resumption should be reserved except for public works, stock roads, township purposes, or the search for minerals, working of mines, &c. The rents of lands at present leased should, when the leases fall in, be fixed by competition.

Credit selectors would be fairly dealt with by allowing them to surrender, refunding them all payments made on account of purchase money, and page 24 giving each of them the privilege of taking the first lease of the surrendered selection at a rent of 5 per cent. on the amount he had covenanted to pay. Such an arrangement does not seem to involve any injustice. If a selector had agreed at the time he selected to pay more than the land was fairly worth he would, unless in the meantime the land had risen in value, get a reduction of rent at the first assessment, and, on the other hand, if the selection had increased in value before the passing of the proposed Act, he would pay a rent of 5 per cent. on the amount he had agreed to give, and not on the increase. The purchase not being complete, the selector would not be treated unjustly in not being allowed any "unearned increment" that may have accrued to the value of his holding. The amount to be refunded to the selectors would be insignificant, as up to the 30th of June, 1884, they had only paid £252,763 to the State, leaving unpaid £4,255,359 12s. 8d., the balance of the purchase money of the selected area.

Mineral Leases should be for a fixed period of 21 years at a nominal rent, but with a reservation to the State of a royalty, not on the produce, but on the net profits. These could be ascertained by the declaration of the Directors and Managers or Secretaries of the Mining Companies, and the books and accounts verified by an officer from the Auditor-General's Department. No royalty should be payable until the mine would be capable of paying the current rate of profits, and as the profits exceeded that the royalty should be increased at a graduated rate to be decided on. Profits should not be reckoned until the whole of the expenditure on the mine or quarry had been recouped, as the failure of a mine entails the almost total destruction of all capital expended on it in labor, machinery, &c.

City and Townships Lands should be valued for ultimate repurchase in the same manner as all other sold lands. Within Municipalities the Corporations might be invested with the duties elsewhere performed by Boards of Lands and Works, and be entitled to a proportion of the ground rents for municipal uses. Existing leases from private landlords should be respected, the rent being received by the State. Fresh leases might be granted for terms not exceeding fifty years. The periodic re-assessments of rent would need to be much more frequent than in the case of other lands. The dens and rookeries in which human beings have to herd in cities prove, as has before been indicated, that absolute ownership of land by private individuals is incompatible with the health and happiness of the great bulk of the people. State leases should provide against overcrowding, and secure sound sanitary arrangements both in regard to city, township, and suburban lands. The details for dealing with city and township lands may be rather more complicated than those which apply to the settlement of the outside country, but no serious difficulty stands in the way of arriving at a politic and equitable adjustment. The right to acquire land from other lessees must be practically unlimited to allow of the extension of business premises.

Any lessee of Crown Lands desirous of laying out the whole or portion of his holding as a township, or part of a township, should not be allowed to do so until the plans of the proposed township had been approved of by the Board of the District. The State's right to resume for the same purpose would, nevertheless, under all circumstances exist.

Such is a rough outline of an equitable scheme by which State ownership of the sold lands can be restored, and the functions of universal landlord be administered by the State in the interests of and in trust for all classes of the community. This Society is called upon to do nothing more than page 25 suggest means by which the principles it advocates can be realized in practice. To give shape and symmetry to the final form is the proper business of the Legislature. To the representatives of the people these suggestions are submitted for honest consideration, and to the people themselves for approval and support. The question is a momentous one, and practical difficulties, from which its solution is at present free, will arise and cluster round it with the coming years. To say that on this matter opinion is not ripe for reform is to apply an observation, often sound, to a case in which the usual sequence of conditions is reversed. It is really in the youth of a question of this sort that opinion is ripe. Delay will but increase the obstacles to reform by allowing the present unjust institution to take wider and deeper root; and so the self-interest of one class and the weakening spirit of the other will poison the very opinion which time was supposed to strengthen. Progress tends to purge society of other social evils, but adds proportionate vigor to the crushing force of this. Public opinion is ripe enough now, but it is inactive. The people can create the force which will speedily make the movement successful. When they demand, Parliament must comply, but until then the time-serving politician will waver. It is in the infancy of a movement that the real patriot takes the side of justice.

Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And 'tis prosperous to be just.
Then it is the brave man chooses,
While the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit
Till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.

Everyone who has the cause of moral and material progress at heart should lend a helping hand to this Society. Ministers of the Gospel especially are respectfully asked to add the weight of their great influence, and to show that social inequalities, so far as they are founded upon unjust institutions, are irreconcilable with the spirit of Christian morality. Let all classes throw selfish considerations aside, and act up to the principles that conscience determines to be right. The merit is in the present, and the reward, though not in all respects realizable at once, will grow with time, and in its fulness be found "in the long future of a nation's existence, and with that we have a reckoning which cannot fail. "